No free tier, no subscription: I’m testing a $5 hard paywall for my MVP

I’ve just soft-launched a small tool for creating digital flyers with tear-off tabs. It's a simple utility for things like discount codes or secret messages.

From day one, I decided to skip the freemium and subscription models entirely. I wanted to test a different approach to pricing that I’ve been convinced of for a while.

Basically:

• No Subscription: A subscription wouldn’t make any sense, I’d be the first one not to pay for it.

• No Free Tier: You can test the editor to see how it works, but you need a paid plan to publish flyers.

I’m betting that a rigid feature block with a very low price is actually more attractive and sustainable than a "free version" that hits you with a higher-priced upgrade later.

(And I could be totally wrong)

I'd rather have a direct relationship with a few paying users than manage thousands of free users hoping for a 1% conversion rate.

I’m curious about your experience:

• Have you tried launching a micro-tool with a hard paywall from the start?

• More generally, what are your go-to pricing strategies for tools of this scale?

I'm sticking with this model for now because I think it’s more honest, but I’d love to hear about any other experiments or attempts you've made in this direction.