4 Things to Look for in a Free Trial

Posted on July 12, 2012

Posted by Gerben Meijer in Cloud Performance 0 Comments

Free trials are a great way to test drive a service. Especially when there are countless offers, though reviews are helpful it’s hard to know what the best choice for your company will be.

Since we’ve recently starte d offering a free trial of our service, we thought it would be a great time to go over what things you should be looking for when you try one out.

1. Speed: Is speed important to you? Use the application to find out how fast it will be for you, put it to work by using it for heavy workloads. By putting it through the ringer you’ll be able to better judge the actual speed – rather than teetering around with the free trial, really figure out how it works.

2. Does it meet your needs?: One of the most common issues with a free trial is that people don’t actually test it. It’s there for you to test, find out if it will match up to what you’re looking for. In the case of a cloud free trial, go through what you would normally use it for, does it stand up to the test?

3. Easy to Use: Switching over to a different system is never easy, especially when it’s more difficult to use. It’s important to find something user friendly. Is it frustrating to use? Do you find yourself clicking away from it to take a break? If so, it’s probably not the right tool for you.

4. Do you like it?: When it’s something you’re going to be using a lot, it’s important you like it. Even if it’s just a gut feeling that tells you not go with that application. Whatever the case, be sure you like it- especially because you’ll be the one having to sell the idea to your company.

A free trial isn’t there to only offer you 30 days of instant access, it’s there as a way for users to test out the product, get a feel for the offer, and decide if it’s for them or not. It’s important to do your research before going into a free trial so you have the most knowledge when testing out the service.

What do you like about free trials? Do you often get annoyed at certain points? If so when?

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