Software trial: limited time or limited functionality? [closed]

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I am currently developing my first serious piece of software in C#. It is a good learning experience so far.

My software is basically a task scheduling tool with some advanced features and capabilities.

I am not near the finishing stages yet, but I was wondering what people's opinions are on trial versions of software. Do you think it would be more beneficial, in general, to have a limited time trial (say 30 days) or a limited functionality version of the software?

I think I know which I would go with, however I always like to listen to the opinions of others.

Thanks,

Answer 1

I would recommend neither. Go full open-source for this one project. Your first public software release is primarily a learning experience, and you'll learn more from an open-source project than from a free trial. You need to get some experience managing your user community, predicting and responding to needs, and understanding how people will use the things that you build. Open-source means that your more experienced users can more easily help you with these tasks.

By the time you get to a point where trialware is a reasonable option for you, you'll already know the answer to this question for the software you build