With the exponential growth of the subscription app market, competition within the market has intensified, prompting subscription apps to focus on user acquisition strategies. However, focusing solely on acquiring new users can be futile if you do not optimize paywalls in your post-install funnel. In fact, studies reveal that a staggering 80% of purchases in subscription apps occur at the initial paywall display, highlighting the importance of paywalls for revenue generation even before letting users use your app. 

In our previous blog post, we delved into the intricacies of paywall design and optimization. Today, we shift our focus towards introducing you to a range of software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions that streamline the process of building and managing paywalls, making it a hassle-free endeavor.

Building paywalls: Coding it yourself vs. SaaS solution

When it comes to building a paywall for your app, you have two major options: coding it yourself or leveraging a SaaS solution. One of the major challenges in coding it yourself is the burden of expending resources to develop and design. This becomes a significant problem if f your team lacks such resources or needs to move fast as an early-stage startup.

Another challenge is  A/B testing. Paywalls require heavy and periodic A/B testing for CTA buttons, pricing tables, quotations (e.g. social proof) and more. To add, re-designing, re-coding, and re-deploying these A/B testing variants at a high frequency is no easy feat for small teams with tight resource constraints.

Leveraging SaaS Solutions: Streamlining Paywall Building and Optimization

Due to the pain points stated above, utilizing SaaS paywall builder solutions to minimize technical resources and instead diverting resources to product development is a more prudent practice. These tools do a lot more than just create paywalls:

1. No-code Drag & Drop Paywall Builder

A user-friendly, drag and drop paywall builder is provided. Some even offer paywall templates or libraries, enabling you to design and implement stunning paywalls.

2. Easy payment infrastructure implementation

Connecting and managing payment systems can be a challenging task for app developers. However, these solutions simplify the process by integrating a purchasing infrastructure and implementing in-app purchases through software development kit (SDK).

3. A/B testing without app release

A/B testing is a must for subscription apps, as even small improvements can accrue a lot of revenue upside. Typically, conducting A/B testing on your own requires releasing a new version of your app and obtaining approval from the app market for each test. However, by utilizing these solutions, you gain the ability to control and modify your paywall without the need to release a new version every time.

4. Paywall & Subscription data Analytics

Within these solutions’ dashboard, you can conveniently access and review the outcomes of your A/B testing and delve into subscription-related metrics. This allows you to validate your hypotheses and make data-driven decisions for your next iterations.

5. 3rd party integrations

Similar to other SaaS products, they seamlessly integrate with a diverse range of third-party solutions. By leveraging collaborations with partners such as Product Analytics platforms or Mobile Measurement Partners (MMPs), you can establish robust data pipelines for comprehensive analytics.

Three prominent paywall builder solutions to consider

In the realm of paywalls, numerous solutions exist. However, for today's discussion, we will focus on three prominent options: Adapty, Purchasely, and Superwall.

Adapty

Adapty offers powerful features to analyze and enhance in-app subscriptions for developers and marketers. Adapty's documentation reveals a startling statistic: a mere 5% of users convert to subscribers. By leveraging Adapty, you can tap into the potential of the remaining 95% and unlock your app's maximum revenue potential.

With Adapty's paywall builder, creating paywalls and A/B testing becomes faster and easier. It allows users to configure paywalls, design visually, and copy them for seamless A/B testing. Additionally, the remote config feature allows instant changes to JSON file elements, reducing A/B testing time without app store review.

Adapty offers more than just a no-code paywall builder. It provides comprehensive analysis of subscription-related metrics, enabling you to evaluate crucial factors such as Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR), Average Revenue Per Paying User (ARPPU), and many other subscription and trial metrics based on various criteria. With Adapty, you can also compare revenue and advertising spend by cohort to refine your app marketing strategies. Additionally, Adapty facilitates optimization of the user journey through funnel reports, Lifetime Value (LTV) reports, and even LTV prediction utilizing the power of machine learning.

Purchasely

Purchasely positions itself as “The app monetization tool that is beloved by every team”. Every element of mobile app monetization and revenue growth fit together in its modern console. 

Purchasely boasts one of the most robust and extensively adaptable no-code paywall builders, equipped with a diverse range of fully customizable pre-designed templates, a native, real-time preview of your paywall. This enables users to create and iterate visually appealing paywalls in a matter of minutes, regardless of their limitations in development and design resources. The paywall configuration can be optimized for various devices, including tablets and TVs, in addition to mobile devices. Some other unique benefits of Purchasely include the easiness to build and deploy onboarding screens offering a diverse choice of actions other than to purchase, easily define and target user segments for delivering personalized experience, and collect live in-app transactional and user behavior events. Purchasely also offers a built-in A/B and multivariable test feature for paywall design and price experiments. All test elements, such as the design, plans, prices, deployment location, and target audience, can be effortlessly configured without the need for any coding.

Superwall

Superwall places significant emphasis on the efficiency and simplicity of constructing and evaluating paywalls. It offers a remarkably adaptable no-code paywall editor that enables users to swiftly and effortlessly build their paywalls using a drag-and-drop interface. Users can conveniently configure trigger events to display the paywall and gain insights into various metrics through A/B testing, presented in numerical and graphical formats.

Where Superwall distinguishes itself from other solutions is in its billing structure. Rather than implementing a fixed monthly fee, Superwall charges based on the number of paywall conversions. If cost is a crucial factor in your selection process, you have the option to compare the rates of Superwall with other solutions to determine which offers greater affordability for your app.

(* Superwall is only available for iOS apps at the moment.)

Finishing up

The diverse availability of subscription management and paywall builder solutions is indicative of the significant value placed on constructing, managing, and optimizing paywalls. This underscores the challenging nature of crafting an effective paywall that successfully converts users into subscribers. Therefore, it is essential to approach this task with efficiency and efficacy.

Expedite your success by seeking a solution that will enable you to surpass competitors in the rapidly expanding subscription app market.