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Should you gate your interactive demo?
When a lead form in a demo earns more than it costs, where to put it, what to ask for, and what the ungated homepage demo is for.
4 min read · Updated August 23, 2026 · By Tellane team
The short answer. Not at the start, and not on the homepage. Gate a deeper demo past its midpoint — after the screen that makes people lean in — and ask for the email only. The ungated demo brings people in; the gated one tells you who wants the rest.
The trade
A gate trades reach for contact details. Before any value, the trade is bad: most visitors leave and the ones who stay are the ones who would have filled in any form. After value, it is good: the form is answered by people who want to continue, and the lead arrives with the drive attached — which stops they reached, whether they clicked the CTA, how long they spent — so it is worth more than a website form.
Where the gate goes
- Homepage demo: open. Its job is to get people into the product.
- Deeper demo (product page, outbound link): a lead-form stop past the midpoint, after the 'aha' screen.
- Pricing page: usually open; the CTA at the end goes to the plan.
- Review-site listing: open; gates look defensive there.
What to ask for
Email. Optionally name and company. Everything else — role, company size — can be inferred from the domain or asked later by a human. Each extra field costs completions.
What happens after
A lead from a gated demo should reach the team with the drive: email alert, Slack post, CRM contact with the engagement written to properties. Later clicks in the same session keep updating the lead, so someone who submits at stop five and drives to the end is recorded as finishing.
Comparing tools?
The buyer's guides
Last stop
Put buyers in the driver's seat.
Your product already knows how to sell itself. Give it a lane.
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