How to design a paywall that converts

1 The bottom line

Put the paywall in onboarding, before sign-up, so nearly every new user sees it, then make it clear, trusted and easy to accept. Most buyers decide before they use the app, so an unseen paywall earns nothing.

2 Key takeaways

• Show the paywall inside onboarding. Most buyers purchase before they have used the app.
  • Steve P. Young, App Masters4:42 says 60 to 80% of all buyers purchase during onboarding.
  • One utility app added an onboarding sequence ending in a paywall, and in-app purchase revenue rose 211% Josh with Steve P. Young, App Masters client3:11.
• Ask for sign-up after the paywall, not before. A sign-up wall stops users from ever seeing the offer.
  • Flipping the order in a fitness app took paywall views from 40% to 94%, trial activations up 190% and sales up 52% Steve P. Young and Chaim, App Masters9:34.
• Make the offer plain: show the plans, the price and what happens next. Clear options beat a list of premium benefits.
  • VEED led with yearly and monthly prices instead of Pro benefits and got 15% higher trial conversion and 33% higher MRR VEED.
• Add proof and emotion, not company claims. Real voices and a shared mission persuade more than promo copy.
  • A real user review with 5 stars in place of promo copy lifted paid subscriptions 44% Runtastic.
  • A "support our work" message beat a benefits list by 16% Neos Kosmos.
• Give people who close the paywall a second, cheaper offer, but never trap them. Price-sensitive users can be caught in the moment, and forced starts come back as refunds.
  • Flo shows 33% off forever, $40 a year instead of $60, when the first paywall is dismissed Steve P. Young, Flo5:25.
  • Removing the dismiss button, and an unclosable discount, both raised trial starts, but the refund spike erased the gain Anada Lakra, BoldVoice19:40.

Our goal is not to like persuade users to try this. Our goal is to give them clarity and confidence to purchase.

Anmol Tiwari, Duolingo

2.1 Place the paywall where buyers already are

Put it in first-run onboarding, push views toward 100%, and keep sign-up out of the way.

• End onboarding with the paywall. Buyers are warm leads who decided before opening the app Steve P. Young, App Masters3:55.
  • Show it before the user reaches the home screen. Steve says it is the one thing to do if you do nothing else Steve P. Young, App Masters2:46.
  • A Flo-style onboarding with a paywall made 2x more sales than one without Steve P. Young, App Masters6:53.
  • A client with 5 million monthly active users added it and saw more sales and more retention Steve P. Young, App Masters3:11.
• Track first open to paywall view as your top funnel metric. Aim for as close to 100% as you can Josh and Steve P. Young, Miracle Morning35:42.
  • Nearly all trial starts happen on day zero, and users who do not try at once rarely try at all Steve P. Young, App Masters0:29.
  • Getting 100% of new users to see the paywall is one of the biggest things you can do Brandon Gador, onX30:40.
  • A common target is above 80% in the first session, a number Phil Carter attributes to Superwall's founder, Jake Moore Jacob Eiting, RevenueCat46:15.
• Move login to after the paywall. Let people pay or start a trial first, then collect account details.
  • Coconote called moving login to the last screen significant Brett Bauman and Zack Hargett, Coconote30:28.
  • Calm makes payment first and then forces sign-up, so it keeps the email requirement Steve P. Young, Calm6:43.
  • With sign-up first, only about 60% of one fitness client's users reached the paywall. People are more willing to pay than to hand over an email Steve P. Young, RiseGuide7:53.
• Add entry points outside onboarding too. Make them easy to see.
  • 80 to 90% of buyers purchase during onboarding or from the homepage, so do not hide the paywall there Steve Young and Lucas, Paddle10:56.
  • Open the paywall from every locked feature Steve P. Young, Universal TV remote app7:04.
  • A yellow crown icon got a 20% click-through to the paywall, against 13% for a star Steve Young and Lucas, Paddle10:56.
  • A Tinder test of a top navbar subscription toggle generated $50 million in revenue Jeff Morris, Tinder32:32.

2.2 Lead with the problem and what users lose

Copy that names a real loss, a shared mission or the product at work beats a generic feature list.

• Close the pitch with what users lose today if they do not subscribe. Name a specific near-term loss, not long-term outcomes Asia Paloni, Welltory19:32.
  • Welltory's close says that without the app you won't see when bad stress hits, it keeps draining you, and you'll feel as tired tonight.
  • A benefits ending ("more energy, you'll feel great") converted worse than this ending.
• Use emotion and mission when your audience feels a bond with you.
  • Tie payment to the mission. Duolingo's line says that by paying, you make language learning accessible to millions of people Gina Gotthilf, Duolingo49:19.
  • Test an image tied to your readers' shared story. An immigrant boat photo beat a Greek building by 13% Neos Kosmos.
  • Margins showed one onboarding paywall that basically said to subscribe because you love us. It took about 5 minutes to design, no features were members-only, and a surprising number of people subscribed Paul Warren, Margins44:10.
• Show the product doing its job.
  • Cal AI opens with a video of someone photographing food and seeing calories counted, then repeats it on the paywall to remind users what they signed up for Daniel Heintzman, Cal AI32:00.
  • Replace "upgrade to pro" with benefit wording such as "unlock additional stats" or "understand your triggers", because nobody wants to upgrade Steve P. Young and Flo, Sick Days29:38.
  • In a client test, a crown icon alone beat the crown with "upgrade" and a star Steve P. Young and Flo, Sick Days29:38.
• Use the screens before the paywall to clear objections, and keep the paywall itself light.
  • Chain onboarding questions, a social proof screen and a trial timeline screen, then the paywall Steve P. Young, App Masters5:57.
  • One app saw a 56% rise in trial activations from this flow, but it did not work for one client app Steve P. Young, App Masters5:57.
  • Extra context on a pricing page hurt conversion more than none, because excited users got overwhelmed Ethan Ethier, Built With Science55:20.

2.3 Add trust cues and remove doubt

Users buy when they know what will happen, what it costs and how to get out.

• Replace promo copy with a real review. Show an actual user review with a 5-star rating, and A/B test it against your current copy Runtastic.
• Lay out the trial timeline and refund rules. Duolingo's goal is clarity and confidence, not persuasion Anmol Tiwari, Duolingo0:48.
  • Show what happens on which day of the trial, and be explicit about refunds when users switch plans.
  • Cal AI's pre-paywall screen showed "no payment now" plus pricing, which made viewers think the paywall had already come. Steve suggests "7 days on us" and a continue button, with prices only on the paywall Steve P. Young, Cal AI6:51.
• Say in one plain line that the trial is free.
  • TIPSTOP added a short message like "Free during the month" with a discount badge, and direct conversion jumped 190% TIPSTOP.
• Test a money back guarantee line.
  • In a RevenueCat Experiment, the variant with guarantee language was ahead on initial conversions and trial activations after 4 days Steve P. Young, RevenueCat8:03.
  • Let it run longer, and judge it on LTV and revenue at the bottom of the report Steve P. Young, RevenueCat8:03.
• Make every accepted payment method visible.
  • Chick-fil-A's layout made customers think only the loyalty card worked. Clearer layouts and CTAs led to a 6% increase in credit card payments Chick-fil-A.

2.4 Write the button and show the plans

Small wording changes and simple packaging move more revenue than most people expect.

• Make the button say the trial costs nothing.
  • Duolingo went from "Subscribe" to "Start my free trial", then "Try for free", then "Try for $0.00", which beat the rest Cem Kansu, Duolingo31:14.
  • Name the premium trial, not a generic free signup. Going's "Trial for free" drove 104% more trial starts month over month Going.
  • "Try for $0.00" lifted both trial starts and trial-to-paid, and the graphs looked so green the team suspected a measurement error Cem Kansu, Duolingo31:14.
  • Duolingo's chief product officer also said "try for $0" beat "try for free" Jacob Eiting and David Barnard, RevenueCat57:55.
  • Duolingo dedicates a large part of its roadmap to small CTA copy tests, because a small change can lead to a big increase in bookings Natalia Castillejo, Duolingo31:00.
• Start the trial with one tap.
  • Slopes built a payramp that starts the trial in one touch and skips the secondary paywall screen. It gave a 25% improvement in trial start Slopes.
• Offer three plans and simplify how they look.
  • Make the three a cheap plan, the ideal plan with the highest lifetime value, and a decoy App Masters13:37.
  • Cut repeated copy, simplify plan names and show visual hierarchy. Test packaging before price points Jonathan Parra, Superwall7:04.
  • On web checkout, convert each plan to a per day price Steve P. Young, App Masters15:46.
  • Superwall data shows two plans lifted conversion 61% over one, and three plans 44% over two App Masters13:37.
  • A simplified product group with plain plan names, a centered badge and a no-commitment line won by about 10% Jonathan Parra, Superwall7:04.
  • Tinder's paywall asks a model which single product to show each user, because customers do not need a lot of options, they need the right one Shawn Gong, Tinder5:45.

2.5 Catch the people who close the paywall

A second, cheaper offer recovers price-sensitive users, as long as they can still leave.

• Show a discounted paywall when the user taps X. Price-sensitive users will not pay the first price, so catch them in the moment Steve P. Young and Rosie, App Masters1:06.
  • Give a bigger discount to users who showed intent. Headway shows 70% off after a user opens a locked book, against 50% on the home page Steve P. Young and Chaim, B7 Dev10:00.
  • Send checkout abandoners to the same paywall with a higher discount Steve P. Young and Igor Lyubimov, Headway25:11.
  • Glam Up's half-price version turns $8.99, $10.99 and $12.99 into $4.49, $5.49 and $6.49 Nicole, Glam Up25:00.
  • Productive shows a "one hour only" offer at 47% off, about $20 a year, renewing at $34.99 Steve P. Young, Productive6:20.
• Frame the second offer with a concrete price and a reason to act.
  • Use a message like "Secret offer unlocked. Only 40 bucks a year. You save 66% off this deal" Steve P. Young, Wager Lab10:39.
  • Add a personalized banner with the user's name, the current month and a 10-minute timer. It is easy to build and it is not a real coupon code CP Young, Coursiv10:47.
  • One app shows 92% off against a $89.99 anchor. Steve notes the real discount is small, but the framing lets you land on a higher price Steve P. Young, Photo Revive AI4:21.
  • A slider lets users pick their own discount, up to 50% off at $29.99. Most slide to the lowest price, so judge it on conversion and revenue Steve P. Young, App Masters11:47.
• Use two paywalls, with the first one softer than it looks.
  • Mindful Mamas' first page has no X and only a tiny "view all plans" link. The second page shows all plans and can be closed Jillian Lee Stout, Melody Boselin and Sunny Dulay, Mindful Mamas4:28.
  • Halo AI shows a skippable paywall in onboarding, then a gated one when the user hits send Dillion Verma, Halo AI41:51.
  • Mindful Mamas' download to trial or purchase conversion rose about 4% from the double paywall, then recovered to 16.4% with the semi-hard version Jillian Lee Stout, Melody Boselin and Sunny Dulay, Mindful Mamas4:28.
  • Both Halo AI paywalls convert at 16.5% each, and combined they beat one alone Dillion Verma, Halo AI41:51.

2.6 Test one trigger at a time

Fix the biggest leak first, and do not trust a design just because it worked for someone else.

• Test at the single moment with the biggest drop-off.
  • Peptalk built two variants for the exact moment free users tried to play a premium video, and one clearly won Peptalk.
  • Walk the flow and ask what share of customers even discover the subscription or see the upsell Jimmy Liu, DoorDash38:30.
  • At Discord's scale, fixing a slow or failing Nitro landing page was described as worth millions of dollars Francesco Polizzi, Discord39:15.
• Work on the paywall before building more features.
  • Start as soon as downloads come in Steve P. Young and Chaim, B7 Dev8:45.
  • One app grew from $250 to $1,000 a month with just 15 downloads a month Steve P. Young and Chaim, B7 Dev8:45.
  • Another went from about $1,000 to $8,000 to $10,000 a month with no new features, by changing onboarding, paywall and pricing Steve P. Young, App Masters8:18.
• Do not copy a paywall without testing it on your own traffic.
  • Apps that climbed the store through organic word of mouth made money regardless of paywall design, so imitators got nothing comparable Yuliya Lennox, Solid Starts55:00.
  • Noom shipped many checkout best practices with no meaningful lift, perhaps because a long onboarding builds so much motivation Brent Zajaczkowski, Noom51:23.

2.7 Where they disagree

Timing, length and how hard to push all depend on your product and audience, so test them.

• When to show it. Most sources say onboarding, but not all.
  • Instasize's open-app paywall won with a 7% increase in premium subscriptions Instasize.
  • One client's top-earning plan was shown on the third open, not in onboarding or on the second open Steve P. Young, App Masters27:53.
  • On Celebs, removing the onboarding paywall was a big win, because later placements converted better Patrick and Pablo, Social16:00.
• Long or short.
  • Penman's short paywall did not convert. A long page with social proof and a free versus premium table started lifting revenue Sobhan Eskandari, Penman3:56.
  • Web paywalls can carry about 14 blocks, against five on mobile Igor Lyubimov, web2wave18:27.
  • One App Masters client improved by using only the first Cal AI style screen instead of three screens TP Young, Routinery3:40.
  • Simply's long page fixed falling paywall conversion in Japan, where users expect a detailed story and social quotes Yoav Sharon, Simply58:00.
  • A long Japan winner lifted revenue about 20% there, yet failed in the US, where a cleaner design with a slider and short messages did better Michal Parizek, Mojo11:21.
• How hard to push. The line is whether users can leave.
  • Tolan's four-screen onboarding paywall was its biggest A/B winner, even though surveys say users find it a little annoying. It is skippable, which earns the right to be aggressive Ajay Mehta, Tolan31:46.
  • BoldVoice's forced versions show the cost of removing that exit Anada Lakra, BoldVoice19:40.
• What to lead with.
  • VEED's plan options beat a benefits list, and Neos Kosmos's emotional message also beat a benefits list VEED, Neos Kosmos.
  • Flo's advice still says to show what the subscription includes, since a basic template does not explain the value Steve P. Young and Flo, Sick Days29:38.