Let people try your product first

I actually don't mind signing up to try new things; it's a fair transaction, I think.

On the other hand, offering free trials but insisting on credit card information first is always a U-turn for me.

I think that all landing pages should offer a demo without a sign up too. I personally buy it if I try without sign up.

Yeah it really depends on this one... some products naturally should have demos to use before asking users for any information. But on the other hand, a user that's not even willing to hand over an email to test the product, probably isn't that compelled by the problem anyways! These visitors aren't likely to convert to paying users. Handing over money has a much higher bar to pass than handing over a simple email. So if the free trial actually incurs a cost on you to offer and maintain, a bouncing visitor can be a win/win for both sides.

EDIT: The exception I would make to this is if you're offering one of those products where users really need to use it to "get" it. Or if your growth is driven primarily via viral/word-of-mouth. Any sort of friction in the onboarding flow is going to have a big impact on an app's virality.

Agreed :) Firstly you give without taking. Not the other way around.
It is common to ask for registration, that's true. But it doesn't mean that's the right way :)

Does this always apply though? I have thought about it before because I also believe in reducing friction as much as possible.

I had a look at Cardd.io and it was not obvious just by looking at it that I could play around with the product. I did not quite understand what "choose a starting point" meant.

I have 2 projects currently:
1.) Livin-in: a crowdsourced neighborhood review website. I have tried to reduce the friction by making it easy for people to add a review without registering. I did this to generate more content on the site in the initial stages.

2.) I also have a fintech product that I am hacking on. The product connects to a businesses accounting package and due to the sensitivity of the data, it would difficult to allow the user to play around without first registering.

This is a good point @mdfk. We tend to sign up for so many products and services as Indie hackers that it can be nice to not have to set up an account before trying something out. This can be tough for creators and builders though when starting out, as capturing emails for potential leads is paramount for early founders!

I do this with SongRender! People can try the app, upload files and play their video — they only have to sign up when they want to download it.

Yup, I feel the same. But what about products exclusive to mobile Platforms? How do you feel when you land on http://prep.surf/ from a user perspective?

In general, the less friction between users experiencing your product, the less reason they have to look elsewhere and more invested in your product.

You are right about this, from a user perspective, this is very handy, from an admin perspective, less subscribers from users that will never use the product... so it's a win/win

This is definitely something I will try to have achieved on my platform.