Paywall tactics from app founders

Before: monthly and annual shown side by side. Variant: only the annual plan shown up front, with a Blinkist-style timeline above it: Day 1 you get your personalized plan; Day 7 your plan adapts to you; Day 12, before the 14-day free trial ends, 'we'll send you a reminder' and you can cancel anytime. Monthly is reachable via a 'view all plans' link. Price and positioning unchanged; UI-only change.

Couldn't outrank an app for a keyword wanted for a client, downloaded it and saw it was undermonetized: #1 for two keywords with ~28 and ~34 search volume, 100-150 downloads/day, one-time $2-3 price, no onboarding paywall. Benchmarked price on a similar client app doing ~$1M ARR at $60/year. Bought it (2022), added onboarding and a paywall (mid-May), went fully hard paywall with a trial at $60/year in June. No new features and no extra downloads.

Same app, same downloads: compared the paywall with a close (X) button against a hard paywall with no X. Watch trial-to-paid: if it holds while trial starts double, the hard paywall wins. Recommended at launch to force a product-market-fit test; exit-intent offers can mimic a soft paywall.

A/B tested a priming screen right before the paywall with the mascot bee: 'We want you to try Sunflower for free. We'll remind you before your trial ends,' then shows the paywall. Addresses trial anxiety. Tested a couple of versions of the screen.

Control: plans ordered weekly/annual/monthly with long names ('AI Assistant Weekly', 'AI Assistant Annual'), a small 'Limited time 70% off' badge and a CTA 'Put AI into action'. Variant: plans renamed 'Annual plan', 'Monthly plan', 'Weekly plan' with annual on top and highlighted, price compared against the cheapest plan, badge cut to '70% off' and centered ('limited time' in small text doesn't work; put urgency in the heading only on a true one-time-offer paywall), a check mark 'No commitment, cancel anytime' line, and a plain 'Continue' button.

Old paywall (inspired by Cal AI) opened with a feature carousel (accountability texts, peer support, '1,000+ members'). New first screen outlines the program day by day (day 0, day 1... first 7 days), with small science-style quick wins to cut the perceived time delay (e.g. 'CB1 receptors begin to bounce back within 48 hours'), without promising a fix tomorrow. Rest of the paywall unchanged.

A/B test, half of users each: in-app purchase only vs. web checkout only. Iteration 1: paywall button sent users to the web. Iteration 2: in-app paywall with package selection (monthly/annual, via RevenueCat) and a 'Start Today' button; the tap opens Safari to a stripped-down Stripe page showing only the chosen plan, styled like Apple's in-app purchase sheet, then auto-redirects back into the app. No extra discount for paying on the web, to protect LTV. Next ideas: let users choose web or in-app, and route only high-intent placements (e.g. after the welcome class) to web.

Onboarding order: choose language -> paywall 1 -> onboarding screens -> three trial-explainer screens ('try for free', 'we'll send you a reminder', 'here's how your free trial works') -> paywall 2. Paywall 1: soft paywall, close X delayed 3 seconds, weekly (slightly cheaper) + yearly plans, no trial. Paywall 2: 3-day free trial on the weekly plan, yearly at the same price as paywall 1, social proof at the bottom. Previously there was only one paywall, which carried the trial.

After many A/B tests on price and free trials, landed on a simple soft paywall with minimal onboarding (utility app, no emotional build-up): $59.99 lifetime and $39.99/year with a 3-day free trial.

Client fitness app flow changed from onboarding -> register -> paywall to onboarding -> paywall -> sign up. Recommended to Footsteps with Jesus: no account creation for non-social apps; onboarding then paywall.

Three tiers (Silver, Gold, Platinum); most users pick Gold and the paywall can't explain everything, so it normally leads with Gold. A machine-learning model using ~900 data points per user (profile, behavior, previous experiment results) predicts propensity to buy Platinum (wider roadside assistance range, identity protection, more services). High-propensity users are shown Platinum instead of Gold. Part of an ML targeting/orchestration layer built in the last year that also targets promotions, feature education, push notifications and in-app messages.

Previously users finished onboarding and entered the app (home screen, pick a scan / swipe on jobs) and were paywalled at the first valuable action. Tested a complete hard paywall straight after onboarding, with no access to the app. Sprout also switched to a hard paywall and saw better conversion.