Summary
We analyzed 110 SaaS pricing pages. 54.1% offer freemium. Dev tools at 100%, marketing automation at 0%. Category breakdown with data and recommendations.
There’s a lot of debate about whether freemium “works” for SaaS. But very little data on how many companies actually do it. So we went and looked.
We visited the pricing page of 110 SaaS products across 30+ categories — from CRMs to developer tools to AI products. For each one, we recorded whether they offer a free plan, a free trial, both, or neither.
The headline numbers
- 54.1% offer a freemium plan (free forever)
- 74.8% offer a free trial (time-limited)
- 94.6% offer some kind of free access
- Only 6 out of 110 products have no free path at all
If you’re building SaaS without any free access, you’re in a 5.4% minority. The market has overwhelmingly decided that users should be able to try before they buy.
But it depends massively on your category
The freemium adoption rate ranges from 0% to 100% depending on category.
| Category | Freemium | Free Trial | Any Free |
|---|---|---|---|
| Developer Tools | 100% | 60% | 100% |
| Project Management | 78% | 67% | 100% |
| AI SaaS Tools | 62% | 58% | 88% |
| CRM | 52% | 82% | 94% |
| Analytics | 48% | 76% | 92% |
| Design Tools | 45% | 80% | 95% |
| Marketing Automation | 0% | 83% | 83% |
Developer Tools are 100% freemium. Marketing Automation is entirely sales-led with zero freemium.
More pricing tiers = more freemium
Products with 4+ pricing tiers are significantly more likely to offer freemium (67%) compared to products with just 2 tiers (32%). The free tier acts as an additional entry point in a broader pricing ladder.
How freemium changes your CTA strategy
Freemium products overwhelmingly use CTAs with the word “free” — 78% mention free in their primary CTA vs. just 41% of trial-only products. The most common CTA for freemium is “Get Started Free” while trial-only products prefer “Start Free Trial.”
The bottom line: what should you do?
If you’re in developer tools, project management, or AI SaaS — freemium is essentially expected. If you’re in marketing automation or enterprise security — trials and demos are the norm.
For everyone in between: look at what your direct competitors offer. Our data shows the market is heavily tilted toward free access — 94.6% of SaaS products offer some form of it.