🎨 Creative Paywall Designs

Try something new

Hey there, it’s Jacob at Retention.Blog 👋

I got tired of reading high-level strategy articles, so I started writing actionable advice I would want to read.

Every Tuesday I share practical learnings you can apply to your business.

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If you’re not trying to continually improve your paywall, you’re missing out on capturing additional value

It’s easy to run out of new ideas that make sense test.

Are you tired of people asking, “Have you tried the Blinkest paywall?”

Here are 8 different creative styles you can try:

Rocket Money (formerly Truebill) has one of the most interesting tactics: Asking you what you want to pay!

This shifts the decision away from, “Should I start the trial?” to, “What amount should I choose?”

This also builds goodwill with their users since the app promises to help reduce subscriptions to save you money.

Do you change your main paywall to correspond with seasonal sales?

NordVPN uses a holiday sale paywall with a countdown timer to drive a greater sense of urgency.

How do you communicate that your subscription is actually relatively cheap?

Blossom compares their monthly price to being less than a cup of coffee.

I love this comparison because it instantly pushes away the “This is too expensive” argument.

HelloTalk uses a detailed feature comparison to show off their VIP subscription.

Caveat: I don’t love the design style, but it is different

I see the feature comparison chart a fair bit, but it’s not usually the main feature of the paywall and is secondary.

EWA English Language Learning uses a chatbot conversation style to show the paywall offer.

Not everyone can do this style, but it’s worth trying if it fits into the style of your product

ME+’s actual paywall isn’t innovative, but I love the screen before where they ask you to sign your name.

I see this as part of the same experience, so I’ll count it.

I’ve talked about Imprint before, but show me another app that’s paywall is 9+ screens worth of content.

They address most arguments for not starting a trial and show the depth of content in the app. It’s a powerful way to convey value.

Does your company have multiple apps?

This tactic obviously only works if you have multiple apps. Air Apps has a bundle they offer to access all their apps.

They create many single-purpose utility apps that may not be worth paying for on their own, but this strategy gets distribution and cross-promotion for all of their other apps.

Do you know of other app companies that create a bundle? (Let me know!)

I know a few companies that make multiple apps, but I haven’t seen many bundles.

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Here is the Whimsical board with the paywalls

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