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I think you should use a free plan if actively using the 'free' plan will eventually force the user to go to a paid plan. e.g. dropbox. If you just give your c

I think you should use a free plan if actively using the 'free' plan will eventually force the user to go to a paid plan. e.g. dropbox. If you just give your core product away for free then users will only switch if they need the extra features of the paid plan. You can still use 'free' for marketing, because total conversion rates with a free plan will probably be higher, just don't expect these 'free' customers to switch if they don't have to.

kranner 16y ago
I think you just persuaded me to double the quota on my free plan (non-recurring, pay-per-use plan)
revorad 16y ago
Is there any evidence that Dropbox's conversion rates are higher than the other apps the OP cites?
Groxx 16y ago
I'll admit I'm a free-dropboxer, but that's almost exclusively because their plans are all too large and too expensive. I'm one of the multitude calling for a 10gb / 20gb plan. I've got photos elsewhere, but my main set of stuff I'd store is only about 5gb, and duplicating that (much less the 50gb of their smallest paid plan) to every computer is a waste - I'm using it for temporary storage and backup, across two (eventually 3) operating systems, none of which are more than 50% happy with each others formats without freaking out the next application I use. In the meantime, though, my main Google account has 20gb for $5/year, and for the equivalent-lowest of 50gb/$100 I can get 400gb, which will also store my emails and photos. I can back up any email account on my machine by dragging the messages to a gmail folder, and waiting a little while. Docs now allows 1gb any-kind file uploads. I can send my photos to Picasa (the reason I have the extra space). I'm a massive word-of-mouth spreader of Dropbox though, especially as I'm the Geek of a few families + their neighbors. I've probably gotten them more business than what I cost to host.
nhebb 16y ago
The problem with dropbox is that they don't have a client for automating backups. That means everything I store there has been manually dragged into the dropbox folder (see NB). It would take me a long time before the number of files I needed to share online exceeded their free limit. NB: Truth be told, I run batch files via task scheduler for backing up certain folder to dropbox, but I doubt the typical consumer does.
- Lewisham 16y ago
  I use symlinks to the directories I want inside the main Dropbox folder. This works well.
loumf 16y ago
Exactly. That's why I think mailchimp works better than most. It's great to use the free plan to build your list, but once it's built, you will end up in a paid plan.
blub 16y ago
I'm only using Dropbox because it's free, all the paid accounts are overpriced IMO. For 3$/mo + S3 costs (~0.5$/mo) I have a JD account that includes auto-backup, multiple online disks in EU/US and multiple online drives. Dropbox is using my money to subsidize the free users, I'm not getting 10$ of value out of it.
StavrosK 16y ago
That's what we decided to do with historious [1] (bookmarking with full-text search in the content of the pages, and cached pages). You get 1000 bookmarks free, and you have to pay to get more. This way, people who don't bookmark very much can live with 1000, and people who eventually will use more than 1000 need to subscribe... I think it's a very good plan if your product is structured in a way that a user will eventually hit the limit, but I think Dropbox was not a very good example. If I hit the limit, I'll just delete a few files I don't need. I see your point, though, and I think you're mostly right. [1] http://historio.us/ http://historio.us/

kranner 16y ago

I think you just persuaded me to double the quota on my free plan (non-recurring, pay-per-use plan)

revorad 16y ago

Is there any evidence that Dropbox's conversion rates are higher than the other apps the OP cites?

Groxx 16y ago

I'll admit I'm a free-dropboxer, but that's almost exclusively because their plans are all too large and too expensive. I'm one of the multitude calling for a 10gb / 20gb plan. I've got photos elsewhere, but my main set of stuff I'd store is only about 5gb, and duplicating that (much less the 50gb of their smallest paid plan) to every computer is a waste - I'm using it for temporary storage and backup, across two (eventually 3) operating systems, none of which are more than 50% happy with each others formats without freaking out the next application I use. In the meantime, though, my main Google account has 20gb for $5/year, and for the equivalent-lowest of 50gb/$100 I can get 400gb, which will also store my emails and photos. I can back up any email account on my machine by dragging the messages to a gmail folder, and waiting a little while. Docs now allows 1gb any-kind file uploads. I can send my photos to Picasa (the reason I have the extra space). I'm a massive word-of-mouth spreader of Dropbox though, especially as I'm the Geek of a few families + their neighbors. I've probably gotten them more business than what I cost to host.

nhebb 16y ago

The problem with dropbox is that they don't have a client for automating backups. That means everything I store there has been manually dragged into the dropbox folder (see NB). It would take me a long time before the number of files I needed to share online exceeded their free limit. NB: Truth be told, I run batch files via task scheduler for backing up certain folder to dropbox, but I doubt the typical consumer does.

Lewisham 16y ago
I use symlinks to the directories I want inside the main Dropbox folder. This works well.

loumf 16y ago

Exactly. That's why I think mailchimp works better than most. It's great to use the free plan to build your list, but once it's built, you will end up in a paid plan.

blub 16y ago

I'm only using Dropbox because it's free, all the paid accounts are overpriced IMO. For 3$/mo + S3 costs (~0.5$/mo) I have a JD account that includes auto-backup, multiple online disks in EU/US and multiple online drives. Dropbox is using my money to subsidize the free users, I'm not getting 10$ of value out of it.

StavrosK 16y ago

That's what we decided to do with historious [1] (bookmarking with full-text search in the content of the pages, and cached pages). You get 1000 bookmarks free, and you have to pay to get more. This way, people who don't bookmark very much can live with 1000, and people who eventually will use more than 1000 need to subscribe... I think it's a very good plan if your product is structured in a way that a user will eventually hit the limit, but I think Dropbox was not a very good example. If I hit the limit, I'll just delete a few files I don't need. I see your point, though, and I think you're mostly right. [1] http://historio.us/ http://historio.us/