[antonkm]

> “Provide incentive for prospects to sign up for freemium but do not provide too much value so that free version of the product is enough.”

For me, Dropbox, Spotify and GitHub all do this - naming them as examples of companies that don't is plain wrong to me.

Dropbox: 2gb of storage is nothing (weird and a bit sickening, but still).

Spotify: The ads experience in Spotify is probably one of the worst user experiences I know - so no real value here.

GitHub: no private repos for free users (might have changed?) made me choose Bitbucket. No use without private.

All in all, I don't really agree with the article: I actually do believe that a not-amazing-but-still-great experience is the way to go. See: Asana. It's OK++ for free, but I pay because it's better when I pay.

[vortico]

Maybe in your opinion these are all true because you seem to be a "power user" of any service you use. But for the large majority of people:

- 2GB is more than enough for Word documents and a few pictures.

- Listening to ads is totally normal because what's the alternative to Spotify? Radio.

- Most programmers have a job that pays well (and if not, they're in education), so they just need an online git repo for their hobby open-source projects.

[x15]

A good alternative to Spotify is Deezer.

Instead of ads, in their free tier, they make me listen to sponsored songs by artists I'd never have heard of.

[qwerty456127]

> - 2GB is more than enough for Word documents and a few pictures.

But as soon as a non-free workgroup account shares its files with you you loose all your free space forever.

[chdaniel]

True, when it comes to radio, we don't have the luxury of complaining about ads. Sure, you can switch to another station but what if you're driving...?

[taneq]

Press a button on the steering wheel to switch to playing music off my phone via Bluetooth?

[solarkraft]

I'm cheap. I don't use Dropbox (I have some very old documents on there and will self-host a Nextcloud some time or even rent one)

I use Spotify with the ads. I learn to ignore the bad ads like ads on the radio. These are rarer.

When I work on a private project large enough for it to need a repo, I'd like it to be public, so I have no problem with Github.

I am however subscribed to Notion.so since yesterday, after running into the 1000 blocks limit after multiple months of using it. I considered for a long while, but found that it does provide good value over all.

This is by far my favorite model (and would probably get me to pay for Spotify): A good free plan that gets you addicted, but runs out after some time (Yes, like a trial, but I wouldn't actually like the feeling of that).

[chdaniel]

> I am however subscribed to Notion.so since yesterday, after running into the 1000 blocks limit after multiple months of using it. I considered for a long while, but found that it does provide good value over all.

> This is by far my favorite model (and would probably get me to pay for Spotify): A good free plan that gets you addicted, but runs out after some time (Yes, like a trial, but I wouldn't actually like the feeling of that).

Thank you, happy to see confirmation in regards to the idea of "emotional connection" from the article.

Any lines that stood out for you?

[moeamaya]

I’m exactly the same! Starting paying for Notion once I’d received the value upfront and felt like paying was worth it.

Dropbox - still on free after getting lots of free space through promos

Spotify - family account

GitHub - paid for personal until the recent change

My takeaway, none of these freemium methods are “bad” but Notion felt the best as a consumer. I talk about Notion way more than the others and I believe their pricing model makes that possible

[chdaniel]

> Dropbox - still on free after getting lots of free space through promos

You didn't transfer any monetary value to them but surely helped them. That's a win-win. Amazing

> My takeaway, none of these freemium methods are “bad” but Notion felt the best as a consumer. I talk about Notion way more than the others and I believe their pricing model makes that possible

You mean the fact that they're charging per member per month at the topmost level? Or simply the low delta between plans?

[rorykoehler]

Spotify with ads also has terrible audio quality

[tdurden]

GitHub offers private repos for free users now (as of about a month ago). It is limited to three collaborators though.

[maceurt]

Also, before that Github offered free pro accounts for students.

[x15]

Unfortunately they denied my application when I tried to get one during my college years.

I felt envy seeing some my peers (who had no existing repos, or far fewer than me) get free PRO accounts while github probably though I should just buy one.

Long story short, I created a bitbucket account and later made heavy use of gitlab.

[maceurt]

That's crazy. If you don't mind me asking, why did your application get denied?

[chdaniel]

Love seeing that! Maybe, just maybe, they do that to enable the Da Vinci example given in the article? Students that might be creating the next Facebook-like company in their dorm? Who knows

[fipple]

I used Dropbox’s 2GB for eight years before becoming a paying user.

[chdaniel]

> “Provide incentive for prospects to sign up for freemium but do not provide too much value so that free version of the product is enough.”

That was a quote from another Quora answer. The article was my answer to a Quora. I found that quote corny and far from what a startup should be. It's not what I believe in.

As someone else pointed in the comments, you're a power user. And you're annoyed by ads — but as mentioned in the article, some people prefer paying with time. And Spotify is okay with that. 2GB means is more than enough to change the word — a document can have only a few kilobytes and be the basis of the cure for cancer.

Same for GitHub. What I'm advocating for is giving equality of opportunity and then capitalising on people only if they make money out of it. "Not amazing but still great" is the way to go for short-term. But too many people are stuck in the short term, even though they've met their basic needs.

And what I'm saying is not limited to "poor people". I know a lot of rich people who like to start lean simply for the sake of seeing proof of concept. They have millions in their bank yet they ask their cofounder to chip in £5,000 on the idea.

In this sense, they'd benefit from equality of opportunity given by services — once their idea is validated (maybe after 5 tries?), they'll bring their money and power. But they'll start with the lean version, if possible

[WWLink]

Fuck spotify. Their ads were so repulsive that when I finally did want to subscribe to a music service, I went with Apple Music instead. Partially out of spite.