[bnj]

Not OP but I had a similar emotional reaction when getting to that point of the survey. It's not logical... on reflection I think it has to do with the sense of los of autonomy. The survey wants me to say that I'd be willing to spend money on it before I can try it, but I want to try it before I decide if I'm willing to spend money.

I think it could be solved for stubborn people like me if the survey got to that point and said "okay, if you're sure, you can still click here to request access but after 14 days you won't be able to continue to use it without signing up. We think you'll be persuaded!" -- or whatnot.

Seems fair enough that people should be able to try the free trial without having to agree that they're theoretically willing to pay 20/mo

[Ensorceled]

I guess the other way to explicitly force people to sign up with a credit card. I would guess this mechanism, asking you if you are willing to pay is better that asking you to PROVE you are willing to pay by starting a free trial with a credit card.

[priyadarshy]

Thanks for bringing this up. In fact, we also chose a "opt in" upgrade, where you pay after your trial is up. I'm of the opinion that "opt out" trials are a dark pattern. That being said, we realize the wording in the survey can be off putting but we think it's the right way to communicate expectations from the beginning and in the long run.

[vertis]

Not the OP either, but I'm not going to commit that I'm willing to pay before even trying the service, and I do pay for a bunch productivity tools (Notion, Forest, + others).

I agree that the "opt-out" is not great, but I would change it to just a warning "This is paid software, after the trial you will need to subscribe".