Is your free-to-paid conversion good, or leaving MRR on the table?

Free-to-paid is benchmarked very differently depending on your model. A freemium tier converts in the single digits; a billed free trial (how most Shopify apps work, since billing runs through the merchant's Shopify checkout) converts far higher. Pick your model and see where you stand and what closing the gap is worth.

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By Taylor Sicard · early Shopify employee, app founder and advisor · the pricing and conversion math behind apps that compound

What free-to-paid conversion should be

Free-to-paid conversion is new paying accounts divided by new free users over the same window, usually about 30 days. The benchmark depends entirely on the model. A billed free trial, which is how most Shopify apps work because billing runs through the merchant's Shopify checkout, should convert at 25 to 35%, with 50% and up counted as great. A classic freemium tier converts at 3 to 5%, great at 8 to 12%. Compare against your own model, never the blended figure.

Formula: conversion = new paying accounts divided by new free users, same window for both.
New MRR a month = free users x conversion x ARPA.
Billed free trial band: 25 to 35% good, 50 to 60% great.
Freemium tier band: 3 to 5% good, 8 to 12% great.
Upside math: (free users x the top of your band) x ARPA, minus the new MRR you make today. Same traffic, better funnel.
Common mistake: judging a billed trial against freemium numbers. If you do run freemium, the single largest lever is usually moving to a billed trial, not tuning the funnel you have.

Worked example. 500 new free users a month on a billed trial, converting at 20%, at $40 ARPA. 500 x 0.20 = 100 paying accounts, so $4,000 of new MRR. 20% sits below the 25 to 35% band. At the top of that band, 500 x 0.35 = 175 accounts, or $7,000, so closing the gap is worth $3,000 of new MRR a month on traffic you already have.

Source: Taylor Sicard, Taylor Sicard Consulting · Updated August 2026

The method behind the number

Why model decides the benchmark, and where the MRR hides.

Ecosystem Strategy

Is your free-to-paid good, or leaking MRR?

Which band to benchmark against, freemium versus billed trial, and the MRR sitting in the gap.

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Ecosystem Strategy

Shopify app free-to-paid benchmarks

The real conversion bands for billed trials vs freemium, and why the blended median misleads you.

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Ecosystem Strategy

Shopify app onboarding benchmarks

Get users to first value fast: the activation milestones that move free-to-paid the most.

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Ecosystem Strategy

Pricing your Shopify app

Where to gate, what to charge, and how the upgrade moment shapes your conversion rate.

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Method

How free-to-paid conversion is benchmarked

The benchmark depends on your model, so the calculator asks first. A billed free trial, where the merchant approves the charge up front and billing runs through Shopify, converts at a different order of magnitude than a no-card freemium tier. The result prices the MRR you unlock by closing the gap to good and great for your model.

Billed trial: 25 to 35%Good. 50 to 60% is great, and the upper band usually means onboarding nails time-to-value in the first session.

Freemium: 3 to 5%Good for a no-card free tier. 8 to 12% is great. Do not judge a freemium app by trial numbers.

Below your model bandThe gap is usually onboarding, not pricing: merchants who never reach the first win never convert.

Once merchants convert, the question becomes what each one costs to land and how fast they pay back. The app CAC payback calculator answers it, and the app churn cost calculator shows what leaks out the other end. All the free Shopify app calculators carry your MRR and ARPA forward.

Questions

Common questions

What's a good free-to-paid rate for a Shopify app?

It depends on the model. A billed free trial is good at 25 to 35% and great at 50% or more. A classic no-card freemium tier is good at 3 to 5% and great at 8 to 12%. Most Shopify apps bill through the merchant's Shopify checkout, so they sit in the higher billed-trial band.

Why do Shopify apps convert higher than typical freemium?

Billing runs through the merchant's Shopify checkout, so a free trial behaves like a credit-card-required trial rather than classic no-card freemium. The merchant already has billing on file, which is why billed trials convert at 25 to 35% while freemium sits in the single digits.

What's the median free-to-paid conversion rate?

Roughly 8% across all products, but that blends both models and is not the number to judge yourself against. Compare a billed trial to the 25 to 35% band and a freemium tier to the 3 to 5% band. Benchmarking a billed trial against an 8% blended median hides how much MRR you are leaving on the table.

How do I lift my free-to-paid conversion?

Get users to first value fast, then ask for the upgrade at the activation moment instead of at install. Tighten onboarding so the merchant sees a real result inside the trial, gate the feature that creates that value, and make the prompt land when intent is highest. For most Shopify apps a billed trial outconverts freemium.

Should my Shopify app use a free trial or freemium?

Default to a billed trial unless free users genuinely make your product better or feed a paid tier reliably. Billed trials convert at an order of magnitude higher, and approval friction is low because the charge runs through the merchant billing they already trust.

How long should the trial be?

As short as your time-to-value allows. If a merchant sees the first win in a day, 7 days beats 14, because urgency converts. Long trials mostly hide an onboarding problem that the gap in this calculator is already pointing at.