Free plans are a bad idea

A free plan is a bad idea disguised as an opportunity. Only 3% of free users will convert to paid users To make $5,000 with a $20 plan, you’ll need 8,250 users (100K visitors). "But free users spread the word..." If someone refuses to pay for your product, they won’t tell their friends about it. Less than 5% of my customers for ShipFast ($40K/month) spread the word. And they spent a few hundred $ on the product, worked with it for hours, and made their $1 online. Free users testing the water won’t become your marketers. They won’t give you a backlink either. "But people won’t pay if they can’t try my product..." Then the problem is probably your landing page copy. It’s either unclear or not speaking to your customers’ emotions. Alternative 1: Free credits If your product requires significant time investment for customers, like API-as-a-service, offer limited free credits to test it out. The user should understand the core of your product without being able to benefit from it. For instance, it’s free to create a profile on my startup IndiePage. Users pay to deploy their page to show it to others (the real value). Alternative 2: Free trial with credit card and auto-subscription  If your product isn’t a painkiller and adds value over time, you can try free trials. - Maximum 7 days  - The user must add a credit card  - Subscription starts automatically  You want users to commit. An email isn’t a commitment. A credit card is. Alternative 3: Free tools If a standalone feature of your startup is sharable but not worth paying for, turn it into a free tool. Ahref gets tons of traffic from their free SEO keyword research tool. I also added +25% daily traffic to ShipFast thanks to LogoFast. Free tools help you make some noise by launching on Reddit, Product Hunt, Twitter, etc. For best results, let users try them without signing up. TL;DR; Free users slow solopreneurs/bootstrapped startups down. Avoid freemium and get paid for your work to get profitable faster.