Back in March, Angie’s List said it would drop its long-standing membership fees and make basic rating and review offerings available for free to all site visitors at some point in 2016. That point was today. 

For the first time in its 21-year history, Angie’s List began offering a free tier in all markets on Wednesday, the Indianapolis Business Journal reports.

Under the so-called “freemium” model, Angie’s List will continue to offer a pricing structure that charges users for services beyond basic browsing and review writing.

The company’s “green” tier is free, followed by the $24.99/year “silver” tier and the $99.99/year “gold” tier, each providing different features, including fair-price guarantees and complaint-resolution support.

Previously, Angie’s List’s subscription model typically started at $9.99/month.

For now, the company says that existing members will continue to receive benefits that non-paying members don’t, like a fair price guarantee, service quality guarantee, exclusive discounts, chat and email support, and a bi-monthly magazine.

Angie’s List plans to add more benefits to the paid tiers each month, including tools to estimate project pricing, scheduling, financing, and emergency services lines.

The Journal reports that Angie’s List quietly began rolling out the non-paid tier in certain markets last month.

So far, a rep for the company says customers have embraced the system, with free and paid member signups growing by about 300% from 2015.

“These are very early days and the beta is for a relatively limited period of time,” CEO Scott Durschlag said, “but these are very encouraging numbers.”

While the purpose of the paywall-free model is to increase revenue, Angie’s List said in March that it will likely take a revenue hit at first. However, the company which expects $345 million to $355 million in revenue this year, anticipates a growth in recent to $750 million by 2020 under the new model.

Angie’s List unleashes ‘freemium’ model in all markets [Indianapolis Business Journal]

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