Getly
Every seller on Getly can put a button next to the price that says Try it free. It opens a demo before the buyer pays anything: a trial build, a sample pack, an excerpt, a short video. On 26 September 2026, out of 7,143 active listings, the share carrying that button was 0.49%. Roughly one listing in two hundred.
That makes it the rarest optional feature we measured. For comparison, on the same day:
- a separate preview file: 13.5% of listings
- timed access (selling a period instead of a file forever): 1.79%
- a free demo: 0.49%
- Getly licence keys: 0.11%
- the seller's own key pool: 0.10%
The key features are rarer still, but they only make sense for software with licences. A demo makes sense for a much wider range of products, and it is almost unused.
What the button actually does
A demo is set on the Files step of the product form, in the card called Free trial or demo (optional). There are two kinds, and both are open to every seller:
- A file uploaded to Getly. A trial build packed in an archive, a sample pack, an excerpt or a demo video. It goes through the same upload checks as a product file. Executable files (.exe, .msi and similar) are never hosted by Getly, so a Windows installer cannot be uploaded directly.
- An https link to a trial on your own site. This is how a trial installer is offered: you host it, Getly links to it. The product page names the site the link leads to, so the buyer knows where the download comes from before clicking.
On the product page the button sits next to the price. For an uploaded demo the page says it is a free demo with no purchase needed; for a link it says the free trial comes from your site.
A demo is not a preview
The preview file (13.5% of listings) and the "look inside" PDF preview are things the buyer looks at on the page. A demo is something the buyer takes away and uses. That difference decides which products need which.
If the question in the buyer's head is "what does it look like", a good image set or a preview answers it. If the question is "will it work for me", nothing on the page answers it. It has to be tried. That second question belongs to a specific set of products:
- Software, plugins and add-ons: does it run on my system, with my version, alongside my other tools.
- Templates for a specific program: does this spreadsheet, document or project open cleanly in the version I have.
- Audio and sample packs: do the sounds fit my mix; a short sample pack of three or four sounds answers it.
- Fonts: does it look right with my own text, at my sizes.
- Books and courses: is the writing or the teaching style one I can follow; a sample chapter or a first lesson answers it.
What we do not know yet
We are not going to tell you that a demo raises sales. With 0.49% of listings using it, there is not enough to measure honestly, and the sellers who add a demo are likely to be the careful sellers who also do everything else well. Any difference we found would mix the button with the kind of person who adds it.
What can be said without a measurement is what a demo removes. A buyer who is unsure whether a file will open or a tool will run has two choices without a demo: buy and hope, or leave. With a demo there is a third, and it is the one that ends in a buyer who already knows the product works. That is also a buyer far less likely to ask for a refund because something did not open.
How to make a demo that helps
- Make it clearly smaller than the product. A trial limited by time or features, three sounds from a pack of sixty, one chapter, one template page. The demo answers "will it work", the paid product answers "I want all of it".
- Say in the description what the demo contains and what it leaves out. A buyer who tries it should never be surprised by what the full version adds.
- Test the link or the file yourself before you save. An external link that breaks later is a broken promise on your page; check it whenever you update your site.
- For software, keep the installer on your own site and use the link option. That is exactly what it is for, and the page tells the buyer where it leads.
What to do today
Go through your listings and ask of each one: is the buyer's real question "what does it look like" or "will it work for me"? For every listing where it is the second, open the product, go to the Files step, and add either a small demo file or a link to a trial on your site. It takes a few minutes per listing, and on a catalogue where one listing in two hundred has done it, your Try it free button will be one of very few a buyer ever sees.
