Free Trial
Invoice Simple
A limited-time free trial enables small business owners to experience the full capability of Invoice Simple without the upfront pressure of committing to a subscription plan. Working with a product manager and five engineers, I led the design of this new acquisition model from conception to validation and execution.
Role: Sole product designer
Platforms: Mobile (iOS & Android)
Impact: Increased subscription purchases by 32% and document creations by 27% alongside downstream results
Freemium, Not Free
Invoice Simple previously operated on a freemium model that limited how many documents can be created and which features can be used by unpaid users.
Two Documents, One Send
New users were given little beyond a test document to work with and were sent to the paywall upon reaching their usage limits.
Gated Features
An upfront subscription purchase was required to use workflow-critical functionality. This included photo attachments, signatures and reminders.
Why a Free Trial?
Adopting a free trial model provides exposure to Invoice Simple's entire end-to-end experience. We aimed to provide new users unrestricted access to our Premium package to better guide them towards their “aha” moment.
Less reading, more learning
Features can be better understood through usage rather than through the paywall.
Superior observability
Opening our product to unpaid users provides additional insight on user experience. and demand
A SaaS standard
Secondary research identified free trials as the most common acquisition strategy as of 2025, leveraged by an estimated 40-50% of SaaS platforms.
Show and Tell
The opportunity to give new users the entire end-to-end experience of Invoice Simple presented equally endless opportunities to educate them about our product.
Trust through Transparency
A timeline of the free trial outlines what new users can expect before they begin using the app.
Generous Guidance
The banner has been repurposed to house the trial countdown, educational content and any active promotions.
The invoice editor is where new users encounter their “aha!” moment and discover the value of Invoice Simple. An optional tour serves to get them started on their first document as soon as they finish onboarding.
Inline visuals inform users at a glance which subscription tier a paid feature is packaged under.
Encouraging Exploration
A feature checklist highlights key elements of our product's core functionality and encourages users to explore as much as possible. A tracker is provided to instill a sense of progression.
Validation
The new user experience fundamentally changes a growth lever vital to revenue and activations, meaning it needed to perform well in several key areas.
Success Metrics
Are free trial users more likely to become paid subscribers?
Are free trial users creating more invoices?
Do free trial users tend to purchase higher-tier packages?
Results
The free trial experience foundationally strengthened Invoice Simple's new user journey.
32% more subscription purchases
27% more invoices created
10% skew towards higher-tier subscription packages
Furthermore, engagement from free trial users who became subscribers yielded several downstream results.
16% more paywall visits
10% more invoices sent
17% higher payments volume processed through in-house integrations
Next Steps
Usability testing of feature checklist
Only 30% of free trial users are exploring at least one feature on the checklist, implying poor discoverability or preference towards self-paced exploration. Usability testing will be essential to uncovering context behind how the checklist contributes to the new experience.
Enhancement of post-trial journey
The success of the free trial brings opportunities to extend user delight beyond its final day. These areas include data continuity, customer support engagement and win-back promotions. In short—how can we help users who don't convert?
