Why We Killed Our Free Plan — And Grew MRR by 50%
Hey founders,
This year at Changelogfy , we made one of the riskiest decisions in our history:
We removed our free plan and started requiring a credit card upfront to start the trial.
The result?
Our MRR grew by 50%.
This decision changed everything — not just our revenue, but the kind of company we are building. In this newsletter, I’ll share:
Why we left freemium behind
What happened when we started requiring a card
The surprising results (beyond the numbers)
And why I think more SaaS founders should do the same
Let’s go.
The Hard Reality of Freemium
Freemium feels like momentum.
You see new users signing up every day. Activation numbers go up. Usage grows. But for us, over time, freemium became a trap.
Here’s what we experienced:
A growing segment of users who never intended to pay
Lots of noise in our feedback and support channels
Servers, emails, and features supporting people who weren’t invested
And worst of all — a false sense of product-market fit
We had volume, but not commitment.
And that lack of commitment showed up everywhere: low trial conversion, weak onboarding engagement, and feedback from users who hadn’t explored the product deeply.
It became clear: we were optimizing for signups, not revenue.
Moving Beyond Free
We didn’t make the decision overnight.
But we started asking better questions:
“Are we really helping these users with a free plan?”
“What kind of user do we want to attract going forward?”
“What would happen if we focused only on customers who are ready to pay?”
And then we decided: No more free.
Instead, we offered a 14-day free trial — but only for users willing to enter a credit card.
This filtered out casual users and forced us to deliver value fast.
Was it scary? Absolutely.
We worried about:
Signups falling off a cliff
Users complaining publicly
Losing momentum we had built over the years
But what happened next surprised us.
The Power of Skin in the Game
When we launched the new paid-only structure, the impact wasn’t immediate fireworks — it was a gradual shift in quality.
Yes, total signups dropped. But the users who came through were different.
They:
Activated faster
Engaged deeper
Gave better feedback
Converted to paying customers at a much higher rate
We weren’t just getting more revenue — we were getting better customers.
The kind who understood the problem, valued the solution, and had buying intent from day one.
It forced us to get clearer on our messaging, smoother in our onboarding, and sharper with our product.
When people are paying — or even thinking about paying — every detail matters.
This Isn’t Just About Pricing — It’s About Philosophy
Removing your free plan isn’t just a pricing strategy. It’s a mindset shift.
Freemium optimizes for scale. But paid-first optimizes for value.
And if you’re an indie founder or small team, value is your lifeline. You don’t need 10,000 users. You need 100 who pay, stay, and grow with you.
We learned:
The right users don’t need everything to be free
You can deliver an amazing experience and get paid for it
People respect a business more when they’re asked to commit
And from a business perspective — removing free aligned our product, our support, and our roadmap toward the right audience.
It’s not just easier to grow. It’s easier to breathe.
What I’d Tell Founders Thinking About This
If you’re running a SaaS with a free plan and thinking, “maybe this isn’t working” — you’re probably right.
Here’s what I’d suggest:
Look at your free-to-paid conversion honestly. If it’s under 5%, ask yourself: is it worth it?
Review your support load. How much of it is tied to non-paying users?
Segment your feedback. Are your priorities being shaped by people who’ll never pay?
Ask: “Who do I want to serve?” If the answer is serious teams and growing businesses, free might be in your way.
This is especially true for B2B tools, team-based products, and anything where usage correlates to business ROI.
You don’t need to apologize for building a paid product.
You just need to deliver value — and ask for commitment in return.
What Changed at Changelogfy (Besides Revenue)
Yes, our MRR grew 50%. That alone is worth celebrating.
But even more valuable were the qualitative shifts:
Clearer product vision — we now build features for customers, not free users
Less support stress — we spend time with the right people
Better feedback loops — real users solving real problems
Greater team focus — no more guessing who we’re building for
This change aligned our business with our ambition.
The Path Forward
Our goal is not to make Changelogfy “hard to try.”
It’s to make it easy to commit — for the right people.
You can still explore the full product during your 14-day trial. You just need to signal you’re serious.
And if that filters out people who were never going to convert anyway… good.
Because every indie SaaS needs to make this shift at some point:
From chasing attention → to building commitment.
We made that leap.
And it paid off.
Thanks for reading — and if you’re on the fence about killing your free plan, I hope this gives you the push you need.
I’d love to hear your thoughts, especially if you’ve made a similar move.
Let’s grow better, not just bigger.
Stay scrappy,
Paulo Castellano
Founder @ Changelogfy