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Mobile apps›Monetization

What to put behind the paywall (drawing the free/paid line)

How to decide which features are free vs paid — keep the core promise free, gate new self-explanatory features, start things behind the paywall (moving out is easy, moving in is painful), meter usage visibly, and watch for "disgust" reactions, not just A/B lifts.

Updated 2026-10-24·4 sources·monetizationfreemiumpaywallpackagingproduct

What to put behind the paywall

TL;DR

  • Never gate the thing people came for. Skylight: getting photos to grandma’s frame and organising events on the calendar stay free; video, meal planning, recipes and AI go in the subscription.
  • Gate new features that users grok instantly (“meal planning”) — not settings they stumble into (“ah, I have to pay for this view”).
  • Start new features behind the paywall; moving something out later is easy, moving it in is painful.
  • Judge the line by emotion, not only A/B numbers: a gate that lifts subscriptions but makes people feel ripped off (“disgust and anger”) is a long-term loss.
  • Lines drift: a feature that felt fair paid in 2018 (Skylight’s photo screensaver on the calendar) may need to become free years later.
  • Metering works when it’s visible: a card-scanner app shows “35 scans left… 34…” so the paywall never surprises.

Details

Core-promise test. Mark Ungerer (Skylight CPO): whatever the customer bought the $300 device for must work without a subscription, or they’ll feel “tricked and duped”. Natural upsells sit beside the core — video on a photo frame; recipes, meals and an AI assistant on the calendar.1 The tension: marketing wants to advertise the exciting paid AI features, which risks buyers feeling misled after purchase.2

Emotion over quant. Michael Segal: nobody wants to pay a subscription, but there’s a spectrum from “I get why you charge” to “ripped off” — the latter happens when users feel something should be free on a values basis. Skylight has put features behind the paywall that raised numbers but drew begrudging or angry reviews and interviews, and backed off.3

Grok-ability and direction of travel. Anything in the bundle must make sense to a user quickly. New, clearly-scoped modules (meal planning) go straight behind the paywall, often without a test. Starting behind the paywall and moving out is far easier than the reverse.4

Merchandising rarely moves attach. Skylight tried several ways of presenting what’s in the bundle; attach rate (share subscribing) barely changed — excited buyers want “the whole thing”.4 They also don’t label premium features inside the app for subscribers, so at renewal people judge overall value, not an itemised list; renewal is high whether or not people use bundle features.5

Lines drift with the market. In 2018/19 Skylight put photos-on-the-calendar behind a $39/year sub with no rigour and it worked; eight years on, more customers say the photo screensaver should be free, and kids loving the photos drives word of mouth — so they’re discussing making it fully or partly free.67

Limited free value instead of a free tier. BoldVoice users who close the paywall get the speech assessment (something people pay coaches for), the day-one practice set and coach video; a trial is required from day two.8 David Barnard’s example: trading-card scanner apps give the full product but count down remaining scans, prepping users for the paywall moment.9 Kenneth Schlenker’s rule for freemium apps: if free users wouldn’t recommend you, give away more.10

Gate by what scales value. Ravi Mehta: Tinder’s paid features “break the game’s rules” — see who liked you (Gold), message before matching (Platinum). Gate the things that deliver more of the core outcome (matches).11

Disagreements / caveats

  • Skylight is hardware: buyers already paid $300–700, so their “free tier” users are highly committed; software-only freemium users are more tenuous (Mark says so himself).5
  • Skylight admits it has never had a subscription growth PM; these are instincts with light testing.12

See also

Footnotes

  1. How Skylight Doubled Subscription Prices to $79 – Michael Segal & Mark Ungerer @ 11:30 — Mark Ungerer ↩

  2. How Skylight Doubled Subscription Prices to $79 – Michael Segal & Mark Ungerer @ 13:05 — Mark Ungerer ↩

  3. How Skylight Doubled Subscription Prices to $79 – Michael Segal & Mark Ungerer @ 13:05 — Michael Segal ↩

  4. How Skylight Doubled Subscription Prices to $79 – Michael Segal & Mark Ungerer @ 15:31 — Mark Ungerer ↩ ↩2

  5. How Skylight Doubled Subscription Prices to $79 – Michael Segal & Mark Ungerer @ 22:31 — Mark Ungerer ↩ ↩2

  6. How Skylight Doubled Subscription Prices to $79 – Michael Segal & Mark Ungerer @ 17:44 — Michael Segal ↩

  7. How Skylight Doubled Subscription Prices to $79 – Michael Segal & Mark Ungerer @ 18:39 — Mark Ungerer ↩

  8. Why BoldVoice charged from day 1 and ignored the Duolingo freemium playbook — Anada Lakra @ 24:10 — Anada Lakra ↩

  9. Why BoldVoice charged from day 1 and ignored the Duolingo freemium playbook — Anada Lakra @ 25:41 — David Barnard ↩

  10. The case for (and against) hard paywalls @ 04:29 — David Barnard ↩

  11. How Tinder Captures More Value With Tiered Pricing and Consumables — Ravi Mehta @ 13:47 — Ravi Mehta ↩

  12. How Skylight Doubled Subscription Prices to $79 – Michael Segal & Mark Ungerer @ 16:46 — Michael Segal ↩