At the coffee shop this morning I asked the barista to make my latte before I paid for it so I could try it first. Wait, no. Because demos and trials are an important complement to things that need thought and time and money, like a $40 app. But does $5 software need a trial? What about if it’s $1?

@manton I’d argue the issue isn’t the cost of the app it’s the cost of buying every $1 app to figure out if it’s worth it. Also your local coffee shop has a reputation with you/your community that it will attempt to uphold, most developers don’t (and don’t really care to or have the capability to do so)

@manton It is unfortunate how the value of software has been degraded by pick-your-external-forces. Plenty of iOS software should cost more than anyone actually pays for it. (And then there’s the opposite when it comes to subscription scams.)

@alexsikora.bsky.social Great point about the reputation. Also I think easy refunds play a role. If you order coffee and it’s undrinkable, you could ask them to remake it. But fewer people trust a software developer to make things right.

@nickheer Yes, there’s a general mistrust from users now. Trials are good if the developer is unknown. Word-of-mouth matters and if someone I trust highly recommends an app or subscription and it’s exactly what I need, I don’t need to try it.

@manton I think subscription model software needs a trial after the $10/mo mark. First month free or something. But less than that, nah.

Games should have demo levels.

Software should have timed access or locked out features or anything letting someone test it out in their workflow.

/My 2¢

@starrwulfe That seems reasonable.

@manton a demo is a really high fidelity way to show me what your thing is and whether it can solve my problem. You can do this with a website and documentation, too. I’m not sure the current website does.

Also, it’s not $5 software. It’s $5 for however long I want to use it software and if I think to build my own $5 demo (you should suggest this explicitly on the site) I need to trust you’re not going to make it a pain to unsubscribe and I’m not going to forget. It’s higher friction.

@manton I’m curious if self-refunding would work well in SaaS. Having a “cancel and refund” button be available for the first month for a customer would be really easy for them, but communicating the ease and availability of such a button at sign up time would be challenging I think.

@bjhess Interesting idea. 🤔

@daniel Oh yeah, the current Micro.blog website does not explain what it does. That has been a challenge for a long time. On the other hand, even a demo doesn’t fully convey it without the user taking a lot of time to explore.

@manton I think at the end of the day it’s hard to compare software to coffee. There’s nowhere giving coffee away for free in the store next door as the competition, but lots of blogging and other software category options a click away.

I don’t like that the common person sees so little value in software they use daily, and that the mental hurdle is so high to pay for it… but it is what it is. It’s unfortunately the burden of those of us selling to overcome, and trials (with good defaults) tend to be that.

And the marginal cost of another user is close to $0 vs. raw materials and staff in a store with real estate and taxes to pay on top. Maybe that is the blessing we miss in that 1-5 man software businesses are something we can try, fail, and try again with just our laptops and without the complexity of the physical world cost :)

@bax Yep, all good points. The coffee comparison isn’t really fair but I still like it because coffee is usually a $5 impulse buy that no one thinks twice about.

@manton Offering an automatic no-question asked refund within the first X days is a good alternative to a trial

@daniel At $5 a month I wasn’t concerned about needing a demo. Within the first month I was mostly setup, had imported everything from my Posthaven.com account, and haven’t looked back since. I soon stopped paying Posthaven their $5 a month, so I’m not paying any more and getting a load more features and excellent developer interaction. And I’m a power user, not a coder, so I’m not above a little hand holding.

@manton.org I think a forgiving refund policy is going to perform better than a free trial, especially at a low price. Reminds me of: x.com/asmartbear/s…

@manton I think a forgiving refund policy is going to perform better than a free trial, especially at a low price. Reminds me of: x.com/asmartbear/s…

@manton I forget all the apps I subscribe to, and then they renew even though I haven’t launched it once in the last year, requiring me to remember to unsub, if you can remember where you signed up for it. When you buy a coffee that’s it, it’s a one time thing.

@manton I forget all the apps I subscribe to, and then they renew even though I haven’t launched it once in the last year, requiring me to remember to unsub, if you can remember where you signed up for it. When you buy a coffee that’s it, it’s a one time thing.

@vincent @manton That’s very nice! I’m all for manual refunds as well. (I’m probably too willing to manually do these support things.) Wondering if automation here could help people who are turned off by asking, or hesitant to ask for, a refund.

@manton @nickheer so much stuff in the < $20 price range is funded through ads, selling private info, shady subscription dark patterns and just plain old scams.

good or bad, that’s the situation. and i feel like, at least for some things, having a trial is a good way to show users that your software isn’t full of that junk.

but i have to admit that even though i’ve always offered generous trials. many users now just assume there are none. it’s hard to to encourage them to just download stuff.