Toggle paywall vs timeline paywall: +19% ARPU for the toggle
Commentary byLiftArchiveOur analysis, not theirsFits tested a toggle-style paywall against a Blinkist-style timeline paywall, and the toggle version won with 19% higher ARPU.
A follow-up test by Fits founder Ludwig Henne found the toggle itself wasn't the main driver: the plan layout was.
The result was published on the RevenueCat blog.
- ARPU: +19% for the toggle paywall against the timeline paywall.
- Follow-up: when Fits isolated the toggle, it was not the main source of the lift. The gain came from the visual hierarchy of the plans.
- Sample size, test length and confidence were not shared.
The change
Trial timeline versus a toggle paywall with a bigger, badged annual plan
Simplified mockup drawn by LiftArchive from the shared screenshots.
Control
A Blinkist-style "honest" timeline paywall, showing what happens after the trial starts: access today, a reminder before the trial ends, then the charge.
Variant
A toggle paywall in the style Adam Lyttle popularized. It had a free-trial switch, the yearly price shown as a smaller per-period amount, a "Most Popular" badge and a larger annual plan option.
Why it likely won
Our reading of the result, not the practitioner's claim.
- Showing the yearly price broken down into a smaller amount made the annual plan look cheaper.
- The "Most Popular" badge and a bigger annual option drew attention to the higher-value plan.
- The timeline paywall is built to raise trust in the trial, which can lift trial starts without lifting revenue per user.
Caveats: No sample size, duration or significance was shared, and the result was retold on the RevenueCat blog. Apple now rejects free-trial toggles on iOS, which matters less here since the plan layout drove the gain.
Who ran it
Fits ran this test. Source: RevenueCat blog. The numbers are theirs; the summary and commentary on this page are ours.
How to run this test on your app
- Hypothesis
- If we show the yearly price as a per-period amount, badge it "Most Popular" and make the annual option bigger, then ARPU will rise because the best-value plan looks cheaper and more obvious.
- Primary metric
- ARPU
- Guardrails
- Trial start rate
- Trial-to-paid conversion
- Refund rate
- Who should test it
- Apps with a yearly plan that want more annual buyers, especially iOS apps that lost the toggle and want to keep its gains. Less useful if you sell a single plan.
Questions
Was it the toggle that won?
Mostly not. Fits isolated the toggle in a follow-up and found the plan layout did most of the work: normalized yearly price, a "Most Popular" badge and a larger annual option.
What should iOS apps test now that toggles are rejected?
Keep the plan layout that drove the gain and drop the toggle.
A multi-plan picker with a trial plan is one compliant option.
Is the timeline paywall a bad idea then?
Not always. It can build trust and lift trial starts, but in this test it earned less per user than the toggle layout.
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