Are users seeing your paywall?

You are getting app installs but almost no trials. RevenueCat shows customers, Stripe shows nothing. The numbers do not make sense until you check whether users are actually reaching the paywall at all.

Most app developers assume users see the paywall. They spend weeks tweaking pricing, rewriting copy, and testing different trial lengths. But the problem might be simpler than that: users never get there.

There are three places an app monetization flow can break, and each one looks different in your data.

Users never reach the paywall: lots of app opens, almost no paywall screen views. The paywall exists but it is buried behind onboarding, triggered by an action most users do not take, or hidden behind a feature they have not discovered.

Users see the paywall but do not convert: the paywall gets plenty of screen views, but trial starts are near zero. The pricing, copy, value proposition, or trust signals are not landing.

Users start a trial but do not pay: trials are healthy, but paid conversion is low. The product is not delivering enough value during the trial window to justify the price.

Go to Conversions > Funnels and create a funnel named App Open to Purchase or Paywall Conversion.

Use Screen: App Open or your home screen, Screen: Paywall, Transaction: Trial Started, and Transaction: Purchase. If your app does not offer trials, drop the trial step and go straight from Paywall to Purchase.

Use a 14-day conversion window if you offer a trial. Use 7 days if you do not.

Example: 5,000 app opens, 200 paywall views, 40 trials, and 12 purchases. That means 96% of users who open the app never see the paywall.

The paywall placement is the problem. It does not matter how good your pricing page is if nobody reaches it.

Example: 5,000 app opens, 3,800 paywall views, 80 trials, and 28 purchases. Users reach the paywall fine, but only 2.1% of paywall viewers start a trial.

The paywall screen itself is not working.

Example: 5,000 app opens, 3,800 paywall views, 1,200 trials, and 120 purchases. The paywall is working, but 90% of trialists do not convert.

The trial experience is not delivering enough value.

If Scenario A is your problem — users never reaching the paywall — you need a second funnel to find exactly where they drop off during onboarding.

Create another funnel with your onboarding steps. Mix screen views, meaning did they reach this step, with goal events, meaning did they complete the action.

Why both screen views and goals? A screen view means they saw it. A goal event means they finished it. If 90% of users see the Create Account screen but only 40% fire account_created, the signup form is the problem. If 95% fire account_created but only 60% see Profile Setup, the transition between screens is broken.

One funnel number hides a lot. Meta Ads users and organic App Store users often behave completely differently.

Meta Ads might show App Open to Paywall at 20%, Trial at 8%, and Purchase at 3%. Organic users might show App Open to Paywall at 78%, Trial at 32%, and Purchase at 15%.

Same app, same paywall, completely different story. Meta Ads users bounce before reaching the paywall, which means the creative may be attracting the wrong audience or setting the wrong expectation. Organic users convert better because they arrived with real intent.

Use the filter bar at the top of Funnels and select Source, Medium, or Campaign. The entire funnel recalculates for that segment.

These aren't universal benchmarks — they depend on your app category, price point, and audience. But they're a reasonable starting point for knowing which problem to investigate first.