Free version with less features to encorage people to buy?

I have a question and need your opinion:
A few days ago I published my first app.
it’s available here:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mdgjtouch.teatimer

The free version doesn’t have all the features of the paid version - The free one has ads, less preset timers and a smaller collection of cup icons.
I did this because I thought if people liked it, it would encourage them to buy the full version… (which has more options)
Do you think this is a good idea, or maybe free versions should have the same features as the paid ones (plus the ads)?
Maybe people would just uninstall the free version if I don’t give them all the options for free??
What do you think?

Thanks

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I suspect the answer is ‘it depends’, but this is model I use and it works great for me. People need incentive to upgrade. Not everyone will be deterred or incentivised to upgrade simply to get rid of ads. Give them more than that. Give them some but not all functionality in the free version and gentle prompts to upgrade and unlock more features. Hence in my free app, the core selling feature is fully functional (ad supported), but most of the whizz-bang more in-depth features have limited access in the free version with prompts to upgrade. I highly suspect a high percentage of my sales are from users wanting full access rather than just no ads.

Hi ckinght,
Glad to hear you take the same approach, and that it works for you!
So, I won’t be changing anything in the near future.

Right now I released just adfree versions and one of them sells all right. But I’ll add more things to paid version because one person already complained that the paid version is the same as the free one.

lol really? there was a complain about the paid version is the same like the free version just without ads?

In my beginnings, I really worked with demo + full version. That concept was not working for me. So I switched to Ad + Adfree versions - some paid versions I dismissed completely. Right now, I have 2 games available which are in the fee/adfree combo. It may be worth to mention that the life-time revenue of them is nearly the same no matter if paid or ad supported.

Because I always update my games the price for the adfree versions is quite high 2.50$) , so not sure if that will work out.

Yeah, people like to complain about everything. :smiley:
I’ll probably just add new features to paid version earlier than to free version, so people see that they get sth additional when buying.

I’m curious. When you tried “demo + full”, what was the limitation on the demo? Was it limited features, or limited time / content? I’m currently considering doing a limited time/content model, since my game is story based.

Thanks!

I have tried the Demo-Full with my first games, I cant remember how some of them actually worked xD

Minesweeper: Unlimited! had initially no Highscores saved for example. Today the free version has everything like the full version but with ads and also it is not possible to rotate the screen in the free version (mainly because of ads xD)

Tablet Tower Defense had initially a Level Cap and no autosave-feature. Today the versions are the same but the free versions uses ad popups (and users complain about g, so I lowered the frequency)