Paywalls and pricing
Hard paywall vs freemium
When apps gated everything, kept a free tier, or used a soft paywall, and what happened to revenue. 157 tactics from 102 founder interviews.
Most subscription founders tested a hard paywall or a required trial and reported more paying users per install, often at the cost of one-star reviews. The largest free apps went the other way, keeping a big free base and charging a small share of power users. Switching between the two models gave split results, and shrinking the free tier sometimes pushed users out rather than toward paying.
- Several apps that removed the paywall close button said trial starts roughly doubled from about 6% to 12-15% with trial-to-paid unchanged, but BoldVoice saw refunds rise by more than trial starts and did not ship it.A subscription apps (1)A subscription apps (2)BoldVoice
- A cross-app comparison put the median share of downloads paying by day 35 at 10% for hard paywalls against 2% for freemium, with retention no worse.Practitioner pattern · David Barnard (RevenueCat employee; RevenueCat publishes the report and sells paywall, web-purchase and Customer Center tools)
- Leaving a hard paywall split: one app's free plan cut subscriber conversion over 50% and was reverted, another reported 75% higher LTV amid other pricing changes, and Opal's paying share fell from 20% to 9% as revenue grew.A consumer subscription app (1)A consumer subscription app (2)Opal
- Free-first apps reported scale from a small paying share: Life360 cited 80M+ active users and about $400M revenue with about 1 in 8 families paying, and Tinder said 85-90% of users never pay.Life360Tinder
- Tightening free tiers had mixed results: LingQ said conversion rose each time it cut free limits, while Deezer's free users left for other services and Lose It! earned little and angered users by locking macro tracking.LingQDeezerLose It!
- Offers to people who closed the paywall differed: Momego gave them a free week of Pro and lifted free-user conversion from 0.4% to 4.5%, while few took Weather Up's 7-free-days push and few of those paid.MomegoWeather Up
Summary written 2026-09-29 from the tactics below. Figures are as founders stated them.
What worked, most detailed first
What didn't work, or only partly
- BoldVoice: Remove the close button so users must start a trial to continueTrial starts rose, but refunds rose by more; net loss
- Simply Piano: Show a soft paywall after onboarding, then keep it only for kids' accountsBig early ARPU win; adults without a piano didn't stay, so kept it for kids only
- Life360: Keep 2 days of free location history even though cutting it doubled subscribersCutting to 6-12 hours doubled subs from that hook; not shipped to protect free users
- Duolingo: Make paid features free when a test shows they earn littleTook a small revenue hit on purpose to grow free users
- Value Study: Add a one-time Pro unlock to an app that has always been freeAbout £200 a month, steady; most users stayed free and missed key features
- Weather Up: When someone leaves a hard paywall, send a push offering 7 free daysFew took it and few of those paid; being replaced
- Skylight: Keep what people bought the device for free; charge for new add-ons like meal planningPhotos-on-calendar paywall 'just worked' for years; now some customers want it free
- MySwimPro: Move free features behind the paywall as the app shifts to paidBuilt user entitlement and complaint reviews; guest would package it differently
- Weather Up: Pull Google AdSense ads and move to a hard paywall with a 7-day trialAds caused bad reviews and complaints; app lost money for ~a year without them
- TalkingParents: Keep the website free and charge a monthly fee for the mobile appsStarted at $4.99/month; founder now thinks it was priced too low
- Lose It!: Lock all macro-tracking features behind premium as a testEarned little extra money and made users angry
- Lose It!: Spend big on paid ads to stop relying on organic users~10% predicted ROAS at scale; money burned and the push was dropped
- BoldVoice: Remove the X button to make your paywall hardConversion looked great, but refunds spiked and it drained revenue
- Add a hard paywall to an app that used to be freeWorked well for revenue, but brought many 1-star reviews from people who reinstalled
- Try Meta ads on a small organic app, including a hard paywallOnly ~$1 revenue per install; economics didn't work
- Test a hard paywall against locking more of the app's contentSimilar numbers; hard paywall raised conversions a little
- Switch from a hard paywall to a free planSubscriber conversion fell 50%+; reverted after a couple of weeks
- Make free users pay before they can fix their buggy first buildFrustrated users complained publicly on Twitter
- Burner: Try a freemium version of an app where every free user costs moneyDidn't scale without lots of capital; stayed a premium, paid-first app
- Deezer: Take away most free features so free listeners are pushed to payDidn't work: free users left for other services instead of upgrading
- Deezer: Make the free tier pay for itself with ads and use it to win subscribersFree users now profitable; conversion from free 'not cracked yet'
- Elevate: Make the free version thin so almost everyone has to start a trialBig jump in trial starts, but lower user affinity, per co-host
- BeReal: Sell optional paid extras to users of a free social appDidn't work; shut down quickly, and ads became the only revenue
- Lose It!: Try network ads inside a free app that earns from subscriptionsNot much money and a pain to manage; not worth it for a small team
Companies in this topic
More tactics (121)
- GlamUp: When people close the paywall, show the same plans at 50% off
- BoldVoice: Let people who close the paywall use day one free, then ask for a trialFounder calls it a good middle ground; no numbers
- Launch with a hard paywall, one offer and no free trialOne offer gave the clearest pricing lessons
- Career Hound: Charge from day one: $7 a week, $20 a month or $50 a year779 active subs, $12K MRR, ~$50 LTV; 31% churn
- Welltory: Offer just a $99.99 yearly plan with no free trial, but let users close it
- Welltory: Keep basic and possibly life-saving health tracking free; charge for deeper analysisOver 60% of conversions happen after day one, over the next couple of months
- Headway: Have the paywall's Continue button open a web checkout, with an in-app option
- Celebs: Drop the paywall after onboarding; show the lookalike result fast and ask laterMore revenue per user; later paywalls converted the users who used to drop
- Cat on Chair: Give the app away free; sell pro features for $29.99 lifetime or $19.99 a yearMost sales come from the $29.99 lifetime plan
- Show paid Instagram and Facebook users a paywall with no X; let organic users close itReported to perform a lot better; no numbers shared
- Sprout: Show the paywall right after onboarding, before users can open the app+50% conversion vs letting users try features first
- Opal: Test how many app blocks free users get; settle where free users still love it3 free blocks gave free users a great experience while power users still pay
- Halo AI: Let people skip the first paywall, then show another when they hit submitTwo paywalls together beat one hard paywall in repeated tests; each converts 16.5%
- 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
- 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
- Momego: When people close the paywall, give them a free week of Pro, then count downFree-user conversion 0.4% -> 4.5%
- Ask 'How did you hear about us?' and hard-paywall only people from adsUntested idea; a shared chart showed 5% soft vs 34% hard paywall conversion
- AudioPen: Sell $99/year and $159/2-year plans that don't auto-renew, with a limited free tier5,000+ paying customers out of ~200K users
- Praycreen: Give non-payers a free version with an ad before each daily prayer~$0.05 per user per day; ad spend paid back in 14-15 days
- Stronger: Make everyone start a free trial first; free version only after they cancel~25% boost, their biggest ever; few complaints, but less sharing
- LinkedIn: Keep the core free; charge for extras like rotating cover photos and a website linkNo numbers; guest says the free base feeds paid growth
- Report a $1 value for non-payers who look likely to stick around
- NGL: Charge power users $1-$7 a week, priced by country wealth; keep the rest freeMulti-eight-figure yearly revenue from a small share of users
- Puff Count: Require a free trial signup after onboarding before any feature worksConversion jumped to 20-25%; founder says it changed the business overnight
- Mojo: Ship a rough first version in 2 months and charge from day one30 free trials on launch day, against a goal of one
- Make a $0.99 app free and sell themes plus a $10 bundleMany bought the $10 bundle; earned $10 a sale instead of $0.99
- Launch a simple one-feature app with a paywall that has no close buttonGrew $1K to $10K/month; 35% trial-to-paid; fell to $5K when Apple forced a close button
- 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
- Healthi: Let free users read the community, but only paying members can postTrolls and bullies left overnight; users now name the community as what they love
- Fitbod: Give three free workouts with every feature unlocked, no trial signupHost loved it and now pays $50-60 a year; one user's experience
- ZenMaid: Advertise a free-forever plan; require a card and give 14 days of paid features~40% more trials; more mentions in Facebook groups
- Flo: Keep the core app free and offer paid extras when users' needs change40% of subscriptions start more than 6 months after install
- Value Study: On Android, replace the hard paywall with a soft paywall trialAndroid reviews recovered from very bad
- Canary: Steer buyers to a $79 yearly plan offered next to $10 monthly60% of subscribers choose yearly; MRR (~$14K) trails monthly cash (~$25K)
- Excel Exercises: Give a few free lessons, then put up a hard paywallFounder says free samples are needed because the format is unfamiliar
- Show Meta ad users a hard paywall during onboarding
- Breathwrk: Show the paywall before asking people to sign upHost takes it as more proof paywall-first works better; no numbers
- LeadMeNot: Put up a hard paywall: monthly with no trial, free trial only on annualSome users paid $100 just to get past it; founder was surprised
- If fewer than 5% of installs start a trial, switch to a hard paywallHost's first move for such clients; niche hard-paywall apps reach 10-20% install-to-paid
- Sprout: Make people pay before they can swipe right to apply for a jobFounder says it works well; app reached $250K MRR by month 8
- Go Tall: Let the height prediction change weekly as people log sleep, meals and stretches
- Life360: Give every software feature a great free version; charge for costly services
- FaithFull: Skip the free trial and make people pay before using the appAlways beat trials in his tests; buyers engage more, but some 1-star reviews
- Opal: Drop the hard paywall and give the core app away for freePaying share of users fell 20% to 9%, but organic growth, 1M+ DAUs and revenue rose
- Replace the hard paywall with a free plan plus a 7-day trial of the best version+75% LTV per user (other pricing changes made at the same time)
- MonAI: Drop the free version and require a 7-day trial to use the appA/B test showed the hard paywall with trial worked best; no numbers
- Super Unlimited: Let people use the app right away: no login, one tap to connectVisits last ~30 seconds; guest credits it for organic volume and ratings
- Super Unlimited: Give away an unlimited free version, paid for with an ad or twoLow paid conversion, but 1M+ mostly organic downloads a day and very profitable
- Coconote: Give one free note, then require a free trialCredited with early cash flow; no numbers
- Weather Up: Let people close the paywall, give them 7 free days, then lock the app
- 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
- Mojo: Offer a generous free tier and show free users a paywall once a weekOver 50% of revenue comes after day one, vs ~80% on day zero for most apps
- Remove the close button from the onboarding paywallTrial starts 6% -> 12-15%; trial-to-paid stayed at 30%
- Duolingo: Offer a free trial even though the app is already freeOne of the biggest unlocks; guest had expected it to flop
- Headway: Lock every book except one free daily readHost hears locking more content converts better; no numbers
- Tinder: Limit free swipes per day and charge for moreStopped mass-swiping and auto-swipers; turned into a strong revenue driver (no numbers)
- Pushscroll: Make everyone pay: a hard paywall at about $30 a year~4,000 paying customers from ~300K downloads
- Claim: Drop the free trial once trial starts and trial-to-paid are both strongMore revenue without the trial, guest says; no numbers given
- Jungle: Show the paywall right after the first quick review, but let people skip
- Dropmagic: Give every free user five AI-generated imagesCosts about $1,500 a month in AI fees; no conversion figures
- Tinder: Keep dating free for most users so there are plenty of people to match85-90% never pay; the 10-15% who do fund the business
- Pushcroll: Let people close the paywall, then charge when they want more scroll time
- Gravl: Put a hard paywall right after onboarding, before people even sign inFounder says 'a lot' pay before seeing the product; no rate given
- Stagetimer: Offer a free plan so freelancers bring your tool to every event they workFounder says free users hitting limits and upgrading 'happens very often'
- Life360: Give daily location sharing away free and charge for safety featuresGrew to 80M+ active users and ~$400M revenue; about 1 in 8 families pay
- Life360: Don't charge anything until you reach 10 million active usersFounder says charging early would have killed them; no direct numbers
- Tolan: Put up a paywall 2-3 weeks after launch to cover AI costsGrowth self-funded; renewals give a clearer product signal than free usage
- onX Maps: Tell free users plainly they're on the free plan and show what they're missingFound many users didn't know they were on the free plan; no conversion numbers
- Sweatcoin: Build free-tier limits in early, then sell a plan that lifts them and removes adsBasic plan already makes 'considerable' revenue; founder thinks it came 12-18 months late
- The Weather Company: Keep the core app free with ads; charge power users for extra radar and hourly dataDrove the subscription business's early growth; no numbers given
- Genius Scan: Keep the app free with ads; sell a one-time upgrade that removes themStarted making real money from ads; founder gives no figures
- Genius Scan: Skip the paywall at signup; show it only when someone taps a paid featureFree users convert over time and recommend the app; no numbers
- Copy your working in-app onboarding to the web before inventing a new quizAgency rarely sees a profitable in-app flow fail when mirrored on web
- Flo: Give the core app away free, then sell add-on modules as users' needs change60M+ monthly users; thesis behind a $200M raise at a $1B+ valuation
- StageTimer: Offer a limited free plan that shows your logo on the on-stage timerWord of mouth is 40%+ of signups; logo effect not measured
- Babbel: Skip freemium; ask sign-up questions about their needs, then show a hard paywallUsers feel ready to buy without trying the app, guest says; no numbers
- Surfline: Give surfers free daily forecasts, then sell the full version to the keen onesGrows with zero paid ads; free-to-paid conversion up a lot over five years
- Surfline: Let free users use a few features without limits instead of capping visitsTested both; guest prefers unlimited use of free features, no numbers
- Opal: Make the first paywall easier to skip so more people use the free appMore people activated; ARPU fell but stayed manageable, net positive
- Show the paywall once in the first session, then again when free uses run outGuest's go-to pattern across clients; no numbers
- Nomorobo: Give landline blocking away free forever to gather data and users for the paid appCost up to $120K a month in phone bills; replaced any ad budget
- Test a hard paywall against giving away one free puzzleHard paywall raised revenue; follow-up test vs more locked content, result not given
- Rootd: Show the paywall during onboarding, with a close buttonRevenue doubled
- Earning under $1K a month? Try a hard paywall to see if people want the appTrial-to-paid under 10% suggests no fit; 10-20% means people find value
- Lose It!: Keep basic calorie counting free; put macros, keto and fasting in premiumPremium grew to 40+ features; carbs and device syncing drive most upgrades
- 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
- Momentum Labs: Skip the free trial; give a useful free version with a clear limit insteadGuest says trials never beat plain freemium in his or mentored apps; no numbers
- Papermark: Keep a free plan forever when the big competitor drops theirs~100 signups a day and ~100 new paying customers a month
- Liinks: Add a ~$3/month premium plan to your free tool to see who paysReached $100 MRR within a couple of months
- Maxed AI: Put the whole app behind a hard paywall instead of selling adsNow ~$14-15K/month and 1,000 active subscribers
- GeoSports: Keep the game free, show ads, and sell a Pro plan on the sideAds ~$1,200/day ($30-35K/month); ~1,800 Pro subs make up the rest
- Switch from a paid app to free with purchases, then to subscriptionsMade more money at each step, per the friend; no numbers
- Put a hard paywall with one lifetime price on an app ranking in search
- attn.design: Offer a free version to get people started, then sell a $99 pro plan5 paying customers at $99
- Savvy Navvy: Offer a free tier in the US but charge from day one elsewhere
- Switch from a closable paywall with no trial to a hard paywall with a free trialPerformed a little better; no numbers
- Build a hard-paywall app around a few keywords you can rank #1 for~$490K last year from organic search; over $1M lifetime since 2024
- Glam Up: Lock every app behind a paywall with weekly or monthly plansUsed on apps peaking at $150K and $250K MRR; no test reported
- Life360: Show one paywall screen during onboarding, even with a generous free planRemoving it would cut a significant share of new subscribers; no numbers
- SocialPeta: Start free, then add small creators, Product Hunt, and paid ads once funded
- RevenueCat: Build the product so free users cost almost nothing to supportLets the company keep a generous free tier; no numbers
- Supademo: Offer a free plan and brand every shared demo so viewers find you~30% of visitors come from sharing, watermarks, referrals and word of mouth
- Lose It!: Keep the free version good enough to reach the goal without payingRetention very stable after doubling the price, per guest
- Mojo: Keep lots of features and content free on purposeOnly ~50% of payers convert on day one vs ~80% industry-wide
- YourMove AI: Keep the cheap text tools behind a soft paywall; hard-paywall AI photosStill how it runs; photos gated because compute is costly
- Hily: Let people into the app only after they pay
- Show the paywall right after the first screenApp makes an estimated $350-375K/month
- LingQ: Shrink the free plan so people hit the paywall before they drift awayConversion rate went up every time limits were tightened; no numbers given
- Tinder: Build engagement and retention first; push monetization only years laterReached 30-40M monthly users before revenue became a focus in years 4-5
- Cardstock: Switch to a hard paywallRevenue reached ~$30K/month (alongside a Christmas TikTok spike)
- Fitted: Drop the hard paywall and make the app free, with some paid features
- Vogue: Offer everything from a free app to pricey white-glove in-person experiences
- onX Maps: Test moving features between the free and paid plans to find what sells
- onX Maps: Use a free trial for the niche hunting app; save freemium for big casual markets
- Require a free trial before anyone can use the appAbout 25% of installs started a trial in the first 24 hours
- Opal: Hide or shrink the close button on the onboarding paywallA winning test when optimizing for 8-day ad return
- Quizlet: Stay free for years, then add a low-priced subscriptionBuilt a teacher-student network effect; guest says rivals that monetized faster failed
- Change one icon on a freemium app's main screen to get more paywall views+57% paywall views
- MyFitnessPal: Show a closable paywall each time a returning user opens the appHost resubscribed at times; no numbers
- AllTrails: Rank first in Google for every trail and keep the subscription cheapHost believes very low acquisition cost and strong retention; no numbers
- Massive: Change your subscription pricing behind a hard paywallRevenue doubled; no details on what changed
New tactics every Monday
The week's founder interviews, boiled down to what they did and what happened.