Stop falling for the Free Tier

As you are pulled in the direction you really don’t want to go in, you think to yourself ‘I must stop falling for the free tier’. It never works out as expected.  

OK, that analogy was rubbish. I’m trying to illustrate that "Free Tier" typically doesn’t mean full & free access. 

Right, I’m ahead of myself. Rewind.

If you type in to Mr Google..

“free invoicing app for small businesses”

you get the usual list of search results. After the paid listings (oh sorry Google… “Sponsored” listings that mostly have nothing to do with the search criteria) you get to the big players in the free invoicing market. Some of which are listed below

Invoice Ninja
Invoicely
Paymo
Square Invoices
Bookipi
Wave

Firms like Paymo don’t technically have a free tier anymore, so let’s exclude them. Square Invoices is primarily focused to satisfy its core payment links business. It does create invoices, but it’s focused on immediate payments, more than traditional payment ‘terms’ business, so we’ll exclude them too. The others do a have a free tier, but here is the thing… 

Their core business is not to offer free invoicing access. 

Let’s make no mistake, their core business is to get you on a monthly recurring charge & that just fine. They are in business to make money. What I have a problem with is they all score top of the list with Mr Google, even though they are not fully free.

Indeed, it seems in order to score well, you may just need something in your business to be free, maybe a free trial or a free download or something utterly irrelevant… oh and deep marketing pockets.

What does this matter I hear you ask?

Good question… let me answer. Well, it does matter.
 
The results (which are pretty much the same on most search engines with the same input) distort what products are actually available online, some of which are actually free. Yes free, not trial period or useless free tier or daft restrictions free. Free, really free. Like... for no money.

One company offering free invoicing that comes to mind is Envoyce. It’s a start-up business focused to help Britain's small businesses. It’s got everything you need and offers a fair deal. It’s not all singing and dancing as yet, but it’s early days. It creates and helps track your invoices. 

OK back to the article. Simple word of advice. When looking for a free invoicing tool, and checking out what’s on offer, if the website has a “Pricing” page then 9/10 it’s not free. If it’s got a pricing page then that company’s primary focus is to sell you on a paid subscription.

We are so used to this dark pattern of foolery it’s become normalised. Cummon, free tier companies, have some integrity. If your app is so good… charge people to use it, don’t employ tease tactics even though they might work for some. If you want to offer a free tier, make it all free, not just nearly free to get the SEO headlines. 

The net effect of all this SEO distortion is to make the word “Free” not mean that anymore. People look at the word Free and expect terms and conditions and hoops to jump through to get free. That’s not free at all.

If you come across a site that doesn’t have a pricing page and doesn’t ask for a credit card, doesn’t limit useability, or blanket the site with google ads. then perhaps you should give it a go.

You have nothing to lose.

Do your own research. Have a look at these reviews from Trustpilot… that is if you trust them.

https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/invoicely.com

https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/bookipi.com

https://www.trustpilot.com/review/squareup.com/us/en/invoices

https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/waveapps.com

Talking about research, it bring us to a message from our Sponsor.

Envoyce is a free & open invoicing platform that is focused on its ease of use and efficiency with everything you need to create invoice with NO BLOATWARE. 

Try it. Its free. 

Try Envoyce today, sign up here.