Paid Trials
I'd love to see support for paid trials in Dodo Payments.
Right now, trials are typically free, which can attract spam users, fake signups, and people who have no real intention of becoming paying customers.
A paid trial option would allow merchants to charge a small amount (e.g. $1, $5, or any custom amount) before granting trial access. This helps:
- Reduce abuse and spam signups
- Verify that users have a valid payment method
- Improve trial-to-paid conversion quality
- Filter for users with genuine purchase intent
Ideally, this could work similarly to existing trial settings, but with a configurable upfront charge that automatically transitions into the regular subscription after the trial period ends.
For SaaS products, especially B2B tools, paid trials are often more effective than completely free trials and provide a better balance between user acquisition and abuse prevention.
PAID TRIALS ARE THE BEST FREE TRIAL PROTECTION A SASS CAN HAVE.
Would love to see this added.
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- + a small test payment, which gets refunded to user, just to validate payment method works while user is on trial, and make sure when trial ends, they payment method wont fail
Hey, this shipped! You can now set a Trial amount on any subscription product, charge a reduced fee upfront (e.g. $1 for 7 days) instead of a free trial, full price kicks in at the first renewal. Works across checkout, payment links, and adaptive currency, and tax is calculated on the trial amount too. Just leave the trial amount blank if you want the old free-trial behavior. Thanks for pushing on this!