Adapty
A paywall and subscription management platform for mobile apps.
Adapty's data and tools shaped many App Masters tests: its reports favor three-plan paywalls, and it confirmed weekly plans had the highest LTV for photo apps. It claims 60 to 80% of gains come from onboarding and paywall, and it lets teams change paywalls without app updates. Lesson: test paywalls early and remotely, and check LTV per install (aim for $3+) before Meta ads.
What was said about Adapty
1Adapty's paywall data and the three-plan setup
Show three plans: cheap, best-value and decoy, rather than one or two. Adapty's reports say three plans beat two and two beat one, and its 'rule of threes' calls three the most probable winning combination. Superwall data cited alongside it shows two plans gave a 61% increase over one, and three a further 44% over two.
Steve P. Young leans toward three plans every time, with the highest-LTV plan positioned as the obvious pick. He also questions whether the report holds in practice for every app, and warns that more plans can lower LTV, so test it.
The cheap plan exists to make the yearly plan look like a deal. In Steve's own app, monthly is $10, annual is $60 and a six-month plan acts as the decoy; about 80% buy the annual. When a large client removed an unused monthly plan from its yearly paywall, sales tanked completely.
The client's paywall was a yearly plan with a 7-day trial; without the monthly, users had nothing to compare against. Steve compares the decoy to Paris with free breakfast next to Rome. "The monthly is there to show you how valuable and how cheap and how much discounted your yearly offer is."
Push the billing period with the highest LTV for your category. A photo and video client insisted in 2021 that weekly plans had the highest LTV; Adapty's state of subscription apps report confirmed it months later. Weekly tends to win for AI, photo and video apps, yearly for most others.
Steve pairs the pushed plan with a trial: 3 days on weekly, 7 days on yearly.
2Launching with a hard paywall, on Adapty's CEO's advice
Launch a new app with a hard paywall to hear from paying users. Adapty's CEO suggested launching new apps with a hard paywall, because people who pay give more valuable feedback than free users. The host tried it on one of his own apps with no free features and saw it work.
Steve first called the idea scammy before the data changed his mind. It pairs with Superhuman's approach of prioritizing users who would be very disappointed without the product.
Removing the close button doubled sales in Steve's test. The only difference between the two variants was an X to close the paywall; the hard paywall produced 2x more sales on one of his apps.
Once an app is proven and subscriber churn matters, he suggests testing a soft paywall with an X again.
Change paywalls remotely so tests don't wait for app updates. One team used Adapty to change paywall elements without shipping a new app version, letting them compare hard and soft paywalls quickly. The hard paywall showed 10,000 versus 5,000 for the soft one.
3Adapty Finance: cash against revenue for a proven channel
Fund a working ad channel with revenue advances instead of a loan. Adapty Finance advances 85% of proceeds, weekly or on demand, for about 2.5% in fees, with cash possible within 24 hours. One developer reportedly grew from $5,000 to $80,000 in revenue in four weeks; another got paid the next day.
It requires the Adapty SDK so revenue can be verified.
Only draw cash once the channel is profitable at scale. Steve did not advance cash in weeks two or three, waiting until week four when creative, funnel and profitability were confirmed before drawing against revenue to push spend.
"Let's make sure that you're actually at scale, right? And you're profitable."
4Reading the funnel and LTV before spending
Aim for at least $3 LTV per install before running Meta ads. Adapty, like RevenueCat and Superwall, shows LTV per install. Meta installs may cost $1 to $2 with nobody paying, so each install needs high lifetime value; Apple Ads can work with less.
Measure LTV around month 11, since for some apps it is much higher than at month one.
Work on onboarding and paywall as soon as downloads arrive. Adapty's figure is that 60 to 80% of the effect comes from onboarding and the paywall. It reports trial start, trial activation and paid conversion, so the funnel is visible from day one.
Early tests also show how much people are willing to pay over the long term.
Send a discounted web checkout offer minutes after signup. Steve saw one app send a 20% offer leading to Stripe checkout within minutes of its welcome email; Adapty supports this web-to-app flow by tying the web payer to the app user.
Most users leave within 3 days and payers use the app more, so earlier payment can lift retention. Steve does not know that app's results.
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Adapty, like RevenueCat and Superwall, shows LTV per install, the number to check before running Meta ads.
Aim for at least $3 LTV per install before running Meta ads. Adapty, like RevenueCat and Superwall, shows LTV per install. Meta installs may cost $1 to $2 with nobody paying, so each install needs high lifetime value; Apple Ads can work with less.
Measure LTV around month 11, since for some apps it is much higher than at month one.
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Adapty Finance advances 85% of proceeds within 24 hours for about 2.5% in fees, and it needs the Adapty SDK to verify revenue. One developer reportedly grew from $5,000 to $80,000 in revenue in four weeks, and another got paid the next day.
Fund a working ad channel with revenue advances instead of a loan. Adapty Finance advances 85% of proceeds, weekly or on demand, for about 2.5% in fees, with cash possible within 24 hours. One developer reportedly grew from $5,000 to $80,000 in revenue in four weeks; another got paid the next day.
It requires the Adapty SDK so revenue can be verified.
Only draw cash once the channel is profitable at scale. Steve did not advance cash in weeks two or three, waiting until week four when creative, funnel and profitability were confirmed before drawing against revenue to push spend.
"Let's make sure that you're actually at scale, right? And you're profitable."
7 Counterintuitive App Growth Strategies That Actually Work | Steve P. Young at MAU 2025
Adapty and other partners report that three plans is the most common paywall setup, which the speaker leans toward in his own tests.
Show three plans: cheap, best-value and decoy, rather than one or two. Adapty's reports say three plans beat two and two beat one, and its 'rule of threes' calls three the most probable winning combination. Superwall data cited alongside it shows two plans gave a 61% increase over one, and three a further 44% over two.
Steve P. Young leans toward three plans every time, with the highest-LTV plan positioned as the obvious pick. He also questions whether the report holds in practice for every app, and warns that more plans can lower LTV, so test it.
The cheap plan exists to make the yearly plan look like a deal. In Steve's own app, monthly is $10, annual is $60 and a six-month plan acts as the decoy; about 80% buy the annual. When a large client removed an unused monthly plan from its yearly paywall, sales tanked completely.
The client's paywall was a yearly plan with a 7-day trial; without the monthly, users had nothing to compare against. Steve compares the decoy to Paris with free breakfast next to Rome. "The monthly is there to show you how valuable and how cheap and how much discounted your yearly offer is."
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Its state of subscription apps report later confirmed that weekly plans had the highest lifetime value for photo apps, matching what a client had insisted in 2021.
Show three plans: cheap, best-value and decoy, rather than one or two. Adapty's reports say three plans beat two and two beat one, and its 'rule of threes' calls three the most probable winning combination. Superwall data cited alongside it shows two plans gave a 61% increase over one, and three a further 44% over two.
Steve P. Young leans toward three plans every time, with the highest-LTV plan positioned as the obvious pick. He also questions whether the report holds in practice for every app, and warns that more plans can lower LTV, so test it.
Push the billing period with the highest LTV for your category. A photo and video client insisted in 2021 that weekly plans had the highest LTV; Adapty's state of subscription apps report confirmed it months later. Weekly tends to win for AI, photo and video apps, yearly for most others.
Steve pairs the pushed plan with a trial: 3 days on weekly, 7 days on yearly.
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It reports trial start, trial activation and paid conversion, so the funnel is visible from day one. Its data puts 60 to 80% of the gain in onboarding and paywall, and it let one team change paywalls without an app update.
Change paywalls remotely so tests don't wait for app updates. One team used Adapty to change paywall elements without shipping a new app version, letting them compare hard and soft paywalls quickly. The hard paywall showed 10,000 versus 5,000 for the soft one.
Work on onboarding and paywall as soon as downloads arrive. Adapty's figure is that 60 to 80% of the effect comes from onboarding and the paywall. It reports trial start, trial activation and paid conversion, so the funnel is visible from day one.
Early tests also show how much people are willing to pay over the long term.
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Its report says three plans beat two, and two beat one. The speaker questions whether that holds in practice.
Show three plans: cheap, best-value and decoy, rather than one or two. Adapty's reports say three plans beat two and two beat one, and its 'rule of threes' calls three the most probable winning combination. Superwall data cited alongside it shows two plans gave a 61% increase over one, and three a further 44% over two.
Steve P. Young leans toward three plans every time, with the highest-LTV plan positioned as the obvious pick. He also questions whether the report holds in practice for every app, and warns that more plans can lower LTV, so test it.
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Named as a tool that supports web-to-app campaigns through Stripe by tying the web payer to the app user.
Send a discounted web checkout offer minutes after signup. Steve saw one app send a 20% offer leading to Stripe checkout within minutes of its welcome email; Adapty supports this web-to-app flow by tying the web payer to the app user.
Most users leave within 3 days and payers use the app more, so earlier payment can lift retention. Steve does not know that app's results.
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It advised launching a new app with a hard paywall, which Steve first called scammy before the data proved him wrong. Its rule of threes says three plans is the most probable winning combination.
Show three plans: cheap, best-value and decoy, rather than one or two. Adapty's reports say three plans beat two and two beat one, and its 'rule of threes' calls three the most probable winning combination. Superwall data cited alongside it shows two plans gave a 61% increase over one, and three a further 44% over two.
Steve P. Young leans toward three plans every time, with the highest-LTV plan positioned as the obvious pick. He also questions whether the report holds in practice for every app, and warns that more plans can lower LTV, so test it.
The cheap plan exists to make the yearly plan look like a deal. In Steve's own app, monthly is $10, annual is $60 and a six-month plan acts as the decoy; about 80% buy the annual. When a large client removed an unused monthly plan from its yearly paywall, sales tanked completely.
The client's paywall was a yearly plan with a 7-day trial; without the monthly, users had nothing to compare against. Steve compares the decoy to Paris with free breakfast next to Rome. "The monthly is there to show you how valuable and how cheap and how much discounted your yearly offer is."
Launch a new app with a hard paywall to hear from paying users. Adapty's CEO suggested launching new apps with a hard paywall, because people who pay give more valuable feedback than free users. The host tried it on one of his own apps with no free features and saw it work.
Steve first called the idea scammy before the data changed his mind. It pairs with Superhuman's approach of prioritizing users who would be very disappointed without the product.
Removing the close button doubled sales in Steve's test. The only difference between the two variants was an X to close the paywall; the hard paywall produced 2x more sales on one of his apps.
Once an app is proven and subscriber churn matters, he suggests testing a soft paywall with an X again.
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Its CEO suggested launching a new app with a hard paywall, because paying users care most about being heard and give more valuable feedback. The host tried it on one of their own apps with no free features and saw it work.
Launch a new app with a hard paywall to hear from paying users. Adapty's CEO suggested launching new apps with a hard paywall, because people who pay give more valuable feedback than free users. The host tried it on one of his own apps with no free features and saw it work.
Steve first called the idea scammy before the data changed his mind. It pairs with Superhuman's approach of prioritizing users who would be very disappointed without the product.
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