Open Source

Freemium

What is Freemium?

Freemium is a software and media marketing model. Usually it involves the free usage of a product to a certain degree. Sometimes features can be bought with money and sometimes the full version is chargeable, in contrast to the free demo version.

Most of the time, freemium is an expression used for web and smartphone applications. Magazines and papers can also be freemium, if you have to subscribe to a paid plan or something in that order.

The aim of Freemium is to generate money from free software, resulting from people trying out a free product and getting hooked to the features, so that they want to upgrade. Even if users do not upgrade their plan, they can help this process by telling their friends and family about said service and potentially get them to subscribe.

Examples

Here are some examples of freemium software and services that most people know:

  • Spotify

  • Adobe Acrobat Reader

  • Flickr

  • Discord

  • Skype

  • and much more.

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