Why do users happily use my AI tool but refuse to pay for it?

https://www.zolly.dev/

by Parameswar • 6 months ago

1 3 6 months ago

Parameswar• 6 months ago

I built an AI app builder because I was frustrated with how hard it still is to turn an idea into a real working product. No code tools feel limiting very fast and full code feels too slow when you just want to test something.

The product works. People describe what they want to build and they get an actual usable app, not a mockup. They can iterate on it and make changes without starting over.

People are signing up on their own. They build things. Some even message me saying it’s useful or cool.

Then they leave.

No one upgrades. No one pays.

From the outside it looks like things are going fine. There is usage. There is interest. But it feels like I built something people enjoy trying, not something they feel a strong enough need to pay for.

I’m trying to understand where I went wrong. Is the problem not painful enough? Is the audience wrong? Do builders just avoid paying for tools like this? Or does the value only show up at a scale most users never reach?

JohnFen• 6 months ago

I think your final questions can't really be answered by people here. They take actual market research.

As a very strong rule of thumb, though, the reason why people may use a thing when it's free but not be willing to pay for it is because of the cost/benefit ratio. The product doesn't produce enough value to pay the price being asked.

The tricky part is figuring out what the cost is. It's not just money, it's the accumulation of all user costs, including ancillary ones such as, for instance, how much hassle the product brings with it.

It's also tricky to figure out what the benefit is. It's not at all rare that the manufacturer of a product doesn't actually know what the product's benefit is, and only knows what the intended benefit is.

You need to talk to actual people in your target market and gather more data to illuminate these things.

486sx33• 6 months ago

There’s little value in software and no value in annual recurring subscriptions to people. If you solve a large enough problem that a person can use to make themselves money, then you can become an overhead cost of doing business. My household has zero recurring subscriptions now.

Two things jump out at me also 1. The first thing I see is “it’s free”. Then further down the page buy credits. I really don’t want to buy credits in your walled garden that I don’t understand yet. But what the heck I’ll try, next click my only option is to continue with google. Nah I’m not looking to login to a completely unknown product with my google account credentials.

It feels painful on top of I don’t know what I’m buying or why I’d buy it. It’s a canva clone? Or ?

Why do users happily use my AI tool but refuse to pay for it?

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