GTM Sauce

The Superwall Podcast · 2026-03-10

Jonathan Parra - I made 4,000 app paywalls and learned this

Former Superwall senior designer Jonathan Parra (4,000-4,500 paywalls designed) walks through A/B-tested paywalls: simplified plan pickers with 'No commitment, cancel anytime' (+10%), a two-plan annual/weekly trial layout, a simple 50%-off image paywall beating a comparison table (+111%), a Clear 30-style journey paywall with decline drawer and 33% one-time offer, video paywalls, a SwiftUI-native paywall for Pedometer++, and dark premium styling for a Pro tier. Also covers why niche custom-prompt AI apps can charge ChatGPT-level prices.

Play the episode

16 tactics

An AI assistant app · B2C · Superwall customer

Shorten plan names, add 'No commitment, cancel anytime', and label the button 'Continue'
+10% conversion over the wordier paywall
“You simplify the plan naming, so you see Annual plan, Monthly plan, Weekly plan.”
Workedpaywall
The Superwall Podcast · 2026-03-10

An AI assistant app · B2C · Superwall customer

Cut the monthly plan; offer annual plus a weekly plan with 3 free days
Big conversion jump per the slide; exact number not read out
“And so you still have that selected, but you give them that that weekly plan offer with uh "Start my 3-day free trial" copy.”
Workedpaywallpricing
The Superwall Podcast · 2026-03-10

Practitioner pattern · Jonathan Parra (Sells paywall design and A/B-testing services to app companies (mentions sales calls and customers 'working with us'))

Put 'No commitment, cancel anytime' on almost every paywall
Small but steady conversion bump, per the guest
“that blurb, "No commitment, cancel anytime," is just like a simple hack that you add to almost every paywall, and it's very granular percentage bump on the conversion rate.”
Workedpaywall
The Superwall Podcast · 2026-03-10

Practitioner pattern · Jonathan Parra (Sells paywall design and A/B-testing services to app companies (mentions sales calls and customers 'working with us'))

Show two plans, hide the rest behind 'View all plans', preselect annual
Guest's standard setup; no numbers given
“a lot of the times now, I I won't even have the product group in the main footer here, I'll kind of hide it behind a view all plans button or something like that.”
Workedpaywallpricing
The Superwall Podcast · 2026-03-10

A self-improvement journey app · B2C · guest's paywall client

When users close the paywall, show cheaper plans, then a 33%-off yearly deal
No result given; guest's go-to for apps that already test a lot
“And then a drawer comes up, "Not ready to commit for a year? We have plans for everyone." You still have yearly selected, because I still like to see if um the user will subscribe to yearly.”
Unknownpaywallpricing
The Superwall Podcast · 2026-03-10

Practitioner pattern · Jonathan Parra (Sells paywall design and A/B-testing services to app companies (mentions sales calls and customers 'working with us'))

For week- or month-long programs, show step by step how users will change
Works across categories for journey-style apps, per the guest; no numbers
“And this is really good for paywalls that are uh they transform the user over the course of a week or a month, or, you know, some other uh timeline.”
Workedpaywall
The Superwall Podcast · 2026-03-10

Practitioner pattern · Jonathan Parra (Sells paywall design and A/B-testing services to app companies (mentions sales calls and customers 'working with us'))

Keep one-time offers at 25-33% off; save big sales for Black Friday
“because a lot of the times you want to save your really big and juicy sales for something like Black Friday or Cyber Monday”
Unknownpricingpaywall
The Superwall Podcast · 2026-03-10

A subscription app · B2C · Superwall customer

Swap the feature table for 'Try it for 50% off' and a big screenshot
+111% conversion; revenue per user also rose
“whenever I have a table component in one of my paywalls, it doesn't do as well as even simple bullets, or a video, or some kind of visual cue.”
Workedpaywall
The Superwall Podcast · 2026-03-10

Practitioner pattern · Jonathan Parra (Sells paywall design and A/B-testing services to app companies (mentions sales calls and customers 'working with us'))

Make the paywall button about 65 points tall, with big text and an arrow
Guest says bigger buttons and the arrow bump conversions; no numbers
“The button is bigger, so I like to use 65 points uh as the button height”
Workedpaywall
The Superwall Podcast · 2026-03-10

Practitioner pattern · Jonathan Parra (Sells paywall design and A/B-testing services to app companies (mentions sales calls and customers 'working with us'))

Start with a one-page paywall: headline, bullet list, reviews, button
One of the few layouts that performs well across categories, per the guest
“Bullet list paywalls just uh actually are one of the few paywalls that perform well across the board, just single-page bullet list paywall.”
Workedpaywallexperimentation
The Superwall Podcast · 2026-03-10

Practitioner pattern · Jonathan Parra (Sells paywall design and A/B-testing services to app companies (mentions sales calls and customers 'working with us'))

Test paywall design and plan mix first; leave price tests for later
Guest says design tests give the most mileage; no numbers
“You know, you'll get more mileage out of design tests and price packaging testing than really anything else.”
Workedexperimentationpaywall
The Superwall Podcast · 2026-03-10

A glow-up app for women · B2C · guest's paywall client

Put a short video of the app in use on the paywall
Won its A/B test; no numbers given
“So, this paywall was the winner in a test. Uh it's it's just simple social proof with a video and bullets, so you see what you get”
Workedpaywall
The Superwall Podcast · 2026-03-10

Pedometer++ · B2C · step counter app

Make the paywall look like a plain Apple settings screen
Beat more custom designs 'by quite a long shot'; worked again for a second app
“I actually uh I worked on a couple paywalls for Pedometer++, and uh their design system just follows the typical SwiftUI uh designs”
Workedpaywall
The Superwall Podcast · 2026-03-10

A two-tier subscription app · B2C · guest's agency client

Give the top plan a dark, premium look that switches when users pick it
More users chose the top plan; no numbers
“So, I have the Plus subscription with a white background, um and then I I have um the Pro background once they switch back to that, because users will play on on the paywall”
Workedpaywallpricing
The Superwall Podcast · 2026-03-10

Blinkist · B2C · book summary app

Show the free trial as a timeline: today, day-5 reminder, day-7 billing
Still a very high performer after years of copying, per the guest
“the Blinkist paywall with the free trial uh timeline, you know, where like today you unlock the app, you know, day 5 you get a notification, day 7 billing starts”
Workedpaywall
The Superwall Podcast · 2026-03-10

A niche AI chat app · B2C · guest's contact

Charge about $20 a month for an AI chat app tuned to one niche
Users pay for it, per the guest; no revenue shared
“But what they've done is they've really nailed down the prompt, uh and it's very personalized for that specific niche.”
Workedpricingpositioning-niche
The Superwall Podcast · 2026-03-10

Numbers mentioned

SubjectMetricValueQuote
personJonathan Parra, paywalls designedcount
Paywalls designed by the guest
4,000 paywalls
approximate
“So Jonathan, you've designed more than 4,000 paywalls as the lead designer at Superwall.”
personJonathan Parra, paywalls designedcount
Guest's updated figure
4,500 paywalls
estimate
“Uh-huh, and that's probably closer to 4,500 now. I really need to start like actually counting, you know, have a- have a tracker”
personJonathan Parra, paywalls designed as of September 2024count
From the guest's September 2024 tweet: 2,000 paywalls in 2 years
2,000 paywalls
approximate
“You said, "In 2 years, I've designed 2,000 mobile app paywalls, more than anyone on Earth."”
Superwall customer: AI assistant app ('Put AI into action')conversion rate
Simplified plan picker + 'No commitment, cancel anytime' + 'Continue' CTA vs control
+10%“Yeah, I'll just guess the right one. Why was this 10% better?”
Superwall customer with a comparison-table paywallconversion rate
Simple 'try for 50% off' image paywall vs comparison-table paywall; guest adds ARPU also rose significantly
+111%“The 111% conversion rate increase, why why is it so much better?”
aggregateTrial starters on Superwall customer paywallschurn
Share of users who cancel after starting a free trial, on average
50%
approximate
“even if a lot of the times, 50% of the time actually like on average, they'll just cancel um after subscribing.”
benchmarkYearly price for text-based AI wrapper appsprice
Standard yearly price when inference is mostly text; image/video apps price higher
USD 30–40/year
approximate
“this particular product, I have like $30 to $40 per year. It's kind of what's standard now for these AI wrapper products, especially if the inference costs are mostly uh text.”
benchmarkCommon yearly price point for AI wrapper appsprice
Price the market settled on: profitable with good margins, still affordable
USD 29.99/year
approximate
“$29.99 is actually like what a lot of these AI wrapper apps use as their yearly.”
Client with a Clear 30-inspired transformation paywallprice
Default yearly plan; reframed as $0.76/week in the decline drawer
USD 39/year“So it's the same price, but it's just framed differently.”
Client with a Clear 30-inspired transformation paywallprice
One-time-offer yearly price after 'Not now, thanks' (from ~$40)
USD 30/year
approximate
“So instead of fo- uh uh $40 per year, it'll be $30 per year, um and you can grab this deal then”
benchmarkDiscount on a regular (non-holiday) one-time-offer paywallshare
Discount size; bigger sales saved for Black Friday / Cyber Monday
25–33%
approximate
“so you could go between 25 and 33, I think, in most of your one-time offers”
Niche AI chat app charging ~$20/monthpriceUSD 20–22/month
estimate
“because they're billing their product at I think $20 to $22 per month.”
aggregatePaywall conversion rate across the guest's client apps before optimizationconversion rate
Average paywall conversion rate the guest sees across the board
8%
approximate
“if we can increase their conversion rate from like 8%, which I see as kind of uh uh the the average across the board, to 15 to 20% after a couple iterations”
aggregatePaywall conversion rate the guest reaches for client apps after a couple of test iterationsconversion rate
After a couple of iterations, with no extra ad spend or product work
15–20%
approximate
“if we can increase their conversion rate from like 8%, which I see as kind of uh uh the the average across the board, to 15 to 20% after a couple iterations”
aggregateMonthly revenue of the guest's recent paywall clientsrevenueUSD 10K–50K/month
approximate
“a lot of my recent customers actually are newer apps, and they're between the $10,000 to $50,000 per month stage.”