Stop losing 97% of your website visitors at the signup wall. This guide provides a playbook on how to use interactive demos and ungated product experiences to let users see your product's value upfront, dramatically increasing activation and high-quality conversions.
On average, only about 3% of your website visitors will ever sign up for your free trial or freemium plan.
The other 97% read your landing page, feel a flicker of uncertainty, and leave, often forever without ever experiencing the value of your product. This is the single biggest and most expensive leak in any SaaS funnel.
The best product-led companies are fixing this leak by flipping the traditional model on its head. They have stopped demanding an email address as the price of admission. Instead, they deliver value upfront by letting prospects experience the product without commitment, and help them make informed decisions.
They offer an ungated product experience that allows prospects to test drive the product and see its value, completely friction-free. In this guide, I'll break down the three primary models for creating an ungated experience and help you choose the right one for your business.
The 3 Models of an Ungated Product Experience
Ungated doesn't have to mean giving away your entire product. It's about providing a taste of the value to build trust and prove your worth. Here are the three most common models.
Model 1: The Interactive Demo (The Guided Tour)
This is a pre-recorded, click-through version of your product that you can embed on your website. Users can click on highlighted areas, follow guided tooltips, and experience the happy path of your core workflows without being in a live version of the product.
- Best for: Complex enterprise products or B2B SaaS where a full, live demo would be overwhelming or require significant setup. It gives you complete control over the narrative.
- Example: Citrix uses interactive demos to showcase the power of their analytics platform in a controlled, easy-to-digest way.
- Tech Stack: Platforms like Navattic, Reprise, Walnut, and Demostack specialize in creating these interactive product demos.
Model 2: The Ungated Lite Version (The Single-Serve Tool)
This is where you take one core, magical feature of your product and offer it for free on your website, no signup required. It delivers a single, valuable outcome instantly, proving your product's power.
- Best for: Products with a single, easily demonstrable "magic" feature (e.g., an image processor, a code converter, a headline generator).
- Examples: Remove.bg is a classic example. You can upload an image and have the background removed for free. To download the image in high definition, you need to sign up. Replit allows you to run code in the browser without an account, only requiring a signup to save your work.
Model 3: The Full Product Experience (The Open House)
This is the most transparent model. You let users explore a live, public-facing version of your full product, often with pre-populated demo data. They can click around, see all the features, and understand the full experience. They are only prompted to sign up when they want to save their work or create their own private space.
- Best for: Community platforms, collaborative tools, or products where the network effect and the full scope of the product are the main selling points.
- Example: Skool.com allows you to browse their entire public community platform, see all the features in action, and understand how it works before you ever have to create an account.
Choosing the Right Model for Your SaaS
How do you decide which path to take? Here’s a simple guide:
- If you sell a complex, high-ACV product... start with an Interactive Demo. It gives you control over the story and is perfect for guiding enterprise prospects through key value propositions.
- If your product has one killer, magical feature... build an Ungated Lite Version. It's the fastest way to deliver a wow moment and can become a powerful, viral marketing tool in its own right.
- If your product is collaborative or community-based... explore the Full Product Experience. It uses radical transparency to build trust and lets the value of the network sell itself.
By removing the signup wall and leading with value, you qualify your prospects more effectively, shorten your sales cycle, and ensure that the users who do sign up are already convinced of your product's worth.
Let Your Product Be Your Best Salesperson
An ungated product experience is one of the most powerful strategies in modern PLG. It is is one of 30 proven plays in my complete SaaS Growth Playbook, a core resource we've developed at Thoughtlytics.
Download the full PDF now to get:
- ✅ Growth frameworks on user experience, activation, and more.
- ✅ 30+ more proven strategies for acquisition, conversion, and retention.
- ✅ A complete roadmap for building sustainable growth channels.
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