What are the ways to get your first users, and what does each cost?

Written by Dante, who built Prep66, PrepAMT and Ancestorii

A founder with a launched product and no users has eight ways to get help with the marketing: do it alone, ask a general assistant such as ChatGPT, use AskSami, book a human mentor, use a tool that posts for you, add an analytics tool, hire a fractional CMO, or pay an agency. They differ in three things: who does the work, what they know about your product, and what they cost. The cost runs from nothing to several thousand pounds or dollars a month. The table below sets them side by side, each price linked to the page it was read on, on 8 October 2026.

Side by side

The way	What it is	Who does the work	What it cost on 8 October 2026	The better pick when
Do it alone	You read, post and test on your own.	You.	Your time. The question pages on this site are free.	You have the time and want to learn it yourself.
A general assistant, such as ChatGPT	A general assistant that answers what you ask, from the web and from the files and repository you give it or connect.	You. It answers, drafts and researches when you ask.	A Free plan, or Plus at $20 a month, billed monthly.	You want one assistant for many jobs, or you have not launched yet.
AskSami	A marketing and distribution expert, as software, that reads your product first. Not a person.	You. Sami says what to do, in what order, and why.	Free to sign up. Starter $20, Growth $100 and Max $240 per month. From 17 October 2026, the honest read and the ranked plan are free too.	You have launched, nobody is signing up or paying, and you do not know why or which channel to try.
A mentor marketplace, such as GrowthMentor	A membership for 1 to 1 video calls with vetted human mentors in growth and marketing.	You. A mentor advises you on the call.	$255 billed every 3 months, or $600 billed once a year. Some mentors charge their own rate on top.	You want a person's judgement, a specialist in one channel, accountability on a call or a network.
A tool that posts for you, such as Native	It creates and posts your social media and runs Meta ads on Facebook and Instagram, with your approval or on full autopilot.	The tool writes, designs and publishes. You approve, or let it run.	Pro $79, Max $249 and Agency $499 per month, billed monthly. Ad spend is separate.	You already know what to say and where your buyers are, and want the posting done.
An analytics tool, such as DataFast	Software that measures what happened on your site: your visitors, where they came from and the revenue each channel brought.	You do the marketing. The tool measures the result.	Starter $9 a month and Growth $19 a month for up to 10k monthly events on monthly billing, after a 14 day free trial.	You already have traffic and need to see in detail where the revenue comes from.
A fractional CMO	An experienced marketing chief who works part time inside your leadership team, owns the strategy and answers for the result.	The CMO leads. Your team, freelancers or agency deliver.	One published price: £4,000 to £12,000 plus VAT per month at VCMO, with a minimum 6 month term.	You have revenue or funding, people to direct, a budget to manage and a board or investors to answer to.
A marketing agency	A company you pay to do the marketing for you: the ads, the content and the SEO, for a monthly retainer.	The agency.	No one price. One published example: SEO plans at WebFX from an $8,600 initial investment covering two months, then $2,800 a month, on a 6 month commitment. The ad budget is a second bill.	Your product already sells, you know which channel brings the buyers, and you have the money and no time.

Every price is the one its own page showed on that day, in the currency it showed. They cannot be added up or averaged: they are in two currencies, some are starting prices and some are ranges, and they buy different things. Each compare page has more of the detail, more named providers where there is no one price, and the address every figure was read on.

How to choose

Two questions sort most of it. Has anyone paid for the product yet? And who should do the work?

Nobody has paid, and you do not know why. More marketing will not tell you. You need the product looked at first: by a person, on a mentor call, or by AskSami, which reads it. The six things that decide whether a stranger pays is where to start for free.
Nobody has paid, and you know what you want to try. Do it yourself, one channel at a time. Distribution channels takes each one from its own official rules.
People pay, and you need to see where they come from. That is measurement: an analytics tool.
People pay, one channel works, and you have no time. Pay for the work: a posting tool for social media, an agency for a channel run at scale.
People pay, and there is a team and a budget to lead. That is a fractional CMO.

A general assistant helps at every stage, with whatever you bring it. None of the eight can promise customers.

Where AskSami sits

AskSami is the row for a founder who has launched and is doing the marketing alone. Signing up is free, and so are your full honest read and your ranked plan. A plan gives you more of Sami. The paid plans are Starter $20, Growth $100 and Max $240 per month, paid a month at a time with no contract.

Its limits, said plainly. AskSami never posts anywhere for you, never spends your money and never writes to your code. You do those things yourself. It is software, not a person. It launched on 19 September 2026, so it has no results of its own to quote. How AskSami works sets out what it reads, writes and keeps.

Each one beside AskSami

AskSami or ChatGPT: which one for getting your first users? A general assistant you brief yourself, beside a marketing expert that reads your product first, with prices and when to pick each.
AskSami or GrowthMentor: which one for getting your first users? Calls with vetted human mentors beside software that reads your product, with both prices and when each is the better pick.
AskSami or Native: which one for getting your first users? The posting and the Meta ads done for you, or an expert that says whether the product can sell and which channel to try first.
AskSami or an analytics tool such as DataFast: which one for getting your first users? An analytics tool measures what happened on your site, AskSami judges why the product does or does not sell, with both prices and when each is the better pick.
AskSami or a fractional CMO: which one for getting your first users? A part time marketing chief leads a team for a retainer, AskSami is software for a founder doing the marketing alone.
AskSami or a marketing agency: which one for getting your first users? An agency does the marketing for a retainer, AskSami tells you what to do and you do it.

Questions people ask

What is the cheapest way to get help marketing my app?

Doing it yourself costs only time, and the question pages on this site are free. ChatGPT has a Free plan, and Plus is $20 a month. AskSami is free to sign up, and so are its honest read and its ranked plan. The options where someone else does the work or gives you their time cost more.

Should I hire an agency or a fractional CMO before I have any customers?

Not as the first step. An agency does more of the marketing, and a fractional CMO leads a team, and until someone has paid you do not know which marketing to do more of or what there is to lead. Find out why the product has not sold first.

Which of these is the best?

None, in general. Each is the better pick for a different founder: it depends on whether anyone has paid yet, who should do the work, and what you can spend. Every compare page on this shelf says when the other option is the better pick than AskSami.

Can I use more than one?

Yes, and most of the pairs make sense in an order: find out whether the product can sell, then try one channel, then measure it, then pay for more of what works. Each compare page has a short section on using both.

Sources

OpenAI Help Center, What is ChatGPT Plus?, updated 6 October 2026. Read on 8 October 2026.
GrowthMentor, Membership. Read on 8 October 2026.
Native, Native Pricing: Pro, Max, Agency & Enterprise. Read on 8 October 2026.
DataFast, Find out which marketing channels drive your revenue (home page, plans and FAQ). Read on 8 October 2026.
VCMO, Fractional CMO Retainer Pricing. Read on 8 October 2026.
WebFX, SEO Pricing: How Much Does SEO Cost?, page metadata says modified 1 October 2026. Read on 8 October 2026.

Checked on 17 October 2026. Every rule, price and figure on this page was read on the page it links to, on the day shown beside it above. They change, so open the source before you rely on one.