Headspace · meditation and mental health app
Test a 10-15 screen onboarding against a 3-4 screen one straight to the upsell
Long raised week-1 use but cut conversions; short converted but felt off-mission; settled in middle
Mixedonboardingpaywall
What they did
Over two years moved onboarding 'like an accordion': from 10-15 screens down to 3-4, back out, landing in the middle. Long versions were judged on week-one engagement (sessions completed in the first week); the shortest dropped users into the app and immediately showed a free-trial upsell.
What happened
Long onboarding helped week-one engagement but reduced conversion; the shortest flow worked on the data but felt close to deceptive and against Headspace's mission. Ended in the middle.
- Stage
- scale
- Effort
- Multiple variants over about two years
In their words
Sub Club by RevenueCat · How Headspace Optimized Revenue by Gating Content — Shreya Oswal and Keya Patel, Headspace“And a longer type of onboarding did help with that engagement metric. But it reduced the number of folks who were converting”
“And that was kind of experimenting with more of the extreme of what happens if you condense onboarding as much as possible and ask for a conversion moment or an upsell, which worked from a data perspective.”
Related topics
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- Headspace: Lock 90-99% of the free library, keeping 1-2 favorites free per categoryMuch higher free-to-paid conversion; far fewer complaints than feared
- Headspace: Lock the whole content library behind a free trial, for new and old usersHigh double-digit lift in paid subscribers; trial users engaged more than free users
- Headspace: Let anyone share a 30-60 second clip of any meditation with a friend
- Headspace: Raise monthly from $9.99 to $12.99 and cut annual from $99 to $69.99More total revenue and higher conversion on both plans; more users chose annual
- Headspace: Show the yearly plan's per-month cost, with a cartoon character pointing at itHelped shift sign-ups toward annual alongside the price change; no separate numbers
- Headspace: Test 8 lower monthly prices to pull in less committed usersLost revenue: more people chose monthly without enough extra conversions; not rolled out
- Headspace: Label the yearly plan 'best value' instead of showing the dollars savedThe simple 'best value' label beat showing the dollar savings
- Headspace: Push the yearly plan hardest on the paywall, keeping monthly as an optionMore picked annual, but fewer paid after the trial; went back to equal plans
- Headspace: Add a free trial: 7 days on monthly, 14 days on yearlyDouble-digit conversion lift; rolled out end of 2019
- LinkedIn: Open free trials to everyone and let users pick their own planCalled a big win for revenue and for users picking the right plan; no numbers
- Headspace: Offer a student discount plan, then open it in the 7-10 countries asking mostSmall but positive revenue at first; international launch 'done really well'
- Headspace: Add a family plan so members keep each other using the appBest retention of any plan, monthly and annual; brought in new users and raised ARPU
- Headspace: Let new users pick several reasons they came, not just oneSignificant lift: fewer drop-offs at that question and more trial starts
- Headspace: Promise a prize for sticking with it the first month, with on-track reminders
- Headspace: Give referred friends a 30-day free trial instead of 14, with no cash rewardHigh trial redemption and good conversion from referred friends; no numbers
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