Soft Paywall Debate: Under 100 Users, Hard Paywalls Win — Churn at Onboarding and Paywall Kills Conversions
jdluk87 · x · 2026-10-04
Steven Cravotta says running a soft paywall doesn't make you a "better person" — it just makes your app convert terribly. jdluk87 pushes back: it depends on the app. For most devs with under 100 users, soft paywalls give almost zero value due to churn at onboarding and the paywall; when adding fewer than 100 new users per day, you need users to validate and improve the product, making hard paywalls the smarter choice.
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