How to market paid software without a free version
Selling software without offering a free tier or listing in official directories makes it exceptionally difficult to gain visibility and traffic. Developers end up second-guessing their monetization model and feeling pressured to surrender and release a free version just to compete.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1relying on alternative marketing, SEO, and GEO
- 2considering releasing a stripped-down free version to get traction
- 3using platforms like Codecanyon
- 4exploring video marketing on YouTube
- 5Posting on LinkedIn
- 6Cold outreach
- 7Targeting bookkeepers or payroll staff directly instead of business owners
In their words
Unedited, most upvoted first, each linked to the thread it came from.
“Getting people to actually try it is a different story.”source ↗
“Cold outreach to small businesses gets ignored more often than not.”source ↗
“But getting from "yeah that's annoying" to actually signing up and trying the tool feels impossible.”source ↗
“I am in a similar situation, I also have a premium-only plugin, not listed in the WP directory.”source ↗
“And I'm now really on the fence. Thinking that maybe I should 'surrender' and release a free version ( or at least try to ).”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 2Why can't I talk to a real person on enterprise software support?
- 4Why am I paying a monthly fee to sell software for commission?
- 9Why pay for an expensive SEO suite when you barely use it?
- 4Why can't I just see the price of software without a sales call?
- 2Per endpoint software pricing is too expensive
- 13Why am I seeing ads in software I already paid for?