Hello everyone,

I am currently working on a project that I want to be free to use, but also monetized.

Itch is nice and has a lot of options:

• "Pay what you want", but it doesn't seem to generate much payments. (I get it, and don't blame anyone, free is great.)
• Pay what you want with a threshold for a Bonus/Reward.
  • Essentially Free with Paid premium when reward are "external" to the game
  • I assume Strictly superior to Pay what you want
• Free version and Paid Premium.
  
  • Fully featured Free game/tool with "extra's" for buyers
  • Seen/displayed as Free
• Paid version and Lite Free version
  • Paid game/tool with a Demo/Lite/Trial version
  • Seen/displayed as Priced

Now these are kind of the same (end result) but I feel like they might have different psychological and enticement effects?

For example, I feel like I am much more likely to Click or try a Free/displayed as free game. Nothing to lose.
However, perhaps it would lead to poor conversion to payment, people come in with a free product mindset.

I don't feel too attracted to paid tools, It has to be a pretty good value proposition because to even click it, it has to have sold itself to me from image and 3 lines desc. Afterall, I won't know there's a free trial to try it out until after i've clicked (shoutout to Mannequin for outplaying that). To be fair, if I got that far I'm pretty sure payment odds are much higher.

Maybe I'm overthinking this. Anyways, anyone has experience with the various Pay what you want/Free/Premium models? How did it go for you as a dev, you as a customer and what do you think is the best approach?

Thanks

any sales i have made have been with software that has a fixed price but usually when its on sale or in a bundle.Sales and bundles you can make, do have a really good impact on your page views. i would recommend it. It is a good way to keep a game fresh over time with new eyes. just have the occasional sale or make a bundle. 

i havent tried much with pay what you want, most of my creations are pretty short and sweet and not sure if it would work for me.

I havent been here for longer than a year yet so im no expert, but its been great. dont be afraid to expriement with pricing. you can always change it as you go. what might be good for someone else may not suit you.

good luck :)

Thanks for the reply.

I am currently looking toward Free because I did make the software with the intent of offering a useful free tool. But then feature (plans) crept beyond the initial scope, and I'd like to "finance" the continued support(if there is any such interest).

I've also been a bit intimidated by charging for anything since if my current free stuff barely gathers any attention, its hard to imagine paid stuff doing better. But perhaps I am looking at it from the wrong point of view. I hadn't considered the sales & bundle aspect , that's good to know and I'll keep it in mind.

Thanks