Monthly vs Weekly vs Free Trial: the pdf scanner's A/B test

The bottom line

A weekly subscription with a free trial converted best in the PDF scanner app's test, at 2.29%. It nearly doubled the monthly plan's rate, so a trial can lift paywall conversion more than plan length alone.

Key takeaways

• The weekly plan with a trial had the highest conversion rate of the three. It beat both the monthly and the plain weekly plan.
  • Trial: 2.29%, weekly: 1.63%, monthly: 1.21%.
• The trial plan converted almost twice as well as the monthly plan. The gap between 2.29% and 1.21% is the largest in the test.
• The plain weekly plan also beat the monthly plan. Its rate of 1.63% was higher than the monthly 1.21%.

The test setup

The team compared three subscription models to find which one generates the most profit.

• The three variants were a monthly plan, a weekly plan and a weekly plan with a trial period.
  • The app is the PDF scanner, tested in the paywall and free trial category.

The result

The trial variant led on conversion rate, ahead of both other plans.

• The trial subscription converted at 2.29%.
  • That is almost twice the monthly rate of 1.21%.
  • It is also above the weekly rate of 1.63%.