When to choose a hard paywall over freemium

1 The bottom line

Choose a hard paywall when you pay for users or sell a focused, high-intent product, and keep a free tier only when free users create value. A hard paywall converts about five times better, so the wrong choice costs real revenue.

2 Key takeaways

• A hard paywall converts about five times better than freemium and does not hurt year-one retention. The first session is when intent peaks, and a hard paywall captures it.
  • Hard paywalls convert 10.7% of installs to paid versus 2.7% for freemium Rik Haandrikman, RevenueCat33:22.
  • Median year-one retention is 26.8% for hard paywall apps and 27.7% for freemium apps Jacob Eiting and David Barnard, RevenueCat44:00.
• Keep a free tier only when free users create value. Free users must convert later, see ads, or bring in new users, or the free tier is charity.
  • Quizlet drove over 90% of its acquisition through SEO and word of mouth Rik Haandrikman, RevenueCat33:22.
  • Freemium suits companies chasing a very large top of funnel, like Spotify, Duolingo and Strava Phil Carter, Elemental Growth1:04:20.
• Paid traffic and narrow products point to a hard paywall. Paid users cost money, and niche users came for exactly what the app does.
  • On an acquired niche app, start trial rate went from 6% to 13% while trial to paid stayed the same, so revenue doubled on the same downloads Steve Young, App Masters20:11.
  • A friend's app for cops saw 3x revenue with a hard paywall Steve P. Young, App Masters14:40.
• Test the choice on your own app. The gap can be large, and strong opinions about what feels scammy were wrong more than once.
  • One app went from $1 to $10,000 a month with a hard paywall, then fell to $5,000 a month with a soft paywall and an X Steve P. Young, App Masters10:21.
• Treat the hard paywall as a first phase, not a permanent choice. It proves who pays, but heavy monetization limits how big you can grow.
  • Opal ran paid ads behind a hard paywall and went from zero to roughly $5 to 7 million in annual recurring revenue Kenneth Schlenker, Opal21:30.

otherwise what you're doing is just a charity

Rik Haandrikman, RevenueCat

2.1 Map how your product creates value

Before you pick a paywall, know where downloads come from, what users want most, and whether free users add anything.

• Plan the funnel before you design features, as Steve P. Young and Haim, B7Dev6:16 say.
  • Decide where downloads come from (organic, ASO or paid), how they become active users, and how users become paying customers.
  • Then choose which features are premium, locked or unlocked.
  • Developers often give away so many features that users have no reason to upgrade Steve P. Young, App Masters9:35.
  • Evernote struggled after it "gave away too much" Steve Young, App Masters15:17.
• Name the strategic reason for any free tier before you design it Elena Verna, Amplitude49:45.
  • Free can be a proof of concept, a land grab in a segment, indirect acquisition, or a data source for paid products.
  • Conversion rate optimization is a tactic on top, not the purpose.
  • About half of SurveyMonkey's user base was free and drove 100 percent of its acquisition. LinkedIn's free base made Sales Navigator possible Elena Verna, Amplitude49:45.
• Do the cost per user math before you offer anything free Steve Young, App Masters17:28.
  • Work out your cost per user and how many people will actually convert.
  • Kids and tipping categories tend to be free. A product that saves time or money can charge.
  • Tolan's beta users chatted 30 to 40 minutes per session, so the team shipped a subscription-only paywall before public launch Ajay Mehta, Tolan16:46.
  • OpenAI used a paid tier to turn away less serious users while servers were overloaded Nick Turley, OpenAI37:52.
• Do not postpone your business model.
  • Set the model up front. It can still evolve Tomas Hoyos, Apt1:01:31.
  • You usually get one shot at a user, so do not be shy about monetizing Steve P. Young and Haim, B7 Dev12:37.
  • Tomas's earlier healthcare social network grew to several million users but never settled its model Tomas Hoyos, Apt1:01:31.
  • Flame stayed free until money was nearly gone at the end of 2023, and the founder called it a mistake An (Anup), Flame19:43.
  • Dmitri waited 6 months to monetize, then took 11 more months to reach about $1,000, about a year to $10k, and about a year to $28k Dmitri, YourMove AI6:35.

2.2 Check how you acquire users

If you pay for installs, a hard paywall protects your return. If users arrive on their own and spread the word, a free tier can earn its place.

• If you pay for acquisition, test a hard paywall Jacob Eiting and David Barnard, RevenueCat38:41.
  • Capture the first session, when intent peaks. Freemium makes you wait for the user to return, and half are gone by tomorrow.
  • Steve suggests a hard paywall for all Meta paid traffic Steve P. Young, App Masters3:16.
  • Most purchases happen in the first day or two or three Ryan McLeod, Blackbox4:24.
  • Steve bought an app earning about $1,000 to $2,000 a month, added a hard paywall, and raised the price from a $3 one-time purchase to $60 a year. Revenue rose to $8,000 a month. He saw hard paywalls and Meta traffic in common among bootstrapped founders who had to be ROI positive Steve P. Young, App Masters2:03.
• Split the paywall by traffic source.
  • Ask "how did you hear about us" in onboarding. Show the X to search and brand users. Remove it for Instagram, Meta, Facebook and TikTok users Steve P. Young, App Masters2:56.
  • This balances ROI on paid traffic against one-star reviews from hard paywalls.
  • A Superwall test with this setup showed a clearly better trial start rate on the hard paywall Steve P. Young, App Masters4:34.
  • Lucas of AppStack shared a Superwall integration doing this that performed a lot better for one app Steve Young, App Masters39:30.
• Keep a free tier if free users bring in other users or revenue.
  • Ask whether free users drive word of mouth, network effects, data effects or brand scale. If none apply and you pay for acquisition, go hard Jacob Eiting and David Barnard, RevenueCat39:30.
  • Course Hero let students earn free access by uploading materials or pay a subscription. Contributions drove distribution and made the platform better for the next user Andrew Grauer, Learneo12:30.
  • When a trend sends search traffic, paid can win. A word game renamed Wordle and moved from free to $1.99 earned $50,000 on 10,000 downloads Steve P. Young, Wordle6:39.

2.3 Match the paywall to your product

Narrow, high-intent and utility products fit hard paywalls. Broad, novel or network-driven products fit free tiers.

• Test a hard paywall first on niche and utility apps Steve P. Young and Vitaly Davydov, App Masters11:57.
  • The more niche the app, the better these paywalls perform Ania Wysocka, Rootd31:27.
  • It works best when the user searched for exactly what the app delivers Steve P. Young, App Masters11:55.
  • The Universal TV remote app opens straight to a paywall and earns over $375,000 Steve P. Young, App Masters5:02.
  • Utility apps such as VPNs often see hard paywalls beat free or introductory offers Steve P. Young and Vitaly Davydov, App Masters11:57.
• Skip the free base if your users are high-intent professionals.
  • BoldVoice ignores basic learners and serves intermediate to advanced professionals. Do not mix one app's playbook with another's Anada Lakra, BoldVoice29:05.
  • That focus supports $150 to $200 a year against one-on-one coaching that costs hundreds of dollars an hour Anada Lakra, BoldVoice29:05.
  • Flighty uses a hard paywall at about $40 a year because it is high-utility for business travelers Jeff Morris, Tinder14:02.
• Lock the core function, not the extras.
  • A scanner app lets users import files for free, but scanning requires paying. Someone who just downloaded a scanner usually needs to scan now Steve P. Young, App Masters9:35.
  • That app reportedly earns over $300,000 Steve P. Young, App Masters9:35.
• Go freemium when your market is big or the experience must be felt.
  • A narrower market cannot afford a large free base the way a Duolingo-scale market can Brandon Gador, onX43:20.
  • Duolingo's free base works because it teaches the basics to hobby learners Anada Lakra, BoldVoice29:05.
  • About 90% of AllTrails users are on free, while onX leans toward a trial Brandon Gador, onX43:20.
  • Grammarly's extension was so novel that "it would be a crime to pay wall that experience." Casual knowledge workers would not jump a paywall the way students with high-stakes papers would Yuriy Timen, Grammarly0:50.

2.4 Run the test and read it right

Use a hard paywall as a fast demand test, and read each part of the funnel on its own.

• Launch with a hard paywall to learn whether people will pay.
  • With no X, users must start a trial or leave. Steve calls it the best way to force a product market fit test Steve Young, App Masters29:10.
  • Aim for a start trial rate of at least 5% and maybe 10%. Treat trial to paid below the 30 to 40% industry average as a product problem, not a channel problem Steve Young, App Masters29:10.
  • Taking away a small X brought trial starts back to 8 to 10% Steve P. Young, App Masters13:17.
  • Paying users also give more valuable feedback than free users Christine Dart, Helpshift6:00.
• Track start trial rate and trial to paid separately.
  • The X changes who starts a trial, not who pays after it Steve P. Young, App Masters3:36.
  • After onboarding, a higher price and a hard paywall, an acquired app's revenue went from 1 to 2,000 to 8 to 10,000. Adding the X back halved trial starts and revenue Steve P. Young, App Masters3:36.
  • Trial to paid did not change with or without the X Steve P. Young, App Masters2:56.
• Put the paywall first, right after onboarding.
  • Show the paywall before sign-up and push notification asks. More paywall views mean more money Steve P. Young, App Masters11:55.
  • That change gave a 52 percent sales increase, with paywall views going from 40 to 94 Steve P. Young, App Masters11:55.
  • A full hard paywall right after onboarding beat explore-first by 50% in conversion, even though explore-first feels better for user psychology Nicole, madebycol44:37.
• Fix downloads before you blame the paywall.
  • With a handful of downloads a day, you have a download problem, not a sales problem Jaime and Steve P. Young, B7 Dev14:40.
  • Steve said to worry only if 50 to 100 downloads a day produce no buyers Jaime and Steve P. Young, B7 Dev14:40.
  • He suggests the hard paywall test at about 20 downloads a day if you need early revenue Steve P. Young and Chaim Sajnovsky, App Masters6:36.
• Expect side effects and plan for them.
  • Expect some one-star reviews, especially if you took over an app that used to be free Steve P. Young, App Masters3:36.
  • Watch for lower LTV if users pick monthly plans Steve P. Young, App Masters11:55.
  • 8fit saw a drop-off from month 0 to 2 on monthly plans, after which it stabilized Saulo Marti, 8fit11:51.

2.5 Pick a middle option if hard feels too harsh

Several designs sit between a hard paywall and freemium, and some perform close to a hard paywall.

• Lock most of the content and give users trials.
  • Calm and Headway lock most content, and their free content is hard to find within 30 seconds Steve P. Young, App Masters15:00.
  • Locked content lets users see how much value sits behind the paywall. Flo shows tabs and insights that open the paywall when tapped Steve P. Young, Flo8:10.
  • A friend making $8,000 to $10,000 a month found locked content about equal to a hard paywall Steve P. Young, App Masters15:00.
• Delay or hide the close button.
  • 8fit asks for an email, then shows a paywall with the X fading in after three or four seconds Saulo Marti, 8fit11:51.
  • Zero shows no X, then sends a push minutes later saying you can start for free, which reveals the X Steve P. Young, App Masters13:37.
  • A softer version hides the plans behind "view all plans" and adds a "maybe later" close Steve P. Young, App Masters11:54.
  • 8fit's earlier soft paywall let people browse for free, which gave them no reason to convert Saulo Marti, 8fit11:51.
• Require a credit card for the trial.
  • The card screens out low-intent sign-ups and leaves a smaller, higher-quality pool Outseta.
  • Fewer uncommitted users also means a lighter support load Outseta.
  • Outseta moved from freemium to a 7-day card-required trial, and conversion rose to 35% from 7.25% Outseta.
• Try a reverse trial.
  • Give new users 7, 14 or 30 days of premium, then let them fall back to a free plan. Freemium builds growth and awareness, and the trial adds paid conversion Lauryn Isford, Airtable39:39.

2.6 Plan how your model will change

Many teams start hard to prove demand, then open the product up once they know who pays and what they pay for.

• Start hard, and soften after your first revenue milestone.
  • Launch with a hard paywall and wait until your first $1,000, or even $10,000, in revenue before working out a longer-term strategy Steve P. Young, Productive10:02.
  • Use the paid phase to learn who your core user is and what they will pay for Kenneth Schlenker, Opal21:30.
  • Once the app is proven and churn matters, test a soft paywall with an X Steve P. Young, App Masters12:36.
• Open up when you want scale, not just revenue.
  • Heavy monetization can support a business of a few million to maybe $10 or $20 million in ARR. Opal then moved to a more accessible premium product with much of the app free Kenneth Schlenker, Opal23:00.
  • Students became Opal's biggest new segment after the shift. They have massive needs but do not necessarily convert Kenneth Schlenker, Opal23:00.
  • Mojo converts over 50% of its revenue after the first day, using a generous free tier and a tasteful once-a-week paywall Jacob Eiting and David Barnard, RevenueCat39:30.
• Accept a short-term dip if the top of funnel will grow.
  • Grammarly set its freemium test to tolerate up to about a 10% immediate revenue dip. Converting even a small percent of the new users over time would cover the gap Yuriy Timen, Grammarly17:58.
  • Revenue dipped but top of funnel exploded, so the team moved its whole $30M a year business to freemium Yuriy Timen, Grammarly17:58.
  • One client moving from hard paywall to a free product with a 7-day trial of the best version saw a 75% increase in LTV per user, alongside other pricing changes. It takes more sophistication Phil Carter, Elemental Growth1:02:28.

2.7 Where they disagree

The evidence favors hard paywalls on average, but some operators saw freemium win, and some products need growth before revenue.

• Does freemium ever convert better?
  • Rosie has seen higher conversion when users can exit the upsell and enter the app than with a hard paywall. A crossword app saw similar revenue from locked content and a hard paywall Steve P. Young and Rosie, App Masters9:59.
  • Against that, one client's freemium shift cut subscriber conversion by more than 50% and was pulled after a couple of weeks Phil Carter, Elemental Growth1:04:20.
• Charge early, or grow first?
  • Jeff Morris says "I'm a big fan of monetizing early" Jeff Morris, Tinder14:02.
  • Zero grew a huge user base first, turned on monetization, and its daily revenue was climbing toward $100K to $200K per Sensor Tower Steve P. Young, App Masters7:30.
  • Lenny wrote every week for nine months before adding a paywall, and made meaningful dollars about a month after launching it Lenny Rachitsky, Lenny's Newsletter8:54.
• How early should the ask come?
  • Asking earlier helped at first, but pushing it earlier and earlier did not keep improving results. Ask after players have felt some value, not at launch Ryan McLeod, Blackbox7:29.
  • Steve's advice is the opposite for most apps: put the paywall inside onboarding, even for an app with about 5 million monthly active users. Revenue and retention both rose, though he admits it is one case study Josh and Steve P Young, Miracle Morning36:40.
• Time-boxed trials suit small buyers, not enterprise.
  • A fixed trial window fits a startup that finishes in 24 to 48 hours but alienates enterprises that may need a month. Bound free use by usage instead Elena Verna, Amplitude42:30.
  • MongoDB lets anyone prototype on a free shared cluster with no time limit, and production use moves to paid Elena Verna, Amplitude42:30.
• Platform risk and long-term fit.
  • Apple reviewers vary, and some developers have received emails telling them not to use a hard paywall Steve P. Young, App Masters13:18.
  • When Apple forced the X back onto one hard paywall, trial activation dropped from 13% to 6% Steve P. Young, App Masters2:56.
  • Steve says a hard paywall may not be the right long-term strategy, but it is worth testing at launch Steve P. Young, App Masters11:54.