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What to show when users close the paywall (exit offers)

Exit-offer ladder for dismissed paywalls — longer (14-day) trial, discount, discount + trial, free credits followed by a review prompt, and finally a forced email capture.

Updated 2026-10-23·3 sources·monetizationpaywallexit-offerdiscountreviews

Exit offers after a dismissed paywall

TL;DR

  • Most users hit X — plan what they see next instead of dropping them into the app.
  • Options seen working: 14-day bonus trial (Rest of Me, Resemble), discount, discount + 7-day trial (Better Sleep), free credits (AI apps), reverse trial (Reverse trials — converting users who closed the paywall).
  • Free credits + “Claim now” + review prompt doubled reviews (300 → 600/month) and lifted rating 4.5 → 4.7.
  • After all offers are declined, Better Sleep forces an email (no X) for lifecycle marketing.
  • Let users choose their discount rather than showing one fixed % (Pay-what-you-want discount slider).

Details

Longer trial vs discount. Rest of Me and Resemble show a 14-day bonus trial when users close the standard paywall. Steve’s instinct is “if they said no, give them a discount”, but several clients report a longer trial beats a discount for them.12 For a founder who wanted to soften a hard paywall, Steve suggested exactly this: on X, offer a longer trial or a few things free.3

Free credits → review. An AI client silently gave 8 free generations after paywall dismissal; nobody knew. They added a screen after X: “You get 8 free credits on us, renews monthly — Claim now”. Tapping claim does nothing extra, then the app asks for a rating. Result: reviews doubled (~600 vs ~300 a month) and average rating rose from 4.5 to 4.7 in one month.34 Review-prompt design: five stars at the top, social proof under it (Cal AI’s screen is the model). Timing ladder: aggressive (before paywall), semi-aggressive (right after trial start — “they already like you”) or chill (later).5

Better Sleep’s ladder ($600–800k/month app): paywall (with BetterHelp cross-promo) → discount → same discount with a 7-day trial → mandatory email screen with no X → stress quiz → BetterHelp offer. Locked content later re-opens the paywall at the lower price.67

Why bother: the average app loses ~77% of DAUs within 3 days; Steve argues getting more people to pay improves retention.8

Disagreements / caveats

  • Discount-on-exit trains users to close paywalls; watch full-price take rate.
  • Email capture without an exit may draw App Review scrutiny — check guidelines.

See also

Footnotes

  1. The Paywall Strategy That Increased Conversions by 56% @ 10:58 — Steve P. Young ↩

  2. The Paywall Strategy That Increased Conversions by 56% @ 11:44 — Steve P. Young ↩

  3. The Paywall Strategy That Increased Conversions by 56% @ 12:41 — Steve P. Young ↩ ↩2

  4. The Paywall Strategy That Increased Conversions by 56% @ 14:42 — Steve P. Young ↩

  5. The Paywall Strategy That Increased Conversions by 56% @ 15:41 — Steve P. Young ↩

  6. This Sleep Sounds App Makes $800K a Month (Copy Their Onboarding) @ 06:42 — Steve P. Young ↩

  7. This Sleep Sounds App Makes $800K a Month (Copy Their Onboarding) @ 07:42 — Steve P. Young ↩

  8. 56% More Trials With This One Change @ 06:17 — Steve P. Young ↩