Full-featured time/use-limited trials are pretty common. Netflix, Spotify, Audible, all offer the first month, for example. Specific to your area, Coursera and Lynda both have them.

Mmm. Those are traditional, longer trials though, as they tend to be longer services. Do you think it would work on a shorter timescale for short courses?

I do think a percentage limit would make more sense in your case, but you shouldn't take my advise, since I've never built anything like it.

It may be worth trying.

Design+Code is a pretty well-known course for designers that want to build iOS apps. The previous version of this course was a one-time payment of $50. For the newest version he's moved to a subscription with a 7-day free trial. However, you do have to add a credit card for the trial. https://designcode.io/

Thanks! That's one's probably a bit long for my courses, which are 5-24 hours in length.

I could try maybe a week with a credit card option on the longer one. Or test a "percent complete" lock on the shorter one.

Yes this exists, for example Travis-CI Pro has a free trial that includes 100 builds and is not time based.

2-3 days probably means your'e a sales company, and it will continue to be a hostile relationship. I much prefer buying from product companies, trying to show me why I need their software.

It's just downright ridiculous/shady.

Ridiculous since there's no way I'll be able to make an informed decision in 2-3 days, especially since there's no chance I'll dedicate 100% of my time to those 2-3 days. When I'm done looking at the several options available, I'll have a meeting showing my findings and running through a guess which software isn't going to have a live demo.

Shady, because I know I'm not going to get a full picture in 2-3 days, but more importantly, they know I'm not going to get a full picture in 2-3 days. My assumption will always be (and is usually correct) that on the surface things are fine, but if you try to use any of the more advanced features/integration/whatever actual use, you'll run into trouble.

If you actually have a good product, why fear letting people see how good it is? Let them try it out, integrate it into their workflows enough and see enough of an improvement that they don't want to go back.

I suspect you did not actually read the parent. It's an online course. Nobody's going to "integrate it into their workflows".

Please actually read comments before replying.

I sell 5-24 hour long online courses. A two week trial would let someone see everything, and would leave the user with no reason to purchase.

This is why I haven't done full free trial yet. Because 2-3 days seems short. But I'm wondering if it counterintuively might be optimal, by removing friction to trying the course.

There are many merchants who have found that increasing the generosity of their refund policy leads to decreased refund rates.

I.e. a 6 month refund window may have a lower overall refund rate than a 1 month window.

It gives users who are on the fence about the value of a product more time to see how they've gotten value out of it. It also gives people longer to forget to ask for the refund.

The only reason some companies have a "1 year" refund policy instead of "lifetime/anytime" is because of issues like credit card merchant processors being uncomfortable with the credit risk that creates.

My mistake! I misread your second to last sentence.