# Hard paywall to freemium with a multistep paywall: +75% LTV per user

- Outcome: Won
- Page type: Paywall (App)
- Elements: Freemium limits, Paywall design, Plans
- Date shared: 2026-04
- Test run by: [Phil Carter](https://liftarchive.com/practitioners/phil-carter/)
- Commentary by: LiftArchive (our analysis, not theirs)
- Original source: https://www.revenuecat.com/blog/growth/hard-paywall-vs-freemium/
- Page: https://liftarchive.com/test/anonymized-app-freemium-multistep-paywall/

An established subscription app replaced its hard paywall with a free version and a multistep paywall, and LTV per user rose 75%. Growth advisor Phil Carter (Elemental Growth) ran it with the app's team, and it was published on the RevenueCat blog. Pricing and packaging changed at the same time, so the lift can't be pinned on the paywall alone.

## Result

**+75% LTV per user**

- LTV per user: +75%, measured across the full change.
- The source says the wider free funnel brought more users into the core product and sped up organic acquisition. No figures were given for that.
- Sample size, duration, conversion rates and test design were not shared.

## Control

A hard paywall: users had to pay before using the core product.

## Variant

The app went freemium. A multistep onboarding paywall told users the product is free for good, invited them to try the best version for seven days, then asked them to keep paying for it. Other pricing and packaging changes shipped alongside.

## Why it likely won (our reading)

- Taking away the hard gate let far more people use the product, which grew the base that could convert later.
- Framing the trial as a taste of the best version, with a free plan as the fallback, likely felt lower-risk than pay-or-leave.
- The pricing and packaging changes may have raised revenue per payer on their own.

## Caveats

Bundled with pricing and packaging changes, and the test design was not described. The same switch failed badly for another of Phil Carter's clients.

## How to run this test

- Hypothesis: If we offer a permanent free plan and use a multistep paywall to invite users into a 7-day trial of premium, then LTV per user will rise because more people reach the core product and the best-fit users still upgrade.
- Primary metric: LTV per install (not just per payer)
- Guardrail: Install-to-paid conversion
- Guardrail: Trial-to-paid conversion
- Guardrail: Retention of free and paid users
- Who should test it: Mature apps with strong product-market fit and retention, runway to absorb a dip, and the analytics to tune feature gating. Bootstrapped apps that rely on cash from paid acquisition should probably keep the hard paywall.

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Credit: Phil Carter ran this test and owns the result. Summary and commentary by LiftArchive (https://liftarchive.com/test/anonymized-app-freemium-multistep-paywall/).
Usage: Free to use, quote and build on, with credit and a link: name the practitioner or organization that ran the test and link to its LiftArchive page. The results belong to the practitioners who ran and shared them; the summaries and commentary are LiftArchive's.