Yearly plan only on the paywall: lost on conversion and revenue
Commentary byLiftArchiveOur analysis, not theirsShowing only the yearly plan on Stardust's paywall lost on both conversion and proceeds per user.
Stardust, a cycle and pregnancy tracking app, ran this test, written up on the Superwall blog. No figures were shared for this variant.
- Paywall conversion: lower than the control. The size of the drop was not shared.
- Proceeds per user: also lower, so focusing on the yearly plan did not make up for lost buyers.
- In the same test, adding a discount badge and weekly-equivalent price won instead, lifting conversion by 50%.
The change
The weekly plan is removed, leaving only the yearly plan.
Simplified mockup drawn by LiftArchive from the shared screenshots.
Control
The paywall showed a yearly plan ($24.99) and a weekly plan ($2.99).
Variant
The paywall showed only the yearly plan, with the weekly option removed.
Why it likely lost
Our reading of the result, not the practitioner's claim.
- Without a cheaper option, users who were not ready for a yearly commitment had nothing to pick.
- The weekly price may act as an anchor that makes the yearly plan look like a good deal. Removing it takes that away.
- Fewer choices can feel like less control, which may put off users at the moment of purchase.
Caveats: No figures, sample size or duration were shared for this variant, and the post was written by Superwall, which sells the paywall testing tool used.
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 show only the yearly plan on the paywall, then proceeds per user will rise because every buyer takes the high-value plan.
- Primary metric
- Proceeds per user
- Guardrails
- Paywall conversion rate
- Trial start rate
- Refund rate
- Who should test it
- Apps where most revenue already comes from yearly plans and short plans mostly cannibalize them. Apps where many buyers pick a short plan, as here, are likely to lose.
Questions
Does removing short plans push users to yearly?
Not in this test. Stardust lost both conversion and proceeds per user when only the yearly plan was shown.
What worked better for Stardust?
Keeping both plans and adding a discount badge and weekly-equivalent price to the yearly plan. That lifted conversion by 50%.