Why free tiers matter
For Korean early-stage founders, monthly SaaS fees are a real barrier. Fortunately, most categories have usable free tiers. The standard pattern is 1–6 months free to validate, then migrate to paid.
Free picks by category
CRM HubSpot Free CRM, Zoho Bigin Free, Folk free tier.
Support Channel.io free (monthly message cap).
Email marketing Stibee free (monthly send cap), Brevo free (300/day), Mailerlite free.
Docs / project Notion personal free, Swit free, Dooray free, Trello free.
Automation Make free (1,000 ops/month), Zapier free (100 tasks/month), n8n self-hosted free.
Analytics GA4, Microsoft Clarity (fully free), Naver Analytics.
Payments PortOne / TossPayments — transaction fees only, no monthly.
Design Figma free, Canva free.
Accounting Samjeomsam (free for sole proprietors), Excel until you delegate to a tax accountant.
AI ChatGPT Free, Claude Free, Google Gemini Free.
Example zero-cost stack
- HubSpot CRM Free
- Channel.io Free
- Stibee Free
- Notion Free
- n8n self-host ($5/month server)
- GA4 + Microsoft Clarity
- Claude Free
You run at ~$5/month all-in.
When to migrate to paid?
- Customer/email counts exceed free limits
- Team members join (most collab SaaS go paid at 2 seats)
- Automation task volume grows
Pitfalls
- Over-customizing on free tier then suffering migration pain
- Discovering "no data export" too late: check export availability up front
Free tiers let you start at zero friction, but plan the paid migration from day one.