Trial version grace period [closed]

Question

How should I implement a full-featured grace period or N-uses scheme to maximise sales of my small $5 social network Windows application, while encouraging continued use of a limited version by users who are never (not yet?) going to pay for it?

Grace-period options:

1. Use-limited. After 20 uses, cripple it.
2. Calendar days time-limited. After 30 days after first-use, the software is crippled.
3. Actual use-days time-limited, eg. 7 days. If used for seven days over the course of 7+N days, cripple it after the seventh day.
4. Time-limited. After 20 hours of use or play, cripple it.
5. Combination of the above with progressive crippling and optional nag screens.
6. Nag screens, which I am averse to.

Crippling software is not favoured by all (especially the open-source camp), but I have to base my decision on happy users and making a living, so I have compiled the findings I side with on limiting software below.

My trialware conclusions so far:

• Focus on making your software good rather than spending time on thwarting crackers. If it is popular enough, it will eventually be reverse engineered.
• Let the client enjoy the full functionality of your software...for a while. Dependent users are more likely to buy.
• Crippled software can sell 5 times more than software with donation nag screens, assuming it is any good.
• Make paying as easy as humanly possible.
• Perceived value counts, but keeping the price low may lead to impulse buys.
• Pricing is really hard.
• Offering a 100% no-questions-asked money-back guarantee will lead to more sales.

I intend to cripple my demo version, but I do want trial users to experience all the features. It's a smallish consumer application with a potentially large user base, so I'm looking at pricing it at ~$5, but I don't know. It may be worth $50 to some users or $1. I'll leave pricing for later. This is about crippling software.

An answer supported by real-world data grouped by software type would be more helpful, but any thoughts on this are appreciated.

Answer 1

If this is an app that will be used for a long time, go with 30 days non-nag (show "trial" in the titlebar and AboutBox, etc., but nothing that needs clicking), then nag for 7 days, then use an escalated crippling. Maybe some watermarking of the output. You probably do not need to fully disable the app. In order for the purchase/abandon decision to tip in your favor, you need to provide high-quality software, and you need to get the user "invested" before they get to that point. By "invested", I mean a combination of time, data, comfort, reliance, emotional attachment, etc.. Note that this strategy won't work well for one-off apps (like business card designers) and games (they can just pick up another game and learn to like it). But for any sort of business app, productivity tool, etc., it will work.

BTW, your observation about the low price wouldn't be true with business-oriented apps or "professional-level" utilities. If it seems low-priced, people will balk. Just today, I bought a HDMI-DVI cable on Amazon (3rd-party vendor) for 30 cents. I kept looking for the "gotcha". Shipping was 3 bucks. So I bit, as I was buying a nice Tent anyway. But I really don't have high hopes for this cable. It sounds weird, but I would have been more comfortable paying $12.50.

Answer 2

My preferred method of limiting trial versions is through watermarking. This method works great for software that is used to produce content. E.g. my own HelpScribble and DeployMaster are used to produce help files and installers. The trial versions of these products create help files and installers without any restriction in time or functionality. But the output is watermarked. The help files have a little notice at the bottom of each topic and the installers have an extra box with a notice above the installer's window. The notices are polite messages that indicate that unpaid software was used, making the help files and installers created by the trials unsalable.. This allows people to try the software without any restrictions. Payment is only due when they want to distribute the help files or installers.

This approach obviously doesn't work for all applications. When watermarking is impossible, I tend to go with a time limit based on number of days of actual use. I never limit trials based on calendar days. I don't want somebody to install the trial, go on vacation, and come back to an expired trial.

At the end of the day, the best way to limit a trial depends on your product and your market. My own experience is with tools for programmers and other IT professionals. Somebody who makes games will likely give a very different answer (e.g. limit the trial to the first few levels or worlds of the game).

And don't forget the money-back guarantee! For me, that's the ultimate trial. When shopping for software I'll buy without trying if there's a money-back guarantee, particularly if the software was previously recommended to me. I don't have a lot of time to mess around with trial versions of various applications, particularly for low-cost utilities.

Answer 3

Have a look at the big boys:

Autodesk offers all its Applications (AutoCAD, Revit and their friends) with a 30-day full-featured trial period. When this period expires, printing and exporting data get disabled.

Intel uses a similar scheme for their Parallel Inspector suite.

This period should give a potential customer enough time to get to like the application - and personally, I have (had) bought programms I tried out in this way, but never to get rid of nagboxes - which shows i am like the majority of people according to your link.

Answer 4

I would go against nagging entirely, you don't intentionally piss off your potential customers. Most of the time I would close down nag screens and not care until I reach the last day of the trial and then I would make my decision. I wouldn't cripple either. People are emotional before logical. People would sooner go in search of some other app than pay up. People are entitled, generation of critics and relentlessly demanding. I have a few ideas:

Give them X amount of days and then at the end thank them for using your app. If they don't last the trial they're not going to buy it or are really unlikely too. At the end, give them the price with a little extra on that you would donate to charity if they buy your stuff. Advertise that your customers are awesome because now X has a home to live in, or food or Y just beat cancer. Everyone wants to feel like the belong to something as well as accomplished something. Remind your users that people like them cause miracles to happen.

You could compartmentalise your app and allow people to buy whatever services suit them personally, sometimes 3 dollars is better than no dollars. People are very, very picky so allowing them to build their own version of the app creates a greater sense of control on the part of the user. They'll remember that over someone who just shoved an app in their face and demanded money or nagged them to the point of psychosis-inducing rage.

You could have a small subscription fee e.g. 1 dollar a month.

You could have a pay to play sort of thing where 1 dollar buys you 72 hours.

It's 4am here in ireland so I'm gonig to bed. Let me know if you want to know more.

Answer 5

One thing to be careful with around use limits is this following scenario:

1) User downloads app while researching a problem, tries it briefly, and then moves on.

2) Many months later, user is at last in place to actually seriously try / evaluate the app. But when they go to try it, the trial has expired, so they move on to try something else.

I've often downloaded apps that "look interesting" when I see them mentioned online, try them briefly to get a sense of them, and then only return to more seriously try them way later when I actually am in need. I've been burned by the "trial expired" several times, and it has cost some app sellers sales.

A better method is watermarking, if it fits your app. Or a resettable trial period, maybe allowing two resets of the 30 day trial a year.

It may literally take a year or two before a dabbler is ready to buy, so you want to make sure that your app is positioned to snag that sale when the time comes.