Should I make my product free to get users, paid to generate revenue, or a mix of both?
In the early stages, what do I need to optimize for? For context I'm building a productivity app (https://getartemis.app) that I want to eventually be paid for personal use, and later on make a business version (more of a project management tool than personal productivity app) to move up-market.
The personal one doesn't seem to have any network effects as it's a calendar app for individuals, but the professional version will, where if one person in the company uses it, everyone will need to as well.
This is a really strategic question, but it is probably best to think about it in a couple of ways.
TLDR - If you have not tested a priced version yet, I would think about doing this before offering it free.
What does making it free do for you?
Most of the time "freemium" is used to drop the barriers to onboarding new users because their engagement has value. Either to help improve the product, create network effects like data collection, or to create a bigger sales funnel later when you ask them to pay.
How should I price?
This is really hard for new projects, as it is often hard to gauge the "utility" to users. But if there are industry benchmarks, I would use them as a template. E.g. 3 rivals offer $5 p/user p/month. The only time I would change this is if your solution is 10X better (then charge more), or you want to innovate in the payment model e.g. Subscriptions to Razors.
Should I mix freemium and paid?
Most of the time yes. Unless the value you get from usage can create some high future value e.g. Facebook is free, but later, you become the product sold to advertisers.
Hope that helps!
Thanks this is good advice.
I'm sort of the similar situation. But I may provide both options. The free plan containing limited features.
For Portabella I'm doing free for personal use and up to teams of three. I may change that to teams of five at some point, not too sure just yet.