Long answer to a short question: (It depends.)
Some things I've picked up from being a beta tester, to running betas, and working at a company that did betas from tens of beta testers to many thousands of beta testers:
- There are groups of people who jump from beta to beta, trying to get a free ride without having to pay for the software (always jumping to the next beta because it's "good enough" if it doesn't meet a high quality bar)
- There are those who go well beyond the extra mile and help shape the products giving insights we never thought of. Those people were worth far more than $25.
One of the teams decided they would give the final version of software worth hundreds of dollars to any tester who submitted one or more pieces of feedback. This worked to:
- Help links between the testers and the company long term.
- Was a fair way of rewarding anyone who at least found an issue or design flaw.
Managing a good beta community takes a LOT of time and resources. At the start of the beta I spent more time engaging with users though the bugtracker/email (which ended up establishing norms) than actual deving, but when I ended up with 3 or 4 testers who understood what I was trying to achieve and try out what I wanted - they were brilliant. So perhaps instead of trying to figure out who should get pro versions and who should not:
- Give anyone who gave you valuable feedback/real bugs the pro product since it's so cheap - but be transparent. Loads of testers feel involved (and feel they have the right) to something so if you are transparent about the criteria then they can be applied to everyone rather than "top" people. Beta tester revolts get ugly and cost so much time and goodwill.
- Find some way of rewarding the top few testers who you have a good relationship with and help your development and product evolution.
Although just about every project has had completely different expectations, motivations and feedback loops so chop and change any advice to suit you. However in every project I was involved with: the testers felt part of a community so don't ruin that.
