# What % of pricing pages include a free plan, and how do companies place it?

Source: Lazyweb Research
Published: 2026-07-07
Sample size: n=301
Tags: pricing, monetization, experiments, trials, saas, landing-page
HTML: https://www.lazyweb.com/research/free-plan-placement-saas-pricing-pages
Markdown: https://www.lazyweb.com/research/free-plan-placement-saas-pricing-pages.md

**Answer.** 27% of the 301 detected pricing experiments (81 of 301) touch a free plan, free tier, or $0 option — the fourth most common theme after annual billing, badges, and toggles [1]. The most-cited placement move is turning a paid-only grid into an ascending staircase that starts at $0, capturing hobbyists who would otherwise bounce at the paid floor [1]. Free-tier changes are consistently scored high-impact in the detected diffs, though these are inferred rationales, not measured lift.

> 27% of 301 detected pricing experiments (81) touch a free/$0 plan; the top move is opening the ladder with a $0 floor (July 2026).

## The finding

81 of 301 pricing experiments (26.9%) reference a free plan, free tier, or $0 option — a keyword lower bound over LLM-written summaries [1]. Ranked against the other structural devices in the same 301-experiment set [1]:

| Theme | Share | Count |
|---|---|---|
| Annual/yearly billing | 57.1% | 172 |
| 'Most popular' badge | 38.2% | 115 |
| Billing toggle | 33.9% | 102 |
| Free plan / $0 | 26.9% | 81 |
| Preselected default plan | 17.9% | 54 |

So roughly one in four tested pricing changes involves the free tier — enough to be a first-class lever, well behind billing cadence.

## How companies place the free plan

Detected diffs show the free tier used to widen the top of the funnel [1]:

- **Open the ladder at $0.** A design tool went from three paid tiers (Basic $10 / Pro $30 / Scale $100) to a five-step staircase: **Free $0**, Mini $5, Basic $15, Pro $30, Enterprise Custom — inferred to capture hobbyists rather than bounce them at a $10 floor.
- **Give each audience track its own free tier.** A per-person product split one ladder into parallel individual and team tracks, each led by a **Free/$0 plan** (individual Free + Pro $8; team Free + Pro $10/member) — so solo users and teams both get a $0 entry point.

Both were scored impact 5/5 by our model — high relative priority, not confirmed lift [1].

## How to apply this

If your cheapest paid tier is your entry point and you're losing hobbyists at it, the detected pattern says test **adding a $0 floor** rather than discounting the paid tier [1]. If you sell to both individuals and teams, test **a free plan on each track** so neither audience has to parse the other's pricing [1]. Because these are observed diffs with inferred rationale, pair the change with your own retention read — a wider free funnel only helps if free-to-paid conversion holds. Note the 27% figure is a lower bound (keyword-matched mentions), so real free-tier prevalence is higher.

## The numbers

| Stat | Computed from |
| --- | --- |
| 26.9% (81/301) | pricing experiments touching a free plan/free tier/$0, keyword match over 301 annotations |
| 57.1% (172/301) | pricing experiments referencing annual billing, keyword match over 301 annotations |
| 38.2% (115/301) | pricing experiments mentioning a highlight badge, keyword match over 301 annotations |
| 33.9% (102/301) | pricing experiments involving a billing toggle, keyword match over 301 annotations |
| 17.9% (54/301) | pricing experiments preselecting a default plan, keyword match over 301 annotations |

## Methodology

Universe: 301 detected pricing-area experiments, Lazyweb Research, July 2026. Free-plan share is a keyword lower bound; placement patterns are drawn from named before/after diffs (detected changes with inferred rationale, not measured lift).

## Sources & citations

- [1] Lazyweb Research analysis of 301 pricing-area experiments (detected before/after UI diffs), July 2026. Free-plan share is an ILIKE keyword match ('free plan'|'free tier'|'$0') over LLM-written before/after summaries — a lower bound counting mentions, not audited pages. Detected diffs with inferred rationale, not measured A/B lift.

## Related questions

- [How many pricing tiers do SaaS pricing pages actually show — is 3 really the norm?](https://www.lazyweb.com/research/how-many-pricing-tiers-do-saas-pages-show)
- [Monthly vs annual: how do pricing pages present the billing toggle?](https://www.lazyweb.com/research/monthly-vs-annual-billing-toggle-pricing)
- [What % of pricing pages hide enterprise pricing behind 'Contact us'?](https://www.lazyweb.com/research/hide-enterprise-pricing-behind-contact-us)