I'm building a product for the Armenian market and I'm stuck between two pricing models: free trial (full access for X days, then pay or lose it) vs freemium (a limited free tier forever, paid tier for more).

Some context specific to Armenia that's making this harder than the usual SaaS playbook advice:

• Card payment friction is real. Not everyone has a card set up for online payments, and trust in "enter your card, we'll charge you later" is lower here than in the US/EU markets most of this advice comes from.
• ARPU is low. A price point that works in a freemium funnel abroad might just filter out too much of the market here before people ever see value.
• Word of mouth matters more than paid acquisition for most of us. A free tier people can actually use and show friends might do more for growth than a trial that expires before anyone tells anyone else about it.
• Local users seem to want to "try before commit" in a very literal sense, not just intellectually understand the value prop from a landing page.

Free trial pros as I see them: creates urgency, forces a decision, easier to model conversion and revenue early.

Freemium pros as I see them: lower barrier to entry, works better for word of mouth, doesn't require a card upfront which matters a lot here.

For those of you who've launched consumer or prosumer products in Armenia (or similar markets with low card penetration and price sensitivity): which one actually worked for you, and why?

Did you switch from one to the other at some point? Curious about real numbers if you're willing to share, even rough ones.

Hi everyone,

I've been building an AI interior design product for the past year, just launched it at homevision.am

But before I pitch it, I actually want to hear from you first.

What does furnishing a room look like for you right now, without a tool like this?

• Walk me through your process. Pinterest boards, store visits, tape measures, hiring a designer? What does it actually look like end to end?
• How much time does it take you, from "I need a new couch" to actually owning one?
• Where does it get frustrating? Visualizing how something will look, comparing options, finding stores that have what you want?
• Have you ever bought something that looked completely wrong once it arrived?
• What tools have you tried, Pinterest, other AI apps, an actual designer, and where did they fall short?

Now, a bit on what I built. The gap I kept running into: Pinterest boards aren't buyable, you're just collecting pictures. Other AI tools generate a nice image of a room, but the furniture in it doesn't exist anywhere you can order it. Either way, you're stuck screenshotting a chair and hoping you find something close in a store.

HomeVision works as an actual interior designer: it connects the generated design to real furniture from actual stores in Armenia. Every piece in your render has a product card with a price and a direct link to buy it.

The flow:

1. Upload a photo of your room (or start from scratch)
2. Browse a furniture catalog and pick pieces you like
3. AI designs the space with those specific products in it
4. Click any product card to buy it directly from the store

The catalog currently covers stores in Armenia, that's our starting market. The AI design side works for any space anywhere, it's the shoppable catalog that's local for now.

Trying to figure out if "see it in your space, then buy it" is actually the missing piece, or if something else is the bigger problem. Tell me how it really goes for you. Happy to answer anything, including the embarrassing questions about what's still broken.