Paywall
The point at which a product stops being free and asks for payment — and the placement decision that determines both conversion and churn.
Growth & MetricsPaywalls come in three shapes. A hard paywall requires payment before any access. A soft paywall gates specific content or features while leaving the rest open. A metered paywall allows a set quantity — articles, exports, projects — before requiring payment. The choice is not about revenue maximisation in the abstract; it is about whether the product can demonstrate value before it asks, and how long that takes.
Placement is the whole decision. A paywall before the user has experienced the core value converts the already-convinced and loses everyone else. One placed at the moment of demonstrated need — the user has done the work and now wants to export it — converts far better and generates less resentment. The corollary is that the gate should sit at a natural boundary, not at an arbitrary one chosen because it was easy to implement.
What the paywall screen has to answer
What they get, what it costs including billing period, what happens to work already done, and how to cancel. The last one is not a concession — obscuring cancellation produces chargebacks and involuntary churn that cost more than the retained subscriptions.
In practice
A design tool gated exports behind a hard paywall at signup. Trial-to-paid ran at 4%. Moving to a metered model — three free exports, then pay — took it to 11%, and support tickets asking “what does it actually do” disappeared, because people had used it before deciding.
Where teams get it wrong
- A paywall before the user has experienced the core value.
- Gating at an arbitrary boundary chosen for implementation convenience.
- Not saying what happens to work already created on the free tier.
- Cancellation harder to find than the dispute button in a banking app.
- Hiding the billing period, so a monthly price is quietly an annual commitment.
Learn more
You may ask
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between a hard, soft and metered paywall?
A hard paywall blocks everything until payment. A soft paywall gates some content or features. A metered paywall allows a set quantity before requiring payment. Metered generally converts best when the product needs use to demonstrate value.
Where should a paywall appear in the user journey?
At the point of demonstrated need — after the user has done work they now want to keep, export or share. Gating before any value has been experienced converts only the already-convinced.
Related terms
All terms- FreemiumA model offering a permanently free tier alongside paid plans, where free users are an acquisition channel rather than a cost.
- Product-Led Growth (PLG)A go-to-market model where the product itself drives acquisition, conversion and expansion, rather than a sales team doing it first.
- ChurnThe rate at which customers stop paying or stop using a product over a given period — the mirror image of retention.
- ChargebackA forced reversal of a card payment initiated by the cardholder's bank — the customer's escape hatch when the merchant's own one is worse.
Defined by Mara Last reviewed .
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