Advanced Strategies for Optimizing Mobile App Paywalls: Maximizing Conversions and User Engagement

To maximize conversions with your mobile app paywall, it's crucial to select the appropriate paywall type. The reason is that paywalls can be designed in various ways, each serving a specific purpose.

For instance, if your app's main method of attracting users is through free trials, you should consider implementing a paywall focused on trials—one that clearly communicates how the trial operates and the benefits users will gain. On the other hand, a premium app that requires more persuasion to sell might benefit from a detailed, long-form paywall rather than a basic one. And if your goal is to quickly drive upgrades, incorporating an "offer" paywall can be an effective strategy.

In essence, you need to be strategic in planning your paywalls. To assist you, we’re exploring ten of the most widely used mobile app paywall types today. We’ll not only discuss the different types but also examine the various conversion techniques they employ.

Single plan paywallcopy link

This might seem surprising, but a vast number of apps only offer a single pricing plan. It’s simple: Here, the app is only available in a single plan, billed weekly, monthly, or yearly. Take the app’s paywall, for instance. This paywall offers a single subscription plan – the only one that the app has:?

The wellness app Calm, too, only comes with one subscription plan:

One plus with the single pricing paywall (or app business) is that users don’t need to think and compare multiple plans and choose the one that offers the best value – an exercise that can cure analysis paralysis.

Multiplan paywall

When it comes to offering multiple subscription plans, again, there’s no standard way. There are apps offering everything from two to five subscription options.

Offering two premium plans

The simplest multiplan pricing structure in mobile apps is offering a monthly plan along with a heavily discounted yearly plan. This is an excellent example of price anchoring: Once the user sees your monthly pricing, they can calculate the value for a year. And then, based on that, the yearly subscription plan looks like an easy decision as it’s usually heavily discounted.

The “Save 82%” tag is difficult to miss. As you can see, the annual plan costs you only $2.99/month compared to the $15.99 you pay for the monthly subscription.?

Here’s yet another app that offers monthly and annual subscription options, but unlike the above app, this paywall doesn’t do any math for the users and doesn’t even try to get users to buy a specific version:?

Also, did you notice that both these apps use charm pricing? Charm pricing takes advantage of the “left digit bias,” which leads people to believe that $2.99 is a more attractive price than $3! Most mobile apps use this charm pricing technique

Offering three plans?

Look at any SaaS product, and you’ll likely see three plans. Have you ever wondered why businesses always gravitate around the number “3” when offering purchase options?

The answer lies in the decoy effect. With the decoy effect, you have two pricing plans that are noticeably more difficult to consider, given an easy third choice. In fact, the third choice is designed in a way that it appears to be a much better deal than the other options.?

Mobile apps widely use the three-plan scheme. Here, you typically give your users a choice among weekly, monthly, and three-monthly plans. Another hack you get to use with this approach is tagging your best-value plan. Adding visual cues like “most popular” or “best-selling” labels on the plans you want to promote skew your users’ decision. When users see a plan to be the most purchased, they tend to believe it offers the best value. This is also using social proof for selling.

It’s also common to see monthly, quarterly, and annual plan options.

You can see this app makes choosing the yearly option almost a no-brainer. Do the math: For the cost of two months, you’re covered for the entire year.

Note that sometimes, the annual discount offer may only apply to the first year.

If this is the case with you, it’s best to state so transparently.

Offering the lifetime premium option

Another plan that you routinely get to see in premium apps is the lifetime access plan. Here, users get a one-time purchase option along with monthly and annual plans.?

The lifetime business model doesn’t suit every app, but it can appeal to many users, especially if they see themselves using the app for some time.

This app, however, doesn’t push its users to go with the lifetime plan. It’s making the yearly plan look like the winner. Perhaps the lifetime plan is only there to get the users to choose the annual plan, which seems like a better deal.

Unlike this app, many apps that offer lifetime plans show them as the plan of choice

Wrapping it up…

As we've explored, each type of paywall comes with its own advantages and drawbacks. Depending on your specific needs and goals, one may be more suitable than the others.

To determine the best paywall type for your mobile app:

Begin by formulating hypotheses about which options might be most effective for your app. Consider your app's business model, primary conversion channels, and any relevant data you have at hand. Conduct experiments to identify the paywall strategies that generate the highest revenue for your app.