Duolingo · B2C · language learning app
Write 'Try for $0.00' on the trial button instead of 'Try for free'
Worked well for Duolingo; not guaranteed for other apps
Workedpaywall
What they did
Paywall call-to-action reads 'Try for $0.00' rather than 'Try for free'. App Masters also tried it (no result given).
What happened
Duolingo had great success; David says some apps do really well with it, not guaranteed.
“Duolingo had great success with that. So for some apps, for whatever reason, you know, it's not guaranteed, but for some reason, some apps do really well with "Try for $0.00" versus like "Try for free."”
Related topics
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More from Duolingo
All 61 Duolingo tactics- Cut the free trial from 14 days to 7More conversions overall and experiment results twice as fast
- Sell a one-time ad-free month at $3, $5 or $10 to test demandUptake far above expectations; led to the subscription
- Tell users on the paywall you'll remind them on day 5 of a 7-day trialWon A/B tests by easing fear of subscription traps
- Change the buy button to say 'Try for $0.00'Beat 'Try for free' on both trial starts and trial-to-paid
- Send tomorrow's reminder 23.5 hours after today's lesson, not at a time users pickBeat every other scheduling strategy tested, including user-chosen times
- Let an algorithm pick from 250 reminder messages, and A/B test adding new onesNotifications called a top retention driver; no numbers shared
More from this episode
- Remove the X from the paywall so people must start a trialInstall-to-trial 13% vs 6% with the X; trial-to-paid barely changed
- For a use-it-a-few-times AI app, sell weekly with a 3-day trial3x revenue from the same number of downloads
- Label the paywall button 'Continue' instead of 'Start free trial''Continue' did better on iOS; 'Start free trial' did well on Android. One data point
- When people close the 7-day trial paywall, offer 14 free days instead of a discountClients say 14 days worked much better than 7; no numbers
- Coconote: When someone cancels a free trial on the web, offer more free time16% of would-be cancellers took the longer trial
- Mojo: Keep a generous free tier, then show free users a paywall at launch once a weekAbout half of conversions come after day 0 vs ~15-20% industry-wide
- Duolingo: Cut the free trial from 14 to 7 days to get test results twice as fastDoubled the experiment rate and raised conversions overall
- Rise Science: On your web funnel, spend time selling the problem before the fixWeb became where the app-first sleep app finally found success; no numbers
- If few people search the App Store for your app, send everyone to a web funnelOver $10K MRR, all from web traffic
- Fabulous: Set up AI agents that watch competitors' apps and ads and write reportsReplaces what would be a full-time analyst job; no numbers
- Weather Up: When someone leaves a hard paywall, send a push offering 7 free daysFew took it and few of those paid; being replaced
- Weather Up: Let people close the paywall, give them 7 free days, then lock the app
- Weather Up: Ship a big update that gets featured by Apple and the press~$100K in the update year with almost no ads; halved the next year without updates
- On Google Play, turn on the grace period and keep retrying failed paymentsBilling-error cancellations drop about a third (31% of cancellations are billing errors)
- Require payment or a trial up front instead of offering a free tierMedian 10% of downloads pay by day 35 vs 2% freemium; retention no worse