Trial -> paid subscription transition flow question
So I have saas with 3 tiers of pricing.
I need to understand what flow of transition from trial to paid plan would be less painful and convert more. Here is few variants I see, and if you could, please give your opinion about variant will work the best for saas, or may be you could suggest your own.
It is b2b. I plan to have direct sales, but still there is an option for self sign up.
Variant 1:
User selects pricing plan right after registration and start trial.
We require credit card but not charging until end of trial. And we charge it automatically after trial ends. In this case user has to cancel its subscription to not being charged.
IMHO: At first glance, this seems to be the most brazen and unpleasant method.
Variant 2:
User selects pricing plan, start trial but credit card not required until he decide to buy a subscription. Also user is free to switch between plans during trial, to compare capabilities.
IMHO: More loyal relaxed way to give user a chance to try product and decide what plan fits his needs.
Variant 3:
Right after registration user get trial plan automatically (no credit card required), crafted specifically for trial, so some capabilities are disabled (like custom domain, or white label), but user can try all other features freely, similar to max plan. After trial ends - user has to decide what plan he wants to use. At this point he enters card, and start paid subscription.
IMHO: this is my preferred variant as it feels like customer centric, where we allow to check everything before he makes a decision. No need to think about plans, and customer can focus on solution. One caveat exists if he used more resources than his plan allows - but it is not a problem. system will restrict further resource adding until he remove used resources to match the limits.
What do you think?