Guide: Free or Paid Trials

Offering a trial is a proven way to drive acquisition by letting customers experience your product before committing. Limio supports both free and paid trials, giving you the flexibility to test different trial strategies and drive conversions.

This guide explains how to configure trials in Limio - whether you want to offer a free trial with no payment capture or a paid trial that auto-renews into a full subscription. It also covers how to manage conversion checkouts, prevent trial abuse, and leverage Limio’s orchestration features to tailor the experience to your needs.

Use this guide to:

• Set up free or paid trial offers

• Decide whether trials should auto-renew or require manual conversion

• Integrate with identity providers, Zuora, or Salesforce

If you're not sure which type of trial is right for your business model, reach out to for guidance.

Free or Paid trial, auto-renewing into a full subscription

Use this approach when you want the paid or free trial to auto-renew into a regular subscription.

Pre-requisite

Note: In this guide, we will use Limio's feature. You can also explore setting the price in Zuora via External Pricing. Reach out to Limio Support for guidance.

• In Zuora, you have configured a rate plan with the renewal price.

Supported scenarios

• Same billing frequency: 1-month trial at $1/month → renews at $10/month

• Different billing frequency: 7-day trial free trial → renews into monthly subscription at $20/month

How to configure a free trial with auto-renew

1. Create the trial in Limio

   • Option 1: Auto-renew trial with the same billing frequency

     • Set Initial Price in the offer (e.g. $1 per month)

     • Set the Rate Plan, referencing the renewal price

     • Ensure Auto-Renew is enabled so that the subscription continues after the trial

     • Enable the Trial flag in the offer configuration.

   • Option 2: Auto-renew trial with different billing frequency

     • Set Initial Price in the offer (e.g. $0 for 1 Week).

     • Define an Initial Term (e.g. 1 Week).

     • Set a Renewal Term (e.g. 1 Month).

     • Set the Rate Plan, referencing the renewal price (e.g. $20 per month)

     • Ensure Auto-Renew is enabled so that the subscription continues after the trial

     • Enable the Trial flag in the offer configuration.

     • Set Remove and re-add products at end of initial term to true. Learn more at: How to create an offer with a different initial billing frequency from the renewal billing frequency (Beta)

2. Publish the trial offer on a trial pricing page (e.g. /pricing-trial)

3. Create an authenticated trial checkout page /checkout-trial with the Form component to collect user and payment details (Name, Email, Company Name, Payment Fields…) ()

4. Redirect to the Order Complete URL.

The subscription will be created in Zuora and renew automatically at the end of the trial period.

Free trial with manual conversion

Use this setup when you want to offer a free trial without capturing payment details (e.g. 14 days free trial). These subscriptions do not automatically renew. A customer must be converted manually at the end of the trial period

Steps to set up a free trial without auto-renew

1. Create a free trial offer in Limio:

   • Set up is similar as for auto-renew trial

   • Ensure Auto-Renew is turned off so that the subscription doesn't continue after the trial

2. Configure a trial checkout page:

   • Option 1: Free trial captured by Limio

     1. Create a /checkout-trial page and mark it as anonymous.

     2. Use the Form component to collect user details (Name, Email, Company Name…)

     3. Redirect to the Order Complete URL.

     4. Pass identity information back later via the to enable Limio Self-Service features down the line.

   • Option 2: Trial setup via identity provider

     1. Create a /checkout-trial page and mark it as authenticated.

     2. Ensure your identity provider captures all user details for the trial (e.g. First Name, Email, Company Name).

     3. Create a custom component to silently submit the order to Limio and redirect the customer to the Order Complete URL.

3. Skip unnecessary processing

   • Use a to skip integrations like Zuora but send data in Salesforce.

Free Trial conversions

If you want a free trial to convert into a paid subscription, you can use Limio's Renewal Experience. Learn more at How to create a personalised renewal experience

If you're not sure which type of trial is right for your business model, reach out to for guidance.