Freemium is Cancer for B2B. Why We Killed Our Free Tier and Doubled Revenue.

The "Support Ticket" DoS Attack

It was a Monday morning. I opened our Zendesk dashboard and saw a red wall: 400 new support tickets.

I started triage. Ticket 1: "How do I change the color of the button? (Free Plan)." Ticket 2: "This feature isn't working (It's an Enterprise feature)." Ticket 3: "Urgent!! (Free Plan)."

395 of the 400 tickets were from Free users.

Our support team was drowning. Our Paying Customers—the ones actually funding the servers—were waiting 48 hours for a reply because the queue was clogged with noise.

We looked at the data: The conversion rate from "Free" to "Paid" was 0.8%. Less than 1 in 100 free users ever paid us a dime.

We killed the Free Tier that afternoon. We replaced it with a 14-day trial requiring a credit card. The silence was beautiful.

The noise stopped. The support queue cleared. And the next quarter, our revenue grew 40%.

Here is why Freemium is often a cancer for B2B SaaS, and why you should probably kill it.

Section 1: The "Negative Churn" of Free Users

A free user isn't just $0 revenue. They are Negative Revenue.

They consume:

• Server Load: They run jobs, store data, and eat bandwidth.
• Support Time: As noted, they are often the most demanding users.
• Brand Reputation: Unlike paid users who are invested, free users have no skin in the game. They are the first to leave a 1-star review on Capterra because "It didn't do specifically what I wanted for free."

The "Penny Pincher" Mindset: Users who sign up for Free have different DNA than buyers. They have infinite time and zero money. You cannot upsell someone who fundamentally doesn't value their own time. They will spend 10 hours hacking a workaround rather than pay you $10.

Section 2: The "Bad Signal" Problem

Your product roadmap is driven by user feedback. But which users?

If 90% of your user base is Free, 90% of your feedback comes from them. And they want different things.

• Free Users want: More customization. More complexity. "Make it work for my hobby project."
• Enterprise Users want: SSO. Audit logs. Stability. "Make it safe for my team."

The Trap: If you listen to the noise (the masses), you build a product for hobbyists. You optimize for the wrong persona. We spent months building features for people who were never going to pay us.

When we killed the free tier, the feedback loop cleared up. We started hearing from the people writing the checks.

Section 3: Friction is a Feature (The Velvet Rope)

Silicon Valley is obsessed with "Reducing Friction." "One-click signup!"

I argue the opposite: Friction is a Filter.

Asking for a Credit Card (or charging a high price) filters for Intent.

The "Serious" Customer isn't deterred by a paywall. If they have a painful business problem, they have a budget. If they balk at entering a card for a trial, they don't have a real problem.

The PLG Myth: Product-Led Growth (PLG) works for Slack and Zoom because of Network Effects (Free users invite Paying users). For most niche B2B tools, there is no network effect. A free user is just a dead end.

Section 4: The "Reverse Trial" Pivot

So, no freebies? No. But change the model.

Replace "Freemium" (Forever Free, limited features) with "Reverse Trial" (All features free for 14 days, then Paywall).

Loss Aversion: Give them the Ferrari. Let them drive it. Let them experience the speed. Then take the keys away.

Freemium gives them the Honda Civic forever. It's "just good enough" that they never need to upgrade. The Reverse Trial hooks them on value, then leverages Loss Aversion to convert.

Conclusion

Your software has value. Stop apologizing for charging for it.

If someone isn't willing to pay for the value you create, they aren't a customer. They are a cost. Send them to your competitor's free tier and let them clog up their support queue.