give away the whole fix. charge for what comes after

You install a free plugin to fix one thing on your site.

It fixes most of it. Then there’s a banner. Then a greyed-out toggle with a little padlock. Then a popup with a countdown timer, on a product you installed four minutes ago.

You weren’t converted. You were annoyed, and you’ll remember it.

Most free tiers are built like this on purpose. Somewhere a spreadsheet decided that the free version should be almost useful, so the frustration does the selling. It works just well enough to stay in the playbook. We think it’s backwards.

a crippled free tier is an ad for the problem

Here’s what crippleware teaches a new user: this company will hold your problem hostage.

That’s the first thing they learn about you, before they’ve seen your support, your updates or your docs. And it’s what they’ll tell people. Nobody recommends the thing that nagged them. They recommend the thing that just worked.

A free tier that completely fixes one problem does the opposite. The user wanted one thing, got it, and moved on with their day. You’ve made a better first impression than most paid products manage. And when the same person runs into the next problem, guess whose name they remember.

free is the ad. pro is the room to grow

So split it like this:

• Free solves the problem. All of it, for the person who has the problem today. No timer and no padlock on the thing they came for.
• Paid is for outgrowing it. More sites, more volume, deeper reporting, the stuff a bigger operation needs and a small one doesn’t.

The line isn’t “useful vs. useless.” It’s “enough for now vs. what you need once things get bigger.” Someone who upgrades under that model is upgrading because things are going well. That’s a happy customer reaching for their wallet, not a hostage paying the ransom.

why this sells better

It sorts your buyers for you. The people who outgrow the free version are, almost by definition, the ones it’s worth the most to. You stop wasting sales energy on people who’ll never need more.

It makes your marketing honest. When the free version actually works, your best marketing is the product. Screenshots of the real thing. A one-line description of what it fixes. No “unlock,” no asterisks.

It compounds. Every person the free version helped is someone who can vouch for it, review it and recommend it. A crippled free tier turns a lot of users into a lot of mild resentment. That stacks up too, just in the wrong direction.

where this doesn’t work

To be straight about it: this model isn’t for everyone.

• If every user costs you real money to serve, like compute-heavy tools, human support, or anything with a per-user bill behind it, then giving the whole thing away can sink you. Do the maths before you copy the philosophy.
• If there’s only one problem and no “bigger” version of it, there’s nothing to outgrow, so there’s nothing to charge for later. You need a real step up, not an invented one.
• It’s slower. A nag screen gets you some upgrades this week. Goodwill pays off over months. If you need revenue on Friday, this isn’t a Friday plan.

how we do it

This is the rule for every plugin we make: one plugin per annoying thing, and the free build is the whole fix. No trial popup, no countdown and no banner. Pro is priced per site count, because the clearest sign someone has outgrown the free version is that they’re running more stores.

We’re not saying it’s the fastest way to make money. It’s the way where the people who pay us are happy to.

the test

Open your free tier and ask one question: if this were the only version that existed, would someone with the problem be glad they found it?

If the answer is “almost,” that’s the gap your customers are feeling.

Fix the whole problem. Charge for the growth. Let the free version do the talking.