Paywall Newsletter #5
Updated: April 18, 2023
5 min read
In this issue if the paywall newsletter, our special guest comments on:
- a double paywall,
- a mullti-screen paywall,
- a paywall with a special offer counter, and more.
Paywalls of the issue are commented by…
Martin Macmillan, the CEO and Founder of Pollen VC, a debt funding platform for mobile apps and game developers to scale in a capital efficient way. They’ve helped scale hundreds of apps and have seen first hand how they make money.
Videoleap: try moving your plans to the second paywall
This is a very fair paywall representation – all the necessary information is there, even beyond requirements. I am assuming that a reminder about the trial end will arrive via push and/or email in 5 days. It’s not clear whether the trial is offered on all tiers or just yearly, but it can be easily discovered by checking the different options.
Provided the trial reminder actually arrives, this paywall is very clear and fair, which should allow for sustainable user growth and no issues with platforms.
Impulse: don’t spoil users with the trial for all plans
This is a standard paywall with fairly punchy pricing options: short trial leading to the weekly high cost subscription or an immediate long term subscription, where lifetime is not that different from yearly. Most users would still choose trial to check out the features and would have to remember to switch to yearly if they like it.
Phone Tracker: don’t forget about the credibility signals
The paywall design is attractive, and the credibility signals are there. Not clear how yearly is 68% cheaper than weekly. This requires the users to make mental calculations which is not great. No free trial offered but the weekly subscription is priced competitively, so the assumption is most will go with that.
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JamZoom: try a multi-screen paywall
Interesting multi-screen paywall. Clear offer with the ticks and X’s. Should work fairly well.
Stakeout: remember that you can do it without design
The app sends notifications when your favorite restaurant at Disney parks has a reservation available – editor’s remark.
The design is not great, but then this is an app for a very specific subset of population vs general population – who most likely don’t care about the design.
The tiers are made to incentivize Premium as there is no reason to buy Limited tier unless one is afraid to forget to cancel. Most of the people will use it during their temporary visit to the park, so a weekly plan can be introduced to check if it can bring in more revenue.
ReelsApp: make users feel urgency with a special offer counter
Nice design, and it’s great to have a counter as this makes the paywall a special offer. Great idea to show how much it costs per week for the yearly plan.
The pricing is done to entice the users to buy yearly subscriptions over quarterly. If the UA supports this, this is a viable strategy.
Virtu Key: don’t be this presumptuous
This one could have some improvements.
The benefits of the paywall are not clear enough: for example, does “reliable password generator” mean that the one in the free version is unreliable? Does “recover deleted items for free” means my deleted passwords will be stored somewhere where I don’t have any control over them? Does “add unlimited content” relate to passwords or other content?
The button names could be better. The discount offered by longer subscriptions is miniscule compared to the amount requested. No trial is offered for dubious benefits.
No credibility signal is offered, even though this is an unknown password manager app which is an extremely hard sell provided there are very established alternatives on the market, not to mention OS built-in free functionality.
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