---
title: Tripwire offers instead of free trials in web2app
slug: web2app-tripwire-pricing
summary: Why web funnels replace free trials with tiny paid entry offers ($0.99–$10 intro periods or one-time boosts) that renew or upsell to full price, how to size them, and examples (Audible, Hily, Coursiv, Headway).
domain: mobile-apps
tags: [web2app, pricing, tripwire, free-trial, monetization]
related: [web2app-paywall-best-practices, web2app-upsells-and-downsells, coursiv-web2app-teardown, web2app-winback-email-sequence, paid-intro-offers, web2app-dark-patterns-and-compliance]
sources: [yt:m5xmwkV4HgM, yt:ELt0hjABIqY, yt:jzlPf100vy4]
updated: 2026-10-24
---

# Tripwire offers instead of free trials in web2app

## TL;DR
- A tripwire is a very cheap first purchase that turns a prospect into a paying customer; selling more to an existing customer is far easier than acquiring a new one[^1][^2].
- Size it at roughly $3–10; keep it under ~$50, above which it becomes a "considered purchase"[^1][^2].
- Use it to recover ad spend fast: e.g. a $7 entry product lets you target ~$7 cost per purchase to break even, with upsells/renewals as profit[^2].
- Common web forms: intro price that renews at full price ($0.99 first week; ~$20 first month → ~$40; Headway intro → higher after 3 months), or a small one-time unlock[^3][^4][^5].
- Prefer it over free trials: trial-to-paid averages only ~30–40%[^6].

## Details

**Examples.**
- Amazon's spring sale bundling 3 months of Audible for $3 — lose money early, earn over a long lifetime[^6].
- **Hily** (dating app): right after onboarding, before seeing any profiles, a $3 one-time "get seen 10× more" boost — instantly relevant to someone new on a dating app; the subscription itself has no trial[^6][^7].
- **Coursiv**: ~$20 first month renewing at ~$40 — Steve calls it tripwire, like streaming services' "3 months for $15"[^4].
- **Headway**: introductory price (e.g. $19.98) that increases after 3 months; Igor recommends no free trials, at most $0.99 for a week or 3 days[^5].
- One App Masters client's top-winning plan was a tiny first-week price (99¢ first week renewing at the normal weekly rate)[^3][^8].

**Designing yours.** Give a taste without giving everything away, framed in the user's context: e.g. an AI video generator could sell "$3 unlocks up to 10 minutes of generation in your first week", then upsell to the normal plan once they've used it[^7].

**In winback.** The same logic justifies very deep discounts (up to 90–95%) in emails: get them to pay *something* first[^8].

## Disagreements / caveats
- Tripwires are where funnels turn predatory: David Barnard's wife authorised a $1 plan, clicked through add-on screens and was charged ~$350–400. Keep upsells explicit and the renewal price visible — see [[web2app-dark-patterns-and-compliance]][^9].
- Steve "plants a flag" that tripwires are the future for web2app and in-app — it's a prediction, not proven data[^6].
- Intro prices that auto-renew higher must be disclosed clearly on the paywall (Coursiv states the renewal price) to avoid refunds/chargebacks[^4].

## See also
- [[web2app-paywall-best-practices]], [[web2app-upsells-and-downsells]], [[web2app-winback-email-sequence]]

[^1]: yt:m5xmwkV4HgM @ 21:07 — Steve P. Young
[^2]: yt:m5xmwkV4HgM @ 22:40 — Steve P. Young
[^3]: yt:ELt0hjABIqY @ 35:35 — Steve P. Young
[^4]: yt:m5xmwkV4HgM @ 15:56 — Steve P. Young
[^5]: yt:ELt0hjABIqY @ 36:25 — Igor Lyubimov
[^6]: yt:m5xmwkV4HgM @ 23:33 — Steve P. Young
[^7]: yt:m5xmwkV4HgM @ 25:05 — Steve P. Young
[^8]: yt:ELt0hjABIqY @ 36:25 — Steve P. Young
[^9]: yt:jzlPf100vy4 @ 1:06:25 — David Barnard