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Why We’re Not Doing a Free Plan (Yet)
Why we intentionally skipping the forever-free plan. Learn how focusing on real, paying users leads to better feedback, stronger product direction, and solutions that truly solve the pain.
Gary Chan
June 20, 2025
A lot of early-stage startups offer a free plan. It’s common wisdom: get users in the door, gather feedback, iterate fast.
We are doing the opposite.
Right now, ClarityInbox does not have a forever-free plan, and that’s intentional.
Free Signups Aren’t Always Real Signal
Offering something for free definitely gets attention. Signups go up. People poke around. You feel busy.
Free has shock value in an industry where it’s all things paid.
In a world where everything is free, paid is actually more shocking!
The hard truth: free users aren’t always your real users.
They’re curious, not committed.
They don’t always have the problem you’re solving.
And most importantly, they might give you the wrong feedback.
Clarity Inbox is built for founders, sales professionals, and executives who are juggling 100s of emails across multiple accounts. People who’ve tried filters, Gmail hacks, virtual assistants, and still feel behind. That’s the pain.
If someone isn’t feeling that pain, their product feedback might lead us to optimize for the wrong use cases, or build surface-level features that don’t actually help.
Chasing the “free” feedback will lead us in the wrong direction.
We Want to Solve Real Problems, Not Free Problems
Clarity isn’t just another inbox tool. It’s designed to give you peace of mind.
You wake up, scan your inbox, and know exactly what needs attention.
You walk between meetings, and your next reply is already drafted.
You see opportunities, not clutter.
That clarity is worth paying for.
And when people pay, they’re saying:
“This helps me. I need*** this.”
That signal is 10x more valuable than a hundred free sign-ups.
Don’t go chasing the wrong thing.
We’re not building for people who just want to “try it out.”
We’re building for people who are actively searching for a better way.
Will We Ever Offer a Free Plan?
Probably. Just not yet.
We are open to:
A limited-time free trial
A money-back guarantee
Or even a feature-limited free tier in the future
But only after we’ve earned the right to be paid.
Only after we’ve proven that what we’re offering is valuable enough that someone would want to pay for it again.
For Now, the Bar Is Simple
We’re asking ourselves one thing:
Is this solving a real, painful, urgent problem? One that people are willing to pay for?
If it’s not, we are either building the wrong thing or targeting the wrong person.
And “free” just puts the wrong ingredient into this pot.
TL;DR
Free plans bring noise, not just signal.
We want honest feedback from people with real pain
A free tier might come later, once we know exactly how to optimize it.
Related reading:
Read more about my startup journey: https://growthwithgary.com/archive?tags=Startup
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I am Gary Yau Chan. 3x Head of Growth. Product Growth specialist. 26x hackathon winner. Building ClarityInbox. I write about #PLG and #BuildInPublic. Please follow me on LinkedIn, or read about what you can hire me for on my Notion page.