Paywalls and pricing
Upsell tactics
Upgrades, add-ons, consumables and bundles that raised revenue per user. 134 tactics from 80 founder interviews.
Most teams added a second way to pay on top of the main subscription: credits or packs for heavy users, an offer right at purchase, higher tiers, add-on modules, or live and physical extras. Where numbers were given, upsells usually brought about 5-20% of buyers or revenue, and when and where an offer appeared mattered as much as the offer. New premium tiers and standalone features sometimes found few takers or pulled buyers away from the main plan.
- Sway AI said extra analyses brought about 11% of revenue, and Shipper and Burner put credit top-ups at about 8-10%; on Google Play, buyers of both subscriptions and one-off packs were 7% of buyers but a quarter of revenue.Sway AIShipperBurnerPractitioner pattern · Tammy Taw (Works at Google Play; recommends Play Store features such as installment payments, Play Console benchmarking and Play Academy)
- Offers at the moment of purchase converted: Reading.com's $9.99 all-worksheets offer was taken by about 20% of web buyers, Built With Science's 15%-off workout buddy by about 15% of trial starts, and Architectural Digest's business-membership pop-up by about 5%.Reading.comBuilt With ScienceArchitectural Digest
- Lose It! made about 10 times more from the same sale sent as an in-app message instead of email, and found upgrade messages shown mid-logging lost users; Mojo's once-a-week paywall for free users brought about 15% of new revenue.Lose It! (1)Lose It! (2)Mojo
- Two meditation apps grew by selling live extras: Brightmind reported revenue up 50% from coaching, online events and retreats, and another said revenue almost doubled from classes, intensives and Zoom sessions, which now make up about half of it.BrightmindA meditation app
- Some upsells missed: Condé Nast's premium tiers stalled at low single-digit adoption, Tiimo parked a 3x-priced tier after growth suffered, and Duolingo shut on-demand human tutors because users found live speaking too scary.Condé NastTiimoDuolingo
- Selling features separately cut both ways: Hily found a one-time boost next to one subscription beat folding it into Premium, while Tinder's standalone travel pass lifted conversion but pulled buyers from its cheapest plan, even after repricing.HilyTinder (1)Tinder (2)
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
- KBMH: Show the one-time 50% off yearly offer to every existing free user500+ extra yearly subs and ~25K EUR in 3 weeks, after many refunds
- Tinder: Price the 7-day feature pass the same as a 7-day subscription, shown side by sideLess cannibalization and more revenue, but still not good enough
- Genesis: Sell a $1 first month with the renewal terms in small printDrew an FTC case; the funnels named were taken down
- Practice by Numbers: Call existing customers to switch their card payments to you for a cut~$190M processed of ~$2B possible; profitable but switching is hard
- Tiimo: Add a 3x-priced tier with expert courses and body doublingHurt growth numbers; parked to refocus on the planner
- Super Unlimited: Show an ad for your new eSIM app to all existing VPN usersDidn't work: no travel intent; now planning timed promos before summer
- Tinder: Sell the travel feature on its own for 1 day, 3 days or a weekConversion jumped, but it pulled buyers away from the cheapest subscription
- Duolingo: Offer live human tutors on demand in a higher-priced planFailed: users joined, panicked and left; later replaced by AI video call
- Burner: Phase out one-off credits so everyone goes through a subscriptionFairly high churn from short-term users; founder now thinks credits might have fit them better
- Include credits in the subscription and let heavy users buy moreSpreading, e.g. 13% of photo/video apps; too few included credits drew angry reviews
- Tinder: Show ads to free users to cover their costSmall share of revenue; ads worth far less than a subscriber
- Condé Nast: Launch new premium tiers for fans willing to pay moreAdoption stuck at 1-2%; now default no unless a bigger cohort is proven
Companies in this topic
More tactics (110)
- Lyzr: Sell your software inside an on-prem box, offered first to existing clientsJust launched; pre-orders open, no sales numbers yet
- Sell a $1 plan after a 60-question quiz, then stack add-ons to ~$350Buyer got half back after demanding a refund; invites regulationBlack hat
- Duolingo: Give the free 3 days as a reward right after a finished lessonFelt more rewarding than on the learning path; no numbers
- Hily: Sell a cheap one-time 'be seen 10x more' boost right after onboardingWorked better than folding the boost into the subscription; no numbers
- Duolingo: Use the end-of-lesson ad slot to advertise your own paid planGuest says house ads beat programmatic ads; no numbers
- Burner: Add a monthly and annual plan with unlimited texts, calls and photosBiggest single jump in revenue in company history; subscriptions now 90%+ of revenue
- Tinder: Offer three subscription levels and sell extra boosts on topFormer CPO calls it one of the best ways to price consumer apps; no revenue split given
- Tinder: Interview users spending $100-250 a month, then build a top plan for themLed to Tinder Platinum; no results shared
- Architectural Digest: Right after someone subscribes, offer the business membership in a pop-up~5% take it, adding $100-200 LTV each at zero extra acquisition cost
- AllTrails: When a free user taps a paid feature, open a paywall showing that feature
- Sweatcoin: Pay 1 coin for watching an optional video ad, up to 1-3 times a dayRetention and engagement rose at 1-3 views a day; fell when more were allowed
- 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
- TalkingParents: Add a $24.99 plan with video calls and a set bundle of minutesAttracted less price-sensitive customers, mostly on iPhone; some couples both pay $24.99
- Lose It!: Show upgrade messages after people finish logging, never in the middleMid-task messages caused drop-off and fewer upgrades; after-task messages did better
- Lose It!: Pin a 24-hour sale countdown to the top of the main screenKept the sale visible after people closed the pop-up; no numbers
- onX Hunt: Give top-tier members deals from partner brands, like $200 off dog trainingMeant to lift upgrades and keep members longer; no numbers shared
- 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: Add a tip jar to your settings menu$157 in tips this year, covering the developer fee
- Liinks: Sell a $12/month plan with a custom domain, charging more per extra pageA few customers pay $100+/month
- Breathwrk: Give your paying members an acquired app for freeDownloads and revenue look modest; mainly an add-on for members
- Qobra: Build AI agents that set up commission plans in minutes, not weeks
- Cents: Sell your own payment hardware at a profit, with software and payments attached~$140M a month in payments; 200-250K devices installed; 99% customer retention
- Swipe.by: Give websites and online ordering away free; charge for the AI services on top
- Practice by Numbers: Grow one tool into an all-in-one suite sold as packages~$12-13K per location a year on average; up to ~$18-19K
- Savvy Navvy: Include 12 months of the app with new boats, paid for by the boat makerFounder says it feeds a consumer-to-manufacturer flywheel; no numbers
- Show a cheap starter pack when players open the game a second timeHost says it works well on second opens; no numbers
- Simply: Sell a bundle of all your apps on the web, where you can explain itGuest says it works well; no numbers
- Simply Piano: Mark songs in the piano app that you can also sing in the singing app
- Shipper: Sell monthly credit plans from $25, plus one-off credit top-upsTop-ups are ~10% of revenue; gross volume ~$71K vs $25.6K MRR
- Life360: Sell trackers at low margins to pull people into the app and keep them longerTile owners retain better than non-owners; Pet GPS requires a subscription
- GlamUp: Limit scans per week by plan, and offer a bigger plan when they run out
- Sway AI: Sell extra analysis credits to people who rerun the profile checkAbout 11% of revenue
- LeadQuest: Add a lead-finding tool so users then need your email and automation toolsFounder says the products help each other; no numbers for the lead tool
- Super Unlimited: Charge for no ads, faster servers, more locations and use on every deviceCompany growing and very profitable; no conversion numbers
- Ladder: Add nutrition tracking to a workout app after users asked for it in the surveyEarly read: users doing both convert and stay much more; no numbers yet
- Duolingo: When users run out of hearts, offer a free trial so they keep their lesson progressUsers much more likely to start a trial; no numbers
- Duolingo: Give users one free AI video call from the top tierEffective lever for getting people to try the feature, per guest
- Duolingo: Use each user's signals to pick between your own upgrade ads and paid adsGood wins, per guest; no numbers
- Duolingo: Let a bandit algorithm pick which upgrade ad each user sees after a lessonSome wins so far, still improving; no numbers
- ChartDB: Give the tool away free, then charge for the team features users ask for~$9K MRR from the paid cloud version after 16 months
- Skylight: Knock money off the device when people buy it with the subscriptionMuch higher subscription attach on the own website than on Amazon or in stores; no numbers
- Mindfulness App: Sell the app to employers, using stress tests to prove it lowers staff stress
- B7 Dev: Have an AI agent audit each client's existing code, then offer to fix what it findsUp to 20x code performance on the same servers for some clients
- Hily: Show a 'visibility: low' badge on the home screen that opens a boost offerGuest says intent-matched offers convert much better than generic 'buy' screens
- Tinder: Offer several paid tiers, from cheap starter to big spenders at $50K a yearGuest's biggest revenue unlock at Tinder; no numbers given
- Burner: Add caller lookup for unknown numbers to the premium planVery popular and a driver of premium upsells; founder didn't expect it to win
- Burner: Add a white-label VPN inside the main app's premium planDrove a lot of premium-tier growth, but cost more to build than it should have
- The Wellness Company: Build several small apps for the same health crowd and promote each new one to existing usersUsers overlap across apps; three apps reached ~$120K a year combined
- Tinder: Sell a paid 'super like' that stands out from a normal likeSuper Likes are 3x more likely to get a match
- Sell live classes, Zoom sessions and week-long intensives to your most engaged usersRevenue almost doubled; live offers now half of revenue
- Strava: Buy a beginner-friendly app and sell it to your users as a bundleDeal closed; adviser calls it '1+1=6'; no post-deal numbers shared
- Wired: Make editor Q&A sessions subscriber-only and add them to the subscription
- The Washington Post: Pair the news subscription with coffee: cafe access and branded coffee beansGuest cites press and business results; no numbers
- Brightmind: Sell coaching, 4-hour online events and week-long retreats to app subscribersRevenue up 50%
- Plarium: Sell mugs, t-shirts and hoodies to a game's biggest spenders
- Add in-app coins that people earn from ads or buy in packsApps that crack consumables reach deeper LTVs, per talks with hundreds of founders
- Sell $5-10 top-up credits on top of subscription tiers
- Reading.com: Sell printed sets of the app's storybooks on Amazon
- On Android, let people buy one feature or one piece of contentGoogle reports much better Android monetization with hybrid models; no numbers given
- Once subscriptions plateau, sell repeatable one-off packs like credits, boosts or class bundlesHybrid buyers: ~7% of buyers, ~25% of revenue, spend ~3x more (Play-wide data)
- 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
- Genius Scan: Start charging monthly for cloud backup while keeping the one-time upgradeNo customer backlash; users understood storage costs recur
- RoboKiller: After the base subscription, offer data broker removal as a paid add-onReally successful; a good way to raise revenue per user (no numbers)
- 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
- Offer 7-day passes, weekly plans or one-off packs next to your subscriptionPlay says hybrid apps, often from Asia, do very well even in the US; no numbers
- Nomorobo: Email your free landline users asking them to try the paid mobile appFounder calls it huge; no numbers
- Lynda.com: Sell the same consumer courses to companies using the buyer's sales team
- TalkingParents: Charge each co-parent separately, so one's video calls nudge the other to upgrade
- TalkingParents: Sell free users copies of their records for court, digital or printed and bound
- Lose It!: Offer steeper and steeper discounts to free users who haven't paid after 30 daysTurns cohorts that almost never convert into some revenue; no numbers
- Lose It!: Aim in-app sales at new and returning users, with a warm 'welcome back'These users are half of bookings; first-time sales do really well
- Keakr: Find which features buyers used first, then nudge similar users toward themAdvanced-editing users were more likely to subscribe; no numbers
- MyFitnessPal: Show lapsed subscribers pop-ups that point to features they've never used
- Let fans buy your app as a gift, especially for December holidaysAbout a third of December sales; many gifts bought by existing customers
- Ask engaged monthly subscribers to switch to yearly a few months in
- Duolingo: Let users buy back a lost streak, or get it free with the subscription
- Excel Exercises: Sell team plans to bosses after individual users bring your product to workAccelerated growth from $10K to $30K/month; requests like 50 seats
- Akool: Charge businesses by usage so their bill grows as they build you into their softwareLargest contract reached ~$4M a year
- Fleet: Sell a paid add-on to secure and remotely manage rented laptops~EUR 1M ARR, a small slice of total revenue
- VueMagnet: Sell a pricier agency plan so agencies can manage many creators in one placeUnexpectedly became the main earner; most of the $6,500 in 60 days (implied)
- Handwrytten: Let customers add gift cards or cookies to each note
- Life360: Offer a free Tile tracker to people who subscribeHelps conversion for certain users; no numbers
- FaithFull: Offer app users weekly one-on-one coaching as a pricey add-onFounder says it has been 'really cool'; no numbers
- Sunflower: Build everything around the one simple thing users do every dayTimer is the most important feature; AI chat alone had poor retention
- Super Unlimited: Launch a Windows version and promote it to your mobile usersNamed biggest win of the year; people buy on the website directly, no numbers
- Lose It!: Add ads to the free app, one-off purchases, and affiliate partner deals
- Grindr: Add a several-hundred-dollar monthly AI tier that does the swiping and matching
- Postiz: Push people to higher plans with extra features, not just more channels
- Ad Hoc Labs: Buy small apps that fit your users' needs and sell them inside your main app
- Cursor Directory: Keep the directory free; charge companies for job ads and featured spots~$35K/month at ~99.8% gross margin; split not given
- The Washington Post: Bundle the news subscription with Headspace for readers overwhelmed by newsGuest cites business results but warns partnerships are very hard
- Vogue: Offer everything from a free app to pricey white-glove in-person experiences
- Soundmap: Sell power-ups on top of the subscription, like 2x more songs nearbyGuest says it captures what each user is willing to spend; no numbers
- Strava: Keep a bought app separate and sell one subscription for both apps
- Clear 30: Offer the app to universities and addiction services, and add paid extras
- Slopes: Sell day and season passes next to the subscription for occasional usersHost cites it as working; no numbers
- onX Maps: Show upgrade prompts inside the flow, to the right users after related actionsGuest says native in-flow prompts are where they've seen success; no numbers
- Duolingo: Show more ads to free users so they either earn you money or upgrade
- Flo: Sell higher tiers and extra features to people who already payCohort revenue retention ~60% in year one, then rising every year
- Pray.com: Add ads and one-time purchases like books on top of the subscription
- Spotify: Offer a family plan so one subscriber can add the rest of the householdCited as user expansion from a single acquired customer; no numbers
- onX: Sell an upgrade tier with nationwide maps on top of the single-state plan
- Quicken: Add estate planning tools (wills, trusts, document locker) as an upgradeGuest calls it an easy upgrade for users; no numbers
- Tinder: Sell packs of one-off boosts, like super likes or streak repairs, next to the subscriptionCited as extra revenue on top of subscriptions; no numbers
- Fi: Advertise a pet supplement inside the app to people who already own the collarHost found the offer compelling; no numbers
- Photoroom: Sell your app's core tech to businesses as an APICohost credits business users for its stickiness; no numbers
- Crunchyroll: Sell merch, events and games to your most loyal subscribersLet it compete on fan relationship instead of the best video player
- Healthi: Add paid coaching and an online store of branded diet products
- Sago Mini: Add parent accounts so you can email parents about your other appsNo numbers; became key once there were several subscription apps
- Sago Mini: Sell a monthly craft box that matches the app's themesNo results shared
New tactics every Monday
The week's founder interviews, boiled down to what they did and what happened.