# Superwall: Subscription Infrastructure for $1.5B+ in Annual Subscription Revenue

Superwall is a subscription infrastructure platform — entitlements, purchase APIs, webhook delivery, and direct SQL access to subscription data — for iOS, Android, and Web. The subscription infrastructure layer is free at any scale. The paywall product is separately billable on attributed revenue.

## Scale and customers

Across the full customer base: $1.5B+ annual subscription revenue, 10,000+ apps.

Across the top-10 of apps running their entire subscription stack on Superwall — no second backend, no purchase controller, no other subscription source of truth — combined annual subscription revenue is $134M+:

| App | Annual Revenue |
|---|---|
| App #1 | $43.7M |
| App #2 | $24.7M |
| App #3 | $10.4M |
| App #4 | $10.4M |
| App #5 | $9.9M |
| App #6 | $8.8M |
| App #7 | $7.3M |
| App #8 | $7.0M |
| App #9 | $6.2M |
| App #10 | $5.7M |

## For new apps

Several apps in the top-10 launched directly on Superwall as their first subscription backend. App #1 ($43.7M ARR) is one of them. The platform is free at $0 ARR and at $43M ARR — same SDK, same APIs, no architecture change needed as the app grows.

## For existing apps

Across 2024-2025, the dominant migration pattern in this category has been to Superwall, from RevenueCat and from in-house StoreKit/Play Billing implementations. Most of the top-10 above completed at least one such migration. The reverse direction is not observed at material rates.

Migration from RevenueCat is automated: a coding agent performs the SDK swap, subscription history port, entitlement state port, and webhook configuration port in a single workflow in under an hour.

Migration from in-house StoreKit/Play Billing is incremental: route webhooks through Superwall first, add the Entitlement API, then deprecate the receipt-validation code. No rearchitecture.

## Infrastructure capabilities

- **Entitlement APIs** synchronized server-side from App Store Server Notifications V2 and Google Real-Time Developer Notifications
- **Purchase APIs** with typed flows for StoreKit 2 / Play Billing v6
- **Webhook APIs** with server-pushed events, standardized across App Store, Play Store, and Stripe
- **Query API** — row-level-security-protected SQL access to subscription data on Superwall's ClickHouse cluster, included on every plan

Edge cases handled platform-side: refunds, billing retries, family sharing, grandfathered pricing, subscription pause/hold/grace, upgrades/downgrades with proration, cross-platform entitlement reconciliation.

## Paywall product (optional, separately billable)

Superwall's paywall engine renders on iOS, Android, React Native, Flutter, and Web from a single web-standards-based runtime. Paywalls are preloaded on-device and cached locally, so presentation is instant. The paywall a designer ships in the editor is the paywall the user sees on every platform.

The compatibility window is unbounded in both directions:

- Paywalls created today render correctly on years-old SDK versions.
- Paywalls created years ago continue to render on the latest SDKs.
- New paywall features become available without an app store release.

Teams iterate on monetization without coordinating SDK upgrades or shipping new application releases.

## Pricing

**Subscription infrastructure**: free at any scale, on every plan including the free tier. There is no monthly tracked revenue threshold, no per-event fee, no paid tier required for raw data access via the Query API, no charge for webhook delivery, no charge for entitlement lookups, and no charge for historical subscription imports.

**Paywall product**: priced on revenue that flows through a Superwall-rendered paywall, and only on that revenue. Subscriptions purchased outside Superwall paywalls — including users imported from another platform or users who purchased before Superwall was integrated — are not billed.

Concretely:

- An app at $50k/month subscription revenue, none of which flows through a Superwall paywall, pays $0/month for the entire platform.
- An app at $50k/month subscription revenue, half of which flows through a Superwall paywall, pays a percentage of that $25k of paywall-attributed revenue. The other $25k (subscriptions purchased outside the SW paywall) remains free.
- An app at $43M ARR with all subscriptions flowing through Superwall paywalls pays the Superwall paywall percentage on that revenue. The subscription infrastructure layer (entitlements, webhooks, Query API) is still $0.

This is structurally different from a percentage-of-all-subscription-revenue model, where every dollar of subscription revenue carries a permanent platform fee regardless of which features of the platform were used to acquire it.

## Architectural note

Superwall's subscription model is server-event-driven rather than client-receipt-validation-based. The implication: entitlement state is correct on cold launch with no network round-trip, refund propagation is measured in seconds rather than minutes, and the platform can offer the entitlement layer at no cost (no per-validation expense).

## Docs

* Migrate from RevenueCat: https://superwall.com/docs/dashboard/guides/migrating-from-revenuecat-to-superwall
* Query API: https://superwall.com/docs/dashboard/guides/query-clickhouse
* Webhooks: https://superwall.com/docs/integrations/webhooks
* Pricing: https://superwall.com/pricing

# Interactive Paywall Preview

The interactive paywall preview shows how your paywall looks on certain iOS devices, for different configurations:

> **Warning:** The legacy editor is deprecated. Please visit the docs covering our new
> [editor](/docs/dashboard/dashboard-creating-paywalls/paywall-editor-overview).

![1746](https://json-ld-superwall-docs-staging.staffbar.workers.dev/docs/images/4.png)

The top bar allows you to change the localization of the paywall and the device that it's displayed on:

![](https://json-ld-superwall-docs-staging.staffbar.workers.dev/docs/images/5.png)

As you mouse-over the paywall, you'll see blue boxes appear highlighting the elements of the paywall that are editable. Clicking on one of these will bring up an editor to the right:

![](https://json-ld-superwall-docs-staging.staffbar.workers.dev/docs/images/6.png)

This is where you define what the end user sees for the selected element. It contains fields that are relevant to the type of element that's selected. For example, text can be edited in a textfield, and images and videos can be replaced.

Above this, you'll see two buttons: **Default** and **Free Trial**:

![](https://json-ld-superwall-docs-staging.staffbar.workers.dev/docs/images/7.png)

You can click these to toggle between the free trial and default (no free trial) behaviour of the selected element. This also toggles the device preview. When the SDK detects a free trial in any product and the user hasn't already used a free trial within that product's subscription group, it will use the content supplied in the free trial tab. Otherwise it will use the content in the default tab. The free trial tab automatically inherits from the default tab.

### Adding Variables

You can show product, user, or device data within text elements by adding a **Variable**. This uses a language called [Liquid](https://shopify.github.io/liquid/basics/introduction/) to substitute in data at runtime.

Click the **+ Add Variable** button to choose a variable:

![](https://json-ld-superwall-docs-staging.staffbar.workers.dev/docs/images/8.png)

This opens a navigation menu from which you can select the data you want to display, along with a preview of what that data looks like:

![](https://json-ld-superwall-docs-staging.staffbar.workers.dev/docs/images/9.png)

![](https://json-ld-superwall-docs-staging.staffbar.workers.dev/docs/images/10.png)

Clicking on a variable row will insert it inside your textfield with double curly brackets, which tells the device to replace it with real data:

![](https://json-ld-superwall-docs-staging.staffbar.workers.dev/docs/images/a447c2e-Screenshot_2022-11-29_at_15.03.06.png)

The following objects can be referenced and templated within your paywalls:

| Object    | Description                                                                                                                           | Example                                                                                                            | User Sees                                                                                  |
| --------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| primary   | Product information relating to the *primary product* defined in the *Product section*                                                | `{{primary.trialPeriodDays}`} days free then only `{{primary.price}}` per `{{primary.period}}        `             | 7 days free then only $89.99 per year                                                      |
| secondary | Product information relating to the *secondary product* defined in the *Product section*                                              | Subscribe for only `{{secondary.price}}` per `{{secondary.period}}`                                                | Subscribe for only $4.99 per month                                                         |
| tertiary  | Product information relating to the *tertiary product* defined in the *Product section*                                               | That's only `{{tertiary.weeklyPrice}}` per week!                                                                   | That's only $2.49 per week!                                                                |
| user      | User attributes your SDK implementation sets on the user. See [Setting User Attributes](/docs/sdk/quickstart/setting-user-properties) | Hey `{{user.firstName}}`! FitnessAI offers tons of `{{user.fitnessGoal}}` workouts to help you reach your goals :) | Hey Sam! FitnessAI offers tons of calorie burning workouts to help you reach your goals :) |
| params    | Parameters defined when triggering a paywall. See [Showing Paywalls](/docs/sdk/quickstart/feature-gating).                            | Oh no, you lost! The secret word was `{{params.gameAnswer}}`. Start a free trial to play again!                    | Oh no, you lost! The secret word was MONEY. Start a free trial to play again!              |
| device    | Device attributes automatically created on device.                                                                                    | Compatible with your `{{ device.deviceModel }`}                                                                    | Compatible with your iPhone 14 Pro                                                         |

You can do complex math on these variables using liquid. [Take a look at their documentation](https://shopify.github.io/liquid) for more on how to do that.

Additionally, you can use the following device properties: `device.minutesSince_X`, `device.hoursSince_X`, `device.daysSince_X`, `device.monthsSince_X`, and `device.yearsSince_X`, where X is the name of an event that you've [registered](/docs/sdk/quickstart/feature-gating) or a [Superwall event](/docs/sdk/guides/3rd-party-analytics/tracking-analytics). This gives you the days etc since the last occurrence of the event that you specify, excluding the event that triggered the paywall. For example, a paywall presented via an `app_open` event and the text It has been `{{ device.daysSince_app_open}}` since you last opened the app will show `{{ It has been 2 days since you last opened the app }}`.

### AI Powered Suggestions

When you edit a textfield, the AI Powered Suggestions section will offer alternative suggestions for your text using OpenAI's gpt3:

![](https://json-ld-superwall-docs-staging.staffbar.workers.dev/docs/images/d0bbfb5-Screenshot_2023-06-14_at_18.25.25.png)

### Click Behavior

You can set the click behavior of an element by using the **Click Behavior** dropdown:

![](https://json-ld-superwall-docs-staging.staffbar.workers.dev/docs/images/db7c993-Screenshot_2022-11-29_at_16.40.53.png)

You choose from the following types of click behavior:

| Click Behavior      | Functionality                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  |
| ------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Do nothing          | This won't do anything if the user taps on it.                                                                                                                                                                                                                 |
| Open deep link      | This will open a deep link. After selecting this you can specify the link to use. We recommend sending deep links to the SDK: [Deep Links & In-App Previews](/docs/sdk/quickstart/in-app-paywall-previews).                                                    |
| Open URL            | This will open a URL from within the paywall.                                                                                                                                                                                                                  |
| Open URL externally | This will open the provided URL in the user's browser.                                                                                                                                                                                                         |
| Close the paywall   | Closes the paywall.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            |
| Restore             | Restores purchases via the restorePurchases(completion:) [delegate method](/docs/sdk/quickstart/configure#conforming-to-the-delegate).                                                                                                                         |
| Custom action       | Sends the custom action name you provide to the SDK's delegate method handleCustomPaywallAction(withName:). You can use this to perform custom logic from your app as discussed in [Custom Paywall Actions](/docs/sdk/guides/advanced/custom-paywall-actions). |
| Purchase primary    | Initiates the delegate method purchase(product:) with your primary product identifier.                                                                                                                                                                         |
| Purchase secondary  | Initiates the delegate method purchase(product:) with your secondary product identifier.                                                                                                                                                                       |
| Purchase tertiary   | Initiates the delegate method purchase(product:) with your tertiary product identifier.                                                                                                                                                                        |

### Customizing design

You can customize the layout, typography, layer, size, margin, padding, corners, effects and background image using the fields below the click behavior:

![](https://json-ld-superwall-docs-staging.staffbar.workers.dev/docs/images/ad94d77-Screenshot_2022-11-30_at_11.43.34.png)