7 days is already significantly limiting, the "nagging paywall" would drive me away from the app entirely. The extra free time from adding card info isn't terrible. I imagine you'd need to play with the numbers, e.g., is 7 days even enough time to evaluate the added complexity over a traditional to-do app? Maybe it could be 14.

I'm less likely to commit to using something if I'm going to have to decide to pay for it sooner. I would try offering a month or two free and see how many people commit to using it and over what timeframe. You probably want people to be invested in the app, such that it becomes worth it for them to pay because it would be cogitatively expensive to switch. A week is definitely not enough time to build that kind of habit.

Ah, I didn't see this "Skip and try free for 7 days only".

Ahh the classic SaaS founder marketing :), putting forward product experience negatives and hiding the product positives. I was kind of annoyed because there was promise of "Try it free" on homepage and then it required me to input my credit card.

I wouldn't buy even the next revolutionary ChatGPT without trying it a first so I just closed it and commented here. And as a general rule I don't give anyone my credit card unless I plan to buy it, that's just such a dark pattern. I am a Marketer, not a Product guy, but still, big nope on this. If my intent is to try, don't push me into buying with underhanded tactics (aka, let's hope the guy forgets he's in trial and gets charged at least for a month before he remembers to cancel it). This just doesn't match the stage in the journey at all.

Basically I was checking it out on laptop and I didn't see the option to continue without inputting credit card, either because it was in the bottom or because of the nearly invisible color.

Yea, I just wouldn't do this at all. Remove credit card requirement completely, you're in a highly mature market with a todo list app. There's nothing special about another to-do app, in mature enviroment, you should encourage users to try your app fast. If it was me, id remove the homepage video and embed a demo of the live app there. Then you can keep asking for credit card.

Or like you said, start without the extra step of credit card altogether, then give option to add it for another 30 days, although, i am not sure if this isnt overcomplicated for no reason. Might as well just give 14 days without credit card and then ask for payment.

Personally I think best case is what todoist does, free "crippled" version with max 5 projects, and you need to pay for unlimited. You can use it free, but its annyoing, there are also more limits, and you basically get going with the tool and only get to face the question of payment when youre starting to depend on it, at that point youre like whatever, i need to solve something here so, buy. In your case you could have 2-3 root items for free, and want more? pay.