Free trial, and then it went wrong afterwards
Free trials are easy to offer, and surprisingly easy to get wrong.
The problem: trial periods create uncertainty if they are not precise
Free trials are often used as a selling point. “Try it free for 7 or 14 days” sounds simple, but problems often come later.
Support teams see it when customers are unsure about when they will start paying, when an invoice arrives “out of the blue” or when a trial period is extended manually but the system does not keep up.
The problem is rarely the trial period itself. It is the transition from free to paid. If that transition is not clear, it creates mistrust, extra conversations and, in the worst case, cancellations that could have been avoided.
Without proper management, trial periods quickly become special cases that need manual corrections. The more exceptions there are, the greater the risk of errors in both invoicing and setting expectations.
Setup: the trial is simply a period
In Alunta, the trial period is treated as a real part of the subscription timeline.
When creating a subscription, you can choose to start with a free period. It has a clear start date, end date and price of DKK 0. When the trial ends, the subscription continues automatically under the regular terms.
You can edit the trial period along the way. Extend it, shorten it or remove it entirely without breaking the rest of the subscription.
If you use self-service, you can also set a standard trial period directly on the subscription. It will then be offered automatically when a customer signs up, and the checkout makes it clear that nothing is being charged today.
Setup is therefore not about campaigns, but clear periods and predictability.
Business value: a smooth transition from free to paid
A trial period set up correctly reduces friction instead of creating it.
When customers can clearly see when the trial ends and what happens afterwards, there is less need for explanations. The transition to payment feels expected, not like a surprise.
For the business, this means fewer misunderstandings, fewer manual corrections and fewer questions like “I thought it was still free”. You also keep the flexibility to extend the trial period if the relationship calls for it.
Free trials work best when they are structured, not as a sales trick, but as a controlled part of the subscription lifecycle.
Conclusion: free does not have to mean unpredictable
Free trials can be a powerful tool when they are thought through.
In Alunta, the trial period does not sit outside the subscription. It is built into the timeline and follows the same logic as the rest of the renewals.
This means a free trial is not a special case, but simply another period the system manages.
To see how trial periods work with the rest of the subscription features, get the full overview here:
Often, the transition determines whether a free trial becomes value or noise.
