A category, defined
The earned tier is the new freemium.
Your free tier already costs you money. Put it to work.
earned tier
- a SaaS free tier that trades access for public exposure, turning the cost of free users into distribution.
- the successor to the free tier, and a product’s only unpaid tier.
- Currency
- participation
- Succeeds
- the free tier, folded in
- Rewarded for
- the act, not the opinion
- Who sees it
- people like your users
- Disclosure
- always, in-post
- Access cost
- what free already cost
- Best fit
- AI / credit SaaS
What is an earned tier?
51 seconds · Narrated · CaptionsRead the transcript
- Every free tier costs money. Each free credit is spent on the hope that someone, someday, upgrades.
- An earned tier gives the same access on one condition. To get more, a user posts publicly about the product.
- The post names the product and must include an Ad disclosure, so the reader knows the connection before the opinion.
- The reward pays for posting, never based on what the post says. A complaint earns exactly what a compliment earns.
- And it's a tier, not a one-off promotion. Users can earn again on a set interval, for as long as they stay.
- It becomes your product's only unpaid tier, with the old free plan folded in as a small baseline.
- Flip your free tier to an earned tier. It costs about the same, and now it brings distribution back.
Freemium spends on the hope of conversion. An earned tier stands in the same outflow and gets distribution back.
1 Stripe: sign-up abuse rate March 2026; trial-abuse growth November 2025 to February 2026. Single-vendor data, no published methodology. Directional. 2 Growth Unhinged, with ChartMogul and ProductLed: a January 2026 survey of 200 B2B software products. Conversion above 15% was rare. The full problem, with sources →
What makes a tier “earned”
Conditional, not free
A free tier asks for nothing back. An earned tier gives the same access in exchange for a public post about the product, seen by the people who follow the user.
Participation, never praise
The reward is for posting, not for what the post says. A complaint earns exactly what a compliment earns.
Disclosed, always
Advertising law requires a paid post to say so. An earned tier puts the disclosure in the post itself, so the reader knows the deal before the opinion.
A tier, not a promotion
A one-time reward for one post is a campaign. An earned tier is standing: the user can earn again on a set interval, for as long as they stay.
Questions founders ask
What is an earned tier?
A SaaS access tier where users pay with public participation instead of money. The user posts publicly about the product, naming it and disclosing the reward; the product verifies the post and grants a flat amount. It is the product’s only unpaid tier, with the old free plan folded in as a small baseline.
How is an earned tier different from freemium?
Freemium gives access away and hopes word spreads. An earned tier gives the same access on one condition: a public, disclosed post. The access was already being given away. Now something comes back for it.
Is an earned tier a referral or affiliate program?
No. Referral programs pay when a signup traces back to a user’s link; an earned tier pays for the public post itself, whether or not a signup follows. You can run both, as long as each post is labeled as what it is.
Is it legal to reward users for posting about a product?
Yes, with two rules. The reward cannot depend on what the post says, and every rewarded post must say the poster was compensated. Rewarding participation with a disclosure is legal. Paying for praise is not.