If you're an indie hacker, offer a free trial, not a free plan.

When I launched StarterPilot, I thought a free plan would help attract users and build momentum. And it did bring in users, lots of them. The problem? Almost none of them ever paid.

I built this tool to help people validate their startup ideas, name their business, generate branding, and launch a landing page in minutes with AI. It saves a ton of time, especially for solo founders. But my free users weren’t interested in that. They were collectors, signing up just to try it out, not to use it meaningfully. They’d generate one name, peek at a competitor analysis, maybe play with the icon generator once… then vanish. Zero commitment. Zero upgrades.

I switched to a 7-day free trial. That one change flipped the switch. Suddenly, the people signing up were serious. They were exploring all the features, chatting with the AI, and using StarterPilot to actually move their ideas forward. And best of all, they were converting.

I’m not saying free plans are always bad. But if your product is built for people trying to do something, especially other founders, a trial forces a level of intention that a free plan never will.