Calendly Growth Experiment: Free Plan Badge
Improved plan status visibility lifted free-to-paid conversion by 3.3%, driving higher upgrades and clearer user understanding across the purchase journey.
Marshall HahnSoftware Engineer
Background
- User research showed that 18% of free users did not know they were on a free plan.
- Historical data also indicated a rather high engagement with existing plan entry points, suggesting an unmet curiosity around plan status.
- The team hypothesized that unclear plan awareness for free users was suppressing upgrades.
Hypothesis
IF the product prominently surfaces a user’s current plan with a clear, contextual upgrade call to action,
THEN free users will convert at higher rates and paid users will retain longer,
BECAUSE users better understand their plan limits, available value, and next-best action.
Objective
Increase free to paid conversion by improving user awareness of their current plan status.
Experiment
Introduce the following elements to the product experience:
- a persistent plan status upgrade badge call to action button in the top navigation that says “Upgrade your free plan” for desktop and mobile web only, all languages.
- a left navigation upgrade call to action button that says “Free Plan” with an “Upgrade” button
Clicking on either of these button elements opens the billing upgrade modal.
Results
- Subscriptions: +3.3% (StatSig)
- +49.9% more users reaching the plan comparison page, showing that even small persistent UI elements can drive meaningful awareness on a topic.
- Guardrails: No negative impact to paid retention, usage retention, or paid feature usage. We watched usage retention for up to 8 weeks with no StatSig impact
Key Learnings
- Lack of plan awareness is a meaningful conversion bottleneck
- Persistent, contextual plan cues can drive upgrades without harming retention
- High visibility but lightweight UI surfaces are effective monetization levers