title: Trial version grace period
body: <p>How should I implement a full-featured grace period or N-uses scheme to maximise sales of my small $5 social network Windows application, while encouraging continued use of a limited version by users who are never (not yet?) going to pay for it?</p>
  
  <h2>Grace-period options:</h2>
  
  <ol>
  <li>Use-limited. After 20 uses, cripple it.</li>
  <li>Calendar days time-limited. After 30 days after first-use, the software is crippled.</li>
  <li>Actual use-days time-limited, eg. 7 days. If used for seven days over the course of 7+N days, cripple it after the seventh day.</li>
  <li>Time-limited. After 20 hours of use or play, cripple it.</li>
  <li>Combination of the above with progressive crippling and optional nag screens.</li>
  <li>Nag screens, which I am averse to.</li>
  </ol>
  
  <p>Crippling software is not favoured by all (especially the open-source camp), but I have to base my decision on happy users and making a living, so I have compiled the findings I side with on limiting software below.</p>
  
  <h2>My trialware conclusions so far:</h2>
  
  <ul>
  <li>Focus on making your software <strong>good</strong> rather than spending time on thwarting crackers. If it is popular enough, it will eventually be reverse engineered.</li>
  <li>Let the client enjoy the <strong>full functionality</strong> of your software...for a while. Dependent users are more likely to buy.</li>
  <li><strong>Crippled software</strong> can sell <a href="http://hackvan.com/pub/stig/articles/why-do-people-register-shareware.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">5 times more</a> than software with donation nag screens, assuming it is any good.</li>
  <li>Make paying as easy as humanly possible.</li>
  <li>Perceived value counts, but keeping the <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3550556/ive-found-my-software-as-cracked-download-on-internet-what-to-do/3553971#3553971">price low</a> may lead to impulse buys.</li>
  <li>Pricing is <em><a href="http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/CamelsandRubberDuckies.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">really hard</a></em>.</li>
  <li>Offering a 100% no-questions-asked money-back guarantee will lead to more sales.</li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>I intend to cripple my demo version, but I do want trial users to experience all the features. It's a smallish consumer application with a potentially large user base, so I'm looking at pricing it at <strong>~$5</strong>, but I don't know. It may be worth $50 to some users or $1. I'll leave pricing for later. This is about crippling software.</p>
  
  <p>An answer supported by <a href="http://successfulsoftware.net/2009/04/23/the-truth-about-conversion-ratios-for-software/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">real-world data</a> grouped by <a href="http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/FiveWorlds.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">software type</a> would be more helpful, but any thoughts on this are appreciated.</p>