How to offer free trials: the sign-up that works

A free trial asks for a commitment before it gives any value. The visitor sees the word free and the sign-up form, then meets a card field they did not expect, or a dashboard so empty they cannot tell whether the tool does anything. Later a banner says the trial ends on a date, with no price beside it. The visitor who reads that banner on the last day feels tricked, even though every term was shown somewhere. The fault is in the order the terms appear, not in the terms themselves.

• Card field: is it on the sign-up page, and does the page say why it is needed?
• The length of the trial and the date it ends, stated before the visitor starts
• What the trial includes and what stops when it ends, in plain words
• The first useful screen after sign-up, reachable without a tutorial
• The price the visitor will pay after the trial, shown before they start

A card at sign-up filters who starts, and it also filters out people who would have tried the product without paying. A card asked later, when the trial is ending, makes the visitor commit after they have a result to keep. Both are workable. What fails is a card field that appears with no reason beside it. The right version says on the sign-up page that the card is taken now, that it is not charged until the trial ends, and how to cancel before that day. The wrong version is a card field under the password, with the words free trial above it and nothing else.

A trial with no card gives the visitor a product with nothing in it. The project list is empty, the reports show nothing, and the first button asks for data the visitor does not have yet. A visitor who cannot tell from the first screen whether the tool does anything closes the tab. The right version opens on a sample project the visitor can open and change, with one next step that leads to their own data. The wrong version is a blank dashboard with a tour that starts only after a second sign-in.

The end of the trial is a term the visitor needs to see before starting. Put the length, the end and the price on the sign-up page, in the same sentence where the trial is offered. Then compare that sentence with the account settings, and with any reminder email, because a visitor who finds a different date later reads the sign-up as misleading, whether either date is wrong. A date that appears only in a welcome email, or a price that appears only at the upgrade button, makes the trial feel like a trap. A simulated test can show whether those terms appear before the visitor starts. It cannot judge whether the wording is fair.

Trials change: a longer length for a campaign, a new plan with a different card rule, a discount that ends early. Each change can leave the sign-up sentence describing a trial the account settings no longer show. After each change, walk the sign-up as a new visitor, then open the account settings and compare the length, the end date and the price with the words on the sign-up page. Any page behind a login needs a test account.