You may have noticed that we recently launched some new plans. If not, you can see what they include, and how they compare here. Spoiler: If you’re looking for free project management software, I think we’re going to be able to help.
It might appear like a bit of a gamble, when basically what we need is for companies to pay for our product in order to invest further in it and make it even better. Of course, it’s not absolutely free for everyone (we’re not changing from streamtime.net to .org – although on closer inspection there’s already another good cause happening over there!). It will depend on the number of jobs, integrations and features you need to run your business – you may need to sign up to one of our paid plans.
But let me explain why we made the decision to make Streamtime project management free in a basic form.
Lots of projects last longer than 14 days.
We noticed that many of the people who trialed Streamtime weren’t starting and finishing a project in the 14 days we gave them to trial the product. Some had multiple projects happening and the start and end dates would very rarely line up perfectly with the trial. This meant that the trial was really still like window shopping vs take it home, wear it and get a good feel for it, as if it was yours.
New behaviour takes longer than 2 weeks to learn
It takes much longer than 2 weeks to learn most things. I’ve been at Streamtime now for 50 days and I know I’m still learning. To learn something new, you need to repeat it over and over again. I’m pretty sure that those people who had trialled the product didn’t spend 8 hours a day purely practicing how to do different tasks like time tracking, invoicing or scheduling in Streamtime. Behaviour is learned over time and we all learn at different rates, in different ways. So we asked ourselves… why should we put a time limit on it? If you’d like to read more about learning new behaviour read this great article about the concept of “automaticity”(how to learn a new skill well enough to do it automatically).
A great start for freelancers and new creative businesses
There’s no doubt that we’re seeing more and more creatives break out on their own. Some in the shape of freelancers, others creating new agencies and consultancies – and some making the transition from one to the other. This in itself is hard enough. The world is a much better place when more people strive for creativity and put their skills to good use. If they can use free tools to help them make that first or second step, then we’re more than happy to help.
Our mobile app is free
We’ve just launched our iOS app – and that’s also free. We’re trying to make time tracking as friction free as possible. We’ve been on a crusade to get rid of the dreaded timesheet for the last 2 years. The launch of our iOS app takes us another step closer to a world without that pain! Anyone can now use the app. You can be an existing Streamtime user and access all of your jobs and tasks that you have scheduled, OR you can sign up for free directly from the app. and get started by creating ToDo lists and feel the satisfaction of swiping from ToDo to Done.
We’ll be explaining a lot more about the app in a future post.
Freemium works (we hope)
Let’s be honest as well. Of course we hope that “going freemium” accelerates our growth. We already love the shape of our Streamtime subscriptions graph, but we’d love to move from staircase to hockey stick! Early signs are very promising. If you’re reading this, hopefully, you’ll join the others who have already taken the plunge.
Of course, Streamtime won’t be right for everyone. If we had that goal, we’d end up cluttered, bloated and incredibly unattractive – and let’s face it, trying to please everyone often results in pleasing no-one.
If you have or are going to join us, don’t forget, we’d be more than happy to talk you through the way we do things at Streamtime. Jump on in, create your first job and get in touch. Even though it’s free, we’d still love to help you get up to speed one on one. Who knows, you might hit peak “automaticity” in running your projects!
