How to Build a Paywall Builder: the tech behind 100M+ daily paywalls

Paywalls are a critical part of mobile app monetization. Adapty serves thousands of paywalls to millions of users. In this talk, I'll share:

How we built the paywall rendering on the SDK
Why we went native over HTML
How we managed to deliver sub-second paywall loading time for the 97th percentile across 100M+ requests per day without spending hundreds of thousands on infrastructure

We'll also share paywall insights that help increase conversion.

Kirill Potekhin is the CPO and Co-Founder of Adapty. With over 10 years in app development, he helps mobile teams grow subscription revenue faster and more efficiently using Adapty.

Adapty helps mobile apps manage in-app purchases, subscriptions, and refunds with a lightweight SDK and no-code paywall builder. You get real-time analytics, cohort tracking, and unlimited A/B testing, all without needing your own backend.

Transcript

1. How to Build a Paywall Builder: the tech behind 100M+ daily paywalls Kirill Potekhin Co-founder, CPO adapty.io How to Build a Paywall Builder: the tech behind 100M+ daily paywalls Kirill Potekhin Co-founder, CPO adapty.io
2. Attribution, Analytics, Predictions, Insights Subscription SDK & API A/B Testing & Paywall Builder Adapty is a revenueOS for subscription apps 2
3. $2B 215M 73K Adapty powers growth for 15,000+ apps tracked revenue transactions paywalls made 100B monthly requests
4. AI generation Adapty Paywall Builder Native screens and animations No-code tool; remote updates Swift Kotlin
6. Paywall builder design challenges – Loading speed
7. – Native, not HTML Loading speed
8. Native is 5x faster Cellular Wi-Fi 12.98s 2.57s 5.26s 1.21s Native WebView Native WebView
9. Loading speed – Native, not HTML – Base64 previews for images, adaptive streaming for videos
10. Loading speed – Native, not HTML – Base64 previews for images, adaptive streaming for videos – Multi-level caching, CDN
11. Instagram users Audiences Audience UK users 󰏅 Paywall A Paywall B Other users Paywall C
12. CDN + Segmentation problem UK user request CDN no hit Paywall A saved Server UK user request CDN hit Paywall A fetched Server Paywal A Instagram user request CDN hit Paywall A fetched Server
13. CDN + Segmentation solution https://api.adapty.io/{app_id}/paywall/{onboarding}/{segment_hash} Country Device Attribution Language Store Custom attributes App version {segment_hash}
14. Paywall builder design challenges – Loading speed – Cross-platform paywall rendering
15. Cross-platform paywall rendering – Custom data format for pixel-perfect cross-platform UI
16. Cross-platform paywall rendering – Custom data format for pixel-perfect cross-platform UI – Unified layout components for SwiftUI and Compose
17. Cross-platform paywall rendering – Custom data format for pixel-perfect cross-platform UI – Unified layout components for SwiftUI and Compose – Animations, localizations, RTL, themes
18. Cross-platform paywall rendering – Custom data format for pixel-perfect cross-platform UI – Unified layout components for SwiftUI and Compose – Animations, localizations, RTL, themes – Single shared cross-platform core
19. Single shared cross-platform core React Native SDK (TypeScript) Before After React Native SDK Plugin (Swift / Kotlin) Adapty SDK (Swift / Kotlin) React Native SDK (TypeScript) React Native SDK Plugin (Swift / Kotlin) Adapty SDK (Swift / Kotlin) Adapty UI Plugin (Swift / Kotlin) Same for all cross-platform
20. Paywall builder design challenges – Loading speed – Cross-platform paywall rendering – Offline / downtime mode
21. Offline / downtime mode – Fallback server on the R2 and S3
22. Fallback server on the R2 and S3 US user request CDN no hit Server R2 / S3 If then
23. Offline / downtime mode – Fallback server on the R2 and S3 – Local fallback and cache
24. $2B 215M 73K At Adapty we analyzed tracked revenue transactions paywalls 5 key regions All App Store categories
25. 3 easy tips to boost LTV – Increase the prices
26. Premium-priced plans drive stronger LTV Monthly subscription LTV by price tier and region Low price Mid price High price
27. 3 easy tips to boost LTV – Increase the prices – Personalize and localize paywalls
28. A quick way to boost LTV — personalize paywalls based on the country 🇧
29. Onboarding Paywall for user A Paywall for user B A bit harder way — personalize paywalls based on the user properties
30. An average LTV6 boost with paywall / onboarding personalization: +23%
31. How to set prices in your app? Annual ? Weekly ?
32. Adapty Pricing Index The first country-level benchmark for subscription pricing
33. 3 easy tips to boost LTV – Increase the prices – Personalize and localize paywalls – Run paywall experiments
34. Apps with 50+ experiments see 10-100× revenue growth Log-Log plot of paywall experiments and app revenue
35. 3 easy tips to boost LTV – Increase the prices – Personalize and localize paywalls – Run paywall experiments
36. Build, target, and test paywalls without coding No-code native paywall builder AI paywall generator Build the paywall in 1 minute Paywall templates for easy start
37. Special Offer for Leeds Mobile Participants Get 50% for 3 months when you sign up by December 31