In today’s tech landscape, developers are the new gatekeepers of product adoption. They’re the ones who shape the tech stack, influence purchasing decisions, and often act as the first point of contact for enterprise tools. But when it comes to marketing to developers, traditional methods tend to fall flat. Developers don’t want to be sold to — they want to try things, break things, and make their own decisions.

That’s where Product-Led Growth (PLG) comes in. PLG flips the script by letting the product do the heavy lifting. Developers can get their hands on the product, test it out, and see its value firsthand. In my experience working with companies like Auth0 and PubNub, I’ve seen just how powerful this approach can be — especially for developer tools.

During my time at Auth0, we grew from $37M to $220M ARR in just 3.5 years, and a lot of that success came down to a well-executed PLG strategy. Here are some of the key lessons I learned about how PLG works for developer products.

What Does Product-Led Growth Mean for Developer Tools?

At its core, Product-Led Growth is all about making your product the star of the show. Instead of relying on traditional top-down sales approaches, PLG allows developers to explore, test, and adopt your product on their own terms. It’s a self-service, hands-on way of selling, where the product itself drives user acquisition, conversion, and expansion.

When you’re marketing to developers, this approach makes a lot of sense. Developers want autonomy. They value the freedom to experiment without a sales team breathing down their necks. The key to winning their trust is to create an experience that’s low-friction, useful, and — most importantly — lets them dive right into the product.

1. Make It Easy for Developers to Get Started

One of the biggest keys to PLG is ensuring that developers can start using your product quickly and easily. Long sign-up processes or overly complicated onboarding will send them running in the opposite direction. At Auth0, we made sure that developers could get up and running with our authentication services in just a few minutes. This fast, low-friction onboarding experience helped developers see value right away, making them more likely to stick around.

• Real-World Example: We invested heavily in our documentation and tutorials to ensure that developers had everything they needed to integrate Auth0 without frustration. This wasn’t just a nice-to-have; it was critical for reducing friction. When we analyzed customer survey or social listening data over 40% of positive comments mentioned the strength of our docs. The easier we made it for developers to explore, the more likely they were to adopt Auth0 for bigger projects.

2. Let the Product Speak for Itself

Developers are allergic to hard sells. They don’t want to be pushed into a demo or sold on features they can’t try for themselves. The best way to earn their trust is by letting the product do the talking. At Auth0, our marketing focused less on the sales pitch and more on showcasing how the product could solve real problems. We built developer-friendly features, kept our documentation top-notch, and engaged with the developer community.

• Real-World Example: One of the most successful things we did was build a JWT Debugger (jwt.io), a simple tool that helped developers debug their token-based authentication issues. This tool solved a real problem, introduced them to our brand, and funneled thousands of developers into our ecosystem. In fact, jwt.io ended up driving double the traffic of our main website, all by offering developers something useful without the hard sell.

3. Freemium Models Drive Developer Adoption

Developers love experimenting with tools before committing to them. Offering a free version of your product gives them the chance to get comfortable with it on their own time, and when they’re ready, they’ll advocate for it within their organizations. At Auth0, our freemium model was a big part of how we grew, giving developers the ability to explore the platform without pressure.

• Real-World Example: This freemium approach helped us cultivate thousands of developer relationships that eventually turned into enterprise deals. Almost 30–40% of our enterprise contracts started with a developer tinkering around in the free tier. Once they saw how well Auth0 worked for smaller projects, it was easy for them to recommend it for larger teams and bigger use cases, which led to multi-million dollar contracts. In fact, OpenAI ended up being one notable enterprise client that came in through the PLG front door.

4. Use Data to Guide Your Strategy

One of the advantages of PLG is that you can track how developers interact with your product. This gives you real, actionable insights that can shape your strategy. At Auth0, we constantly analyzed how developers were using our platform — where they got stuck, what features they used most, and what led to successful outcomes. This data helped us fine-tune everything from onboarding to feature prioritization.

• Real-World Example: We developed tools that tracked key developer behaviors, which led us to uncover a big insight: developers who used our Admin Invite feature early in the process were far more likely to stick with the platform long-term. We adjusted our onboarding to highlight that feature earlier, which led to a 21% increase in sign-ups converting to trials and an 8% boost from trial to paid user.

Developers as Your Secret Weapon for Enterprise Growth

Here’s the thing about Product-Led Growth for developer tools: it doesn’t stop with the individual developer. Once they’ve adopted your product and seen its value, they become your biggest advocates within their organizations. They’ll push for your tool in larger enterprise settings, turning small, hands-on projects into significant contracts.

At Auth0, this cycle of “land and expand” worked brilliantly. Developers would start with a free trial, love the product, and eventually introduce it to their teams. Over time, these small engagements snowballed into enterprise-level deals, which was a big part of our growth story.

How You Can Get Started with PLG Today

If you’re looking to implement Product-Led Growth for a developer-centric product, here’s where to start:

1. Make it easy for developers to try your product: Remove barriers and make the onboarding process as simple and seamless as possible.
2. Offer a freemium or free trial option: Give developers the freedom to explore your product at their own pace.
3. Track usage and use that data to inform decisions: Let developer behavior guide where you invest time and resources.

By focusing on the developer experience first and letting your product take center stage, you can create advocates who will drive growth from within their organizations. PLG is a long game, but when done right, it can scale your business from the bottom-up, just like it did at Auth0.

Final Thoughts

Developers are more than just users — they’re influencers who can push your product into bigger deals. The key to winning their trust? Give them something they can use, not something you want to sell. By adopting a Product-Led Growth approach, you’re empowering them to discover the value of your product on their own terms. And once they do, they’ll be your best advocates.

Let me know your thoughts or share your own experiences with PLG in the comments below!