7-day free trial on the $24.99 yearly plan: +131% paywall conversion
Commentary byLiftArchiveOur analysis, not theirsAdding a 7-day free trial to Stardust's $24.99 yearly plan lifted paywall conversion by 131%.
Across the test, trials raised proceeds per user by 78% and paying subscribers by 45%.
Stardust, a cycle and pregnancy tracking app, ran this test, written up on the Superwall blog.
- Paywall conversion: +131% for the $24.99 yearly plan with a 7-day trial vs no trial.
- Every variant with a free trial converted better than the control.
- After the trials ended, adding a trial raised proceeds per user by 78% and paying subscribers by 45%.
- Yearly share: the winning variant raised the share of yearly subscriptions by more than 50%.
- Higher-price variants without a trial converted worse, with similar proceeds per user.
The change
Same $24.99 yearly price, now with a 7-day free trial.
Simplified mockup drawn by LiftArchive from the shared screenshots.
Control
A $24.99 yearly plan with no free trial.
Variant
The same $24.99 yearly plan with a 7-day free trial. It was one of five variants, which also tested higher prices with and without trials.
Why it likely won
Our reading of the result, not the practitioner's claim.
- A free trial removes the risk of paying up front, so more users are willing to start.
- A low yearly price plus a trial is an easy yes for users who are unsure.
- The team waited for trials to end before calling it, so the gains held up after the trial-to-paid step.
Caveats: This was a multi-variant test with five price variants, and the blog post was written by Superwall, which sells the paywall testing tool used. Sample size and duration were not shared.
Who ran it
Stardust ran this test. Source: Superwall 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 add a 7-day free trial to our yearly plan, then more users will subscribe because they can try premium before paying.
- Primary metric
- Proceeds per user after trials end
- Guardrails
- Trial-to-paid conversion
- Paying subscribers
- Refund rate
- Who should test it
- Apps that sell a yearly plan with no trial. Apps that already offer a trial, or whose value is used up within the trial, may see less gain.
Questions
When can I call a free-trial test?
Only after the trials end and you know how many converted to paid.
Stardust paused the test until trial data matured.
Should I raise the price when I add a trial?
Stardust tested higher prices too. The higher prices without a trial converted worse, and the $24.99 trial variant won.