App Masters · 2026-09-15

Paywall Strategy: How 2 Paywalls Tripled Trial Starts

Steve P. Young walks through a paywall test on an App Masters teammate's (Aman's) app: a no-trial soft paywall right after language selection, three trial-explainer screens, then a second paywall with a 3-day trial on the weekly plan plus social proof. Start rate went from ~3% (May) to 4.4% (June) and 7.7% (July), monthly sales from ~$1K to ~$3K, with fewer downloads. Closes with Superwall's '8 paywall views before diminishing returns' rule.

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2 tactics

A subscription app · B2C · App Masters team app

Show two paywalls in onboarding: no trial first, a 3-day trial later

Start rate 3% -> 7.7%, sales ~$1K -> ~$3K/month; not a clean test

“spoiler alert it is having two paywalls not one but two paywalls on your onboarding experience”

Workedpaywallonboarding

App Masters · 2026-09-15

Practitioner pattern · Steve P. Young (App Masters)

Before the trial paywall, add three screens explaining the trial and reminder

Host says they perform pretty well; no numbers

“I've talked about this, these three paywall screens as well. They do perform pretty well.”

Workedonboardingpaywall

App Masters · 2026-09-15

Numbers mentioned

Subject	Metric	Value	Quote
App Masters teammate Aman's subscription app	conversion rate Start rate (trial + non-trial purchase starts / traffic), May 2026, single trial paywall	3%/month approximate	“only converting about 3% of the traffic”
App Masters teammate Aman's subscription app	conversion rate Start rate (trial + non-trial), June 2026, first full month of two paywalls	4.4%/month	“Crazy in June 4.4 in July 7.7.”
App Masters teammate Aman's subscription app	conversion rate Start rate (trial + non-trial), July 2026	7.7%/month	“Crazy in June 4.4 in July 7.7.”
App Masters teammate Aman's subscription app	conversion rate Trial -> paid rate after adding the second paywall	held steady / hasn't changed much approximate	“the paid rate hasn't changed much despite the two paywalls”
App Masters teammate Aman's subscription app	revenue Sales in May 2026 (before/at start of two-paywall test)	USD 1,000/month approximate	“It went from just about $1,000 in May to all the way to almost 3,000 in July.”
App Masters teammate Aman's subscription app	revenue Sales in July 2026 ('almost 3,000'), with fewer downloads than April/May	USD 3,000/month approximate	“It went from just about $1,000 in May to all the way to almost 3,000 in July.”
App Masters teammate Aman's subscription app	downloads Downloads did not rise; revenue growth came from conversion	July lower than April and May approximate	“we actually had more in April when we only had one paywall and more in May when we had more in paywall. But as you can see, July, less downloads, more money.”
benchmarkPaywall views per user before diminishing returns (Jake from Superwall)	count Number of paywall views to hit before returns diminish	8 paywall viewsper user approximate	“eight paywall views. That's what you got to hit before you start seeing diminishing returns.”
App Masters teammate Aman's subscription app	count Delay before the close X appears on the first (soft) paywall	3 seconds	“it's a soft paywall so the x is delayed by three seconds”