The freemium-versus-paid argument is usually conducted as a matter of taste, and it is not one. It is a question about your product's shape, and for most apps there is a correct answer that can be worked out in an afternoon.
Two numbers frame it. In a freemium app, the median conversion from download to paying customer is around 2%. And only about 3% of Google Play apps and 6% of App Store apps charge upfront at all.
Both numbers are describing the same thing from opposite ends: charging before install costs you almost all of your installs, and not charging before install costs you almost all of your revenue per install.
What paid upfront actually does
It converts your store listing into your entire sales process.
Someone who has never used your app decides, from screenshots and a description, whether it is worth money. That works for products with a reputation already built — a known developer, a category-defining tool, press coverage, a strong review base.
It works badly for everything else, and the drop is not gentle. One developer's weekly downloads fell from thousands to about forty after introducing a $0.99 price. Not $9.99. Ninety-nine cents. The friction is not the amount, it is the decision.
What you get in return is a smaller audience that retains better, churns less, and generates far fewer support requests per user. Paying before installing selects for people who actually wanted the thing.
What freemium actually does
It converts your product into your sales process.
Everyone gets in, and the app itself has to demonstrate enough value that a small minority pays. That minority is genuinely small — 2% typical, 2% to 5% for apps that are good at it — so the model only works if serving the other 95% or more is cheap.
That last clause is where freemium apps quietly fail. If your free tier costs you real money per user — bandwidth, storage, compute, support — then 95% of your users are a growing liability and growth makes your position worse.
The four questions that decide it
1. Can someone evaluate your product from a screenshot?
If yes, paid upfront is viable. A game with a distinctive art style, a beautiful utility, a tool whose output is visible — these sell from a listing. A product whose value only appears after your data is in it does not.
2. Does your free tier cost you money per user?
If yes, freemium needs a conversion rate you probably will not get, or a hard cap on the free tier that makes it feel broken. If serving a free user costs essentially nothing, freemium is close to free to run.
3. Is there a natural line between casual and serious use?
Freemium needs something to sell. Bulk operations, automation, export, commercial use, collaboration, higher limits — a line that follows how people use the product rather than one you drew to force a purchase. If the only way to make a paid tier is to remove something that already works, users will read it exactly that way.
4. How long does value take to appear?
Immediate value favours paid upfront: they can be told what they are getting. Value that accumulates — after import, after configuration, after a few weeks of data — favours freemium, because the app needs time to make the case.
The hybrid that usually wins
Most successful apps are neither. They are free with a paid tier, plus a trial that removes the evaluation problem without removing the install.
A time-limited full-feature trial gets you the honesty of paid upfront and the install rate of free. Trial length matters more than people expect: on subscription apps, trials running between roughly 17 and 32 days show the highest median conversion, and around 82% of trial starts happen on the same day as the install.
That second number is the actionable one. Your trial is not being started next week after consideration. It is being started immediately or never, which means your onboarding is doing the conversion work, not your pricing page.
Where price actually sits
Higher prices hurt conversion less than intuition suggests. On subscription apps, median trial-to-paid conversion is roughly 9.8% for high-priced apps against 4.3% for low-priced ones — the more expensive products convert better, because price is read as a signal about quality and because a cheap price attracts people who were never going to commit.
The corollary: if you are converting badly, dropping the price is rarely the fix. It usually makes the same problem cheaper.
Working it out this week
- Answer the four questions above honestly. Two or more pointing at paid upfront is a real signal.
- Calculate what a free user costs you per month. If it is not approximately zero, freemium needs a plan.
- Write down what your paid tier contains without removing anything that currently works. If you cannot, you do not have a paid tier yet.
- If nothing on that list works, the problem may be that your product cannot be gated at all — which is a different question with its own answers.
For the revenue side of each model next to the others, what apps make per download has the per-category ranges. If your product is desktop software, the licensing shape matters as much as the pricing model, and licensing for indie developers covers that. Our earnings page is where our own numbers are.
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Create your free accountFrequently asked
Is freemium or paid upfront better for a new app?
For an app without an established reputation, freemium is usually the safer choice, because charging before install removes almost all of your downloads — one developer saw weekly installs fall from thousands to around forty after adding a $0.99 price. Paid upfront works when someone can evaluate the product from a store listing alone, which generally requires a known developer, strong press or a visually distinctive product. The deciding factors are whether your value is visible before use and whether serving a free user costs you money.
What percentage of freemium users actually pay?
The median conversion from download to paying customer is around 2%, with well-executed apps reaching 2% to 5%. That means the model depends on serving the 95% or more who never pay at close to zero marginal cost. If your free tier consumes bandwidth, storage or support time per user, growth makes your financial position worse rather than better, and the model needs a hard free-tier limit or a different pricing approach entirely.
How long should a free trial be?
For subscription apps, trials running roughly 17 to 32 days show the highest median conversion. Length matters less than timing: about 82% of trial starts happen on the same day the app is installed, which means the trial is started immediately or never. That makes onboarding the main conversion lever rather than the pricing page, since the decision is being made during the first session rather than after a period of consideration.
Does lowering my price increase conversions?
Generally not. Median trial-to-paid conversion is around 9.8% for high-priced subscription apps against 4.3% for low-priced ones, so more expensive products often convert better. Price is read as a signal about quality, and a low price attracts people who were unlikely to commit in the first place. If conversion is poor, the cause is usually the value demonstration during onboarding rather than the number on the pricing screen.
What should go in a paid tier?
Something that follows how people actually use the product — bulk operations, automation, export, collaboration, commercial use, or higher limits — rather than a feature removed from the free tier to force an upgrade. A useful constraint is to define the paid tier without taking away anything that currently works. If that turns out to be impossible, the product may not have a natural paid tier, and a revenue model that gates nothing is worth considering instead.