Paywall before onboarding, plus a carousel: 2% to 15% trial opt-in
Commentary byLiftArchiveOur analysis, not theirsMoving the paywall from after the home screen to right after the welcome screen lifted trial opt-in from 2% to 8%, and adding a three-slide carousel before that paywall pushed it to 15%.
Rosie Hoggmascall ran this three-way test at a subscription app they worked on. It was retold on the RevenueCat blog.
- Flow A (paywall after home): 2% trial opt-in.
- Flow B (paywall before onboarding): 8% trial opt-in, four times the control.
- Flow C (carousel, then paywall before onboarding): 15% trial opt-in, the best of the three.
- Trial-to-paid, refunds and revenue were not shared, so the downstream effect is unknown.
The change
Flow C: a carousel and the paywall move ahead of onboarding and home.
Simplified mockup drawn by LiftArchive from the shared screenshots.
Control
Flow A: welcome screen, then onboarding, then the home screen, and only then the paywall.
Variant
Flow B put the paywall straight after the welcome screen, before onboarding. Flow C added a new three-slide carousel between the welcome screen and that early paywall.
Why it likely won
Our reading of the result, not the practitioner's claim.
- Users who reach the home screen first may start using the free app and never see a reason to pay. An early paywall catches them while intent from the install is highest.
- The carousel gives a short value pitch, so the paywall lands with context instead of out of nowhere.
- Flow C changes two things versus A (placement and the carousel), so the jump from 8% to 15% is the cleanest read on the carousel alone.
Caveats: Sample size, duration and significance were not shared, and the app is not named. The result is retold secondhand on the RevenueCat blog, a vendor that sells paywall tools, and only trial opt-in was reported.
Who ran it
Rosie Hoggmascall 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 a short value carousel and then the paywall before onboarding, then more new users will start a trial because they see the offer at peak intent with enough context to judge it.
- Primary metric
- Trial start rate (install to trial)
- Guardrails
- Trial-to-paid conversion
- Day-7 retention of non-trial users
- Refund rate
- Who should test it
- Apps that put the paywall late or deep in the product and have a clear value story that fits in three slides. It may fit less well where users need to try the core feature before they believe in it.
Questions
Should the paywall come before or after onboarding?
In this test, showing it before onboarding beat showing it after the home screen by 2% to 8% trial opt-in.
Other apps put it at the end of onboarding, so test placement against your own flow.
Does a carousel before the paywall help?
Here, adding three slides before the early paywall nearly doubled trial opt-in again, from 8% to 15%. Keep the slides about value, not features.
What should I watch besides trial starts?
Check trial-to-paid and refunds. An earlier paywall can pull in less committed users who cancel before paying.