---
title: Better Sleep onboarding and paywall teardown
slug: better-sleep-onboarding-paywall-teardown
summary: Screen-by-screen breakdown of Better Sleep (~$600–800k/month) — sound on during onboarding, quiz, social-proof plan screen, BetterHelp cross-promo, discount ladder and forced email.
domain: mobile-apps
tags: [monetization, onboarding, paywall, teardown, health-fitness]
related: [paywall-exit-offers, paywall-visuals-and-social-proof, hard-paywall-by-traffic-source, paywall-in-onboarding, app-store-screenshot-copy-best-practices, web-quiz-psychology-questions]
sources: [yt:8afSYJU-y8s]
updated: 2026-10-23
---

# Better Sleep onboarding & paywall teardown

## TL;DR
- Revenue estimates (Apr 2026): Sensor Tower $600k/mo with 200k downloads; AppMagic and Appfigures ~$800k — use three sources as a tiebreaker.
- Push + ATT prompts on the very first screens (best practice for paid social).
- Sleep sounds play throughout onboarding — Steve's data says audio on raises conversion for sound apps.
- Skip "connect Apple Health" before the paywall: in Steve's experiments it hurt conversion.
- Social-proof "preparing your plan" screen right before the paywall.
- Post-paywall ladder: discount → discount + 7-day trial → forced email (no X) → quiz → partner offer.

## Details
**Flow, screen by screen.**[^1][^2][^3][^4][^5]
1. Push-notification and ATT prompts immediately.
2. Animated welcome with sleep sounds playing; social proof at top; "you today vs you in a week" goal framing.
3. Quiz: sleep satisfaction ("don't worry, we're here to help" whatever you answer), what can we help with (shows breadth), hours of sleep, hormones, age, "how did you hear about us" (randomised order; doubles as attribution), target sleep hours, Apple Watch.
4. Health-connect screen — Steve's experiments show asking for health integration before the paywall **decreases** conversion.
5. "Did you know" proof screens; sleep-tracking teaser.
6. Plan-preparation screen: 65M users, 91% sleep better, 4.8★, featured 65 times, 2B sessions. A founder told Steve a pre-paywall animation added 10%.
7. Paywall bundling **a free month of BetterHelp** (same parent company).

**Using quiz answers in marketing.** If users sleeping 5–6 hours convert best, put that in ads, screenshots and Apple Ads copy ("Only getting 5–6 hours and feeling groggy?").[^3]

**Cross-promotion.** Pair with a complementary app ("I'll give your users a free month of mine") — rising UA costs make partnerships attractive.[^6]

**After declining:** discount screen → 7-day trial at the same discount → mandatory email capture with no exit → stress quiz → BetterHelp therapy offer (opens website). Locked sounds tap into the paywall again at the reduced price.[^6][^7][^8]

## Disagreements / caveats
- Steve notes his screenshots miss the animations; revenue estimates differ by ~33% between intelligence tools.
- Steve hasn't tested the plan-preparation proof screen himself.

## See also
- [[paywall-exit-offers]]
- [[hard-paywall-by-traffic-source]]

[^1]: yt:8afSYJU-y8s @ 00:50 — Steve P. Young
[^2]: yt:8afSYJU-y8s @ 01:49 — Steve P. Young
[^3]: yt:8afSYJU-y8s @ 02:57 — Steve P. Young
[^4]: yt:8afSYJU-y8s @ 04:12 — Steve P. Young
[^5]: yt:8afSYJU-y8s @ 05:05 — Steve P. Young
[^6]: yt:8afSYJU-y8s @ 05:52 — Steve P. Young
[^7]: yt:8afSYJU-y8s @ 06:42 — Steve P. Young
[^8]: yt:8afSYJU-y8s @ 07:42 — Steve P. Young