Should I offer 14 days trial or freemium?

[mikewelsh]

My company is creating a brand new online game engine where users can setup their own online game with their own game name, gameplay and even domain name
The price is USD149/year. Should I be offering 14 days trial meaning they need to enter credit card info upon registration, or freemium where they can setup the game and only pays when you're ready to play.

 

[Daxo]

Why would a 14 day trial mean they have to enter their credit card information?

Are you relying on them forgetting to cancel so you can automatically bill them after 14 days?

I am aware this is a tactic used by many companies of all sizes, but why should you also use it and be like everyone else? Why not make the free trial completely transparent and void the need to enter credit card details?

I personally prefer money back guarantees than free trials, i.e. 14 days to fully use the system and if not satisfied you will get your money back in full. I appreciate that a money back guarantee is not suitable for all types of services/products and also depends on your business model, but the reason I prefer them is because it quickly gets the consumer used to paying for the service and therefore they are a) less likely to request a refund and b) more likely to value it.

I carried out a test with a particular service, in test A I offered a 30 day money back guarantee, in test B I offered a 30 day free trial. Test A proved to be more profitable than test B by a big margin. I'm sure you can work out why.

 

[Remys]

Offering a 14 day free trial where you require them to enter their credit card details can put them off purely because they may forget if they do not wish to continue after the free trial and then they end up getting charged.

A freemium definitely sounds like a better option for this, especially since you are new it gives people a chance to give your service a try without the worry of having to remember to remove credit card details at a later date if they do not wish to continue.

Offering a 14 day free trial is something you could maybe consider once you are more well known.

 

[mikewelsh]

Why would a 14 day trial mean they have to enter their credit card information?

Are you relying on them forgetting to cancel so you can automatically bill them after 14 days?

I am aware this is a tactic used by many companies of all sizes, but why should you also use it and be like everyone else? Why not make the free trial completely transparent and void the need to enter credit card details?

I personally prefer money back guarantees than free trials, i.e. 14 days to fully use the system and if not satisfied you will get your money back in full. I appreciate that a money back guarantee is not suitable for all types of services/products and also depends on your business model, but the reason I prefer them is because it quickly gets the consumer used to paying for the service and therefore they are a) less likely to request a refund and b) more likely to value it.

I carried out a test with a particular service, in test A I offered a 30 day money back guarantee, in test B I offered a 30 day free trial. Test A proved to be more profitable than test B by a big margin. I'm sure you can work out why.

For the money back guarantee option, does that mean they have to enter their credit card information at the beginning?

 

[Deleted member 61074]

Personally i will always move on from software that demands my credit card before I can see it. 2 reasons - one being i may forget to cancel, two, i dont want an unknown business to un-nessessarily have my CC detail.

I will download software to trial free for 30 days, then pay or download a cut down version to play with.

 

[seoswat]

Go with the 14 day free option, but make it free - i.e dont add c/c details to begin with, just at the end of the 14 days, lock it down and then ask for the details.

On a personal note, i would love to see more of what you have in mind. i.e what type of online game genre? Very much an MMORPG fan right here

 

[Deleted member 162294]

Do people need to pay anything or give any card information before they can start experimenting with the engine?

As I understand it take a significant amount of time to make a game so allowing people to experiment for free until they decide to take it public would probably be best.

 

[garyk]

Maybe do what some of the other vendors do; have a free and paid for version. The free version has ads and is branded with your company logo. The paid version removes the ad and the branding. This is what offerings from people like gamesalad/corona sdk/gideros do.

Or another thing often done certainly with app builders is that you can do everything you need until you want to put it on the app store then you pay. Perhaps make it free but the game can only sit on your server. If someone wants to host it then they pay.

Have you got a link for it?

Cheers


Gary

 

[Shelly Watson]

I will prefer to free trial without credit card information. If free trial needs card information, you will lose some potential users. Because not all the people can always remember clearly their billing information

 

[shades]

You must provide free trial of 30 days max as 14 days doesn't make them addict towards your gaming site.....Increase the number of days to 30.

 

[tacticalsales]

Why not split test? Create 2 landing pages and run a test Adwords/PPC campaign - you'll have numbers and stats to prove to you exactly what works. Opinions and guesswork can only take you so far, if you can find and speak to you target audience you'll get an even better insight.

 

[PIngels]

I'm a developer so I am in your target audience and I would definitely say a minimum 30 day trial and no credit card details. In fact, I would prefer an unlimited trial period with some key features disabled.

 

[Andy Harris]

When we started offering our product we thought 30 days free trial would be ample (no card details entered - just basic contact info).

We found that although many people were fine with that, many others quite simply were time-poor and so, however much they wanted to use the product, other things took over. So, they could get to the end of the trial and feel it's too late.

We swiftly made it so that we had ongoing dialogue (some of it automated) with triallers, which cost us in time, but ultimately it kept them focused and also happy with the level of customer service. Even then, we kept the door open so that if we felt they needed it, we manually extended the trial.

In short, it can take quite a bit of nurturing in that free period, but it can pay off not just in financial terms, but in how they 'feel' about the product/company, which can lead to positive referrals.