“We ran a test where we had monthly without a trial trying to push people to annual. It did — we did see more people use the annual option. But ultimately long-term it didn't work out. It ended up with a 17% drop in realized LTV.”

Removing the free trial on monthly to push annual caused a 17% LTV drop — hesitant users need an on-ramp

The now-common tactic of hiding the free trial on monthly plans to coerce users into annual backfired for Reading.com. Users willing to try a monthly plan but not commit to annual are often moderate-confidence users who convert well over time — removing their on-ramp eliminated them from the funnel entirely. The experiment is a cautionary counter-example for apps with high-consideration purchases where trial friction matters more than annual adoption rate.