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Cut trial churn by testing when your paywall appears

A solo iOS developer who calls Claude Code 'basically my whole team' cut trial churn from 50% to 30% by only changing paywall timing.

By @chijuano on X · Posted · Added Oct 15, 2026

Difficulty
BeginnerOur rating
Time to build
An afternoon (sourced)From the source
Monthly cost
Not reported
Revenue
Not reportedWe only show revenue the source states
Result
Sourced: trial churn 50% → 30%

What they did

@chijuano builds iOS apps solo. Instead of shipping more features, he tested the cheapest lever first: when the paywall shows up. Same app, price and copy.

How it went

He reports trial churn fell from 50% to 30%. He says he is still under $1k MRR with a goal of $10k.

Worth knowing

His lesson: Claude Code can build any screen, but it can't tell you which screen matters. Change one thing at a time.

Builder recipe

Our own starting point, written from the source. Adapt it to your setup.

Stack

  • Claude Code
  • Your app's paywall SDK
  • Analytics with trial events

Steps

  1. Measure trial churn, not just revenue.
  2. Pick the moment users first get value and move the paywall there.
  3. Change only that, and compare two weeks before and after.

Starter prompt

Move the paywall in this app from [current trigger] to right after the user completes [first success moment]. Keep the copy and prices identical, and add analytics events for paywall_shown and trial_started.

Tags

Industry Consumer apps

Read the original

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