A free tier is the part of a service you can use without paying and without a clock running. It is permanent as far as the service's own pages describe it, it does not end on a date, and it does not turn into a charge.
A trial is not a free tier
A trial is a paid plan you have not been charged for yet. It runs for a stated number of days, it usually needs a payment method, and at the end it becomes a subscription unless you stop it. Several services in our records offer a trial on the annual plan only, which means the free week is attached to the larger of the two charges. Our guide to cancelling covers the timing, because most of these services ask for cancellation at least 24 hours before the trial ends.
The five things called free
- A free library. The whole catalogue costs nothing, with no account and no limit. On the web this is how the oldest adult story sites work.
- A free tier. A stated part of a paid service, open indefinitely: a number of stories in full, a rotating selection, a daily allowance of credits.
- An ad-supported version. Free to use, paid for by advertising, sometimes with a smaller catalogue than the paid version.
- Free chapters. The opening of each title is free and the rest is bought with coins. The app is free to download, which is the sense in which the store calls it free.
- A trial. Time-limited, ends in a charge.
The free reading section sorts the services we cover into those five, because the word on a store listing does not tell you which one you are getting.
Why the distinction matters more here than elsewhere
In this field the free part is often the only part you can see before paying. Several services publish no price on the web at all, and a few publish no price anywhere outside the app, so the free tier is what you judge the catalogue on. A free tier that holds three complete stories tells you something about the writing; a free tier that holds the first chapter of fifty tells you something about the paywall.
What to check in the wording
Whether a limit refills and how often, whether an account is needed, whether the free part is the same catalogue or a smaller one, and whether anything you make or save on the free tier survives if you stop paying. Where a service does not say, our pages say that it does not say rather than assuming the generous reading.
See also credit-based reading, the cliffhanger paywall and the glossary.