One-tap trial card instead of the paywall: +25% trial starts
Commentary byLiftArchiveOur analysis, not theirsSlopes replaced the paywall at its key upsell spots with a one-tap "trial quickstart" card, and trial starts rose 25% in the A/B test.
Trial-to-paid stayed at about the same rate, so the extra trials were not low-quality.
Curtis Herbert ran the test on Slopes, a ski and snowboard tracker, and wrote it up on the Slopes Diaries blog.
- Trial starts: +25% over the course of the A/B test.
- Trial-to-paid: about the same as before, per the author. The extra trials converted at a similar rate.
- Side benefit: Slopes also sells day and week passes, and the card gave users one clear path instead of a choice between products.
The change
A full paywall becomes a single card whose button starts the trial purchase directly.
Simplified mockup drawn by LiftArchive from the shared screenshots.
Control
Tapping an upsell in the app opened the standard Slopes paywall, with plan options and a feature list, before a user could start a trial.
Variant
A simple card with a graphic and one button to start the free trial. The button opened the system purchase sheet directly, with no paywall screen in between. The idea came from how Apple Arcade presents its free trial.
Why it likely won
Our reading of the result, not the practitioner's claim.
- The card asks for a small, low-risk step (try premium) instead of the final purchase decision.
- Framing the trial as something already waiting for the user may feel like claiming a perk rather than buying.
- Removing the plan comparison cut the mental math of choosing between passes and a subscription.
- Users who tried premium saw its value first-hand, which may explain why trial-to-paid held.
Caveats: Sample size and significance were not shared; the test ran for the first two months of the 2021/22 ski season. Other changes that season (a trial popup and a new maps screen) were not A/B tested and are not part of this result.
Who ran it
Slopes ran this test. Source: Slopes Diaries (Curtis Herbert's 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 replace the paywall at in-app upsell points with a one-tap free trial card, then trial starts will rise without hurting trial-to-paid, because users are asked to try premium rather than to choose and buy a plan.
- Primary metric
- Trial start rate per user who sees an upsell
- Guardrails
- Trial-to-paid conversion
- Revenue per install
- Refund rate
- Who should test it
- Apps that already offer a free trial and whose users hit premium features in context, especially if the paywall shows several products. It is less likely to help apps without a trial or where most revenue comes from one-off purchases.
Questions
Is it allowed to skip the paywall and go straight to the purchase sheet?
Slopes reports it fit App Store guidelines after Apple relaxed the required text next to in-app purchases.
The price still has to be shown on the card.
Won't more trials just mean more cancellations?
In this test trial-to-paid stayed about the same.
Still, track it as a guardrail, since a cheaper ask can pull in less committed users.
Should the full paywall go away entirely?
Slopes used the card at key upsell spots.
You can keep a full paywall elsewhere for users who want to compare plans.
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