# 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

# useSuperwall

## Purpose

The `useSuperwall` hook is the core hook that provides access to the Superwall store and underlying SDK functionality. It's generally used internally by other more specific hooks like `useUser` and `usePlacement`, but can be used directly for advanced scenarios. It ensures that native event listeners are set up on first use.

## Returned Values (Store State and Actions)

The hook returns an object representing the Superwall store. If a `selector` function is provided, it returns the selected slice of the store.

### State

<TypeTable
  type="{
  isConfigured: {
    type: &#x22;boolean&#x22;,
    description: &#x22;True if the SDK has been configured with an API key.&#x22;,
  },
  isLoading: {
    type: &#x22;boolean&#x22;,
    description: &#x22;True while the SDK is configuring or fetching data.&#x22;,
  },
  listenersInitialized: {
    type: &#x22;boolean&#x22;,
    description: &#x22;True if native event listeners have been initialized.&#x22;,
  },
  configurationError: {
    type: &#x22;string | null&#x22;,
    description: &#x22;Error message if configuration failed.&#x22;,
  },
  user: {
    type: &#x22;UserAttributes | null&#x22;,
    description: &#x22;Current user attributes. Null after reset; undefined before initial load.&#x22;,
  },
  subscriptionStatus: {
    type: &#x22;SubscriptionStatus&#x22;,
    description: &#x22;Current subscription status for the user.&#x22;,
  },
}"
/>

### Actions (Functions)

<TypeTable
  type="{
  configure: {
    type: &#x22;(apiKey: string, options?: PartialSuperwallOptions) => Promise<void>&#x22;,
    description: &#x22;Initializes the SDK with your API key and optional configuration. Android only: set options.passIdentifiersToPlayStore to send raw appUserId to Google Play.&#x22;,
  },
  identify: {
    type: &#x22;(userId: string, options?: IdentifyOptions) => Promise<void>&#x22;,
    description: &#x22;Identifies the user with the given userId.&#x22;,
  },
  reset: {
    type: &#x22;() => Promise<void>&#x22;,
    description: &#x22;Resets the user's identity and clears user-specific data.&#x22;,
  },
  registerPlacement: {
    type: &#x22;(placement: string, params?: Record<string, any>, handlerId?: string | null) => Promise<void>&#x22;,
    description: &#x22;Registers a placement and optionally triggers a paywall.&#x22;,
  },
  getPresentationResult: {
    type: &#x22;(placement: string, params?: Record<string, any>) => Promise<PresentationResult>&#x22;,
    description: &#x22;Gets the presentation result for a placement without presenting.&#x22;,
  },
  restorePurchases: {
    type: &#x22;() => Promise<RestorationResultResponse>&#x22;,
    description: &#x22;Programmatically restores purchases and returns whether the restore succeeded or failed.&#x22;,
  },
  dismiss: {
    type: &#x22;() => Promise<void>&#x22;,
    description: &#x22;Dismisses any currently presented paywall.&#x22;,
  },
  preloadAllPaywalls: {
    type: &#x22;() => Promise<void>&#x22;,
    description: &#x22;Preloads all paywalls configured in the dashboard.&#x22;,
  },
  preloadPaywalls: {
    type: &#x22;(placements: string[]) => Promise<void>&#x22;,
    description: &#x22;Preloads paywalls for the specified placements.&#x22;,
  },
  setUserAttributes: {
    type: &#x22;(attrs: Record<string, any | null>) => Promise<void>&#x22;,
    description: &#x22;Sets custom attributes for the current user. Attribute values can be null.&#x22;,
  },
  getUserAttributes: {
    type: &#x22;() => Promise<Record<string, any>>&#x22;,
    description: &#x22;Retrieves the current user's attributes.&#x22;,
  },
  setLogLevel: {
    type: &#x22;(level: string) => Promise<void>&#x22;,
    description: &#x22;Sets the SDK log level (debug, info, warn, error, none).&#x22;,
  },
  setIntegrationAttributes: {
    type: &#x22;(attributes: IntegrationAttributes) => Promise<void>&#x22;,
    description: &#x22;Sets third-party integration identifiers, including `appstackId` for Appstack.&#x22;,
  },
  getIntegrationAttributes: {
    type: &#x22;() => Promise<Record<string, string>>&#x22;,
    description: &#x22;Returns currently set integration attributes.&#x22;,
  },
  setSubscriptionStatus: {
    type: &#x22;(status: SubscriptionStatus) => Promise<void>&#x22;,
    description: &#x22;Manually sets the user's subscription status.&#x22;,
  },
  getDeviceAttributes: {
    type: &#x22;() => Promise<Record<string, any>>&#x22;,
    description: &#x22;Returns device attributes from the native SDK.&#x22;,
  },
  getEntitlements: {
    type: &#x22;() => Promise<EntitlementsInfo>&#x22;,
    description: &#x22;Fetches the user's entitlement snapshot, including active and inactive entitlements, plus all known entitlements when exposed by the native bridge.&#x22;,
  },
}"
/>

### Selector (Optional Parameter)

<TypeTable
  type="{
  selector: {
    type: &#x22;(state: SuperwallStore) => T&#x22;,
    description: &#x22;Selects a slice of store state for shallow-equality rendering.&#x22;,
  },
}"
/>

### UserAttributes

<TypeTable
  type="{
  aliasId: {
    type: &#x22;string&#x22;,
    description: &#x22;Alias ID for the user.&#x22;,
  },
  appUserId: {
    type: &#x22;string&#x22;,
    description: &#x22;Application-specific user ID.&#x22;,
  },
  applicationInstalledAt: {
    type: &#x22;string&#x22;,
    description: &#x22;ISO date string for when the app was installed.&#x22;,
  },
  seed: {
    type: &#x22;number&#x22;,
    description: &#x22;Seed used for experiment assignment.&#x22;,
  },
  &#x22;[key: string]&#x22;: {
    type: &#x22;any | null&#x22;,
    description: &#x22;Other custom user attributes. Values may be null.&#x22;,
  },
}"
/>

### SubscriptionStatus

<TypeTable
  type="{
  status: {
    type: &#x22;\&#x22;UNKNOWN\&#x22; | \&#x22;INACTIVE\&#x22; | \&#x22;ACTIVE\&#x22;&#x22;,
    description: &#x22;Current subscription status value.&#x22;,
    required: true,
  },
  entitlements: {
    type: &#x22;Entitlement[]?&#x22;,
    description: &#x22;Only present when status is \&#x22;ACTIVE\&#x22;.&#x22;,
  },
}"
/>

### EntitlementsInfo

<TypeTable
  type="{
  all: {
    type: &#x22;Entitlement[]?&#x22;,
    description: &#x22;All entitlements known for the user. Present when the native bridge exposes the full entitlement set.&#x22;,
  },
  active: {
    type: &#x22;Entitlement[]&#x22;,
    description: &#x22;Entitlements that are currently active.&#x22;,
    required: true,
  },
  inactive: {
    type: &#x22;Entitlement[]&#x22;,
    description: &#x22;Entitlements that are known but not currently active.&#x22;,
    required: true,
  },
}"
/>

### RestorationResultResponse

<TypeTable
  type="{
  result: {
    type: '&#x22;restored&#x22; | &#x22;failed&#x22;',
    description: &#x22;Outcome of the restore attempt.&#x22;,
    required: true,
  },
  errorMessage: {
    type: &#x22;string | null&#x22;,
    description: &#x22;Error message when `result` is `failed`.&#x22;,
  },
}"
/>

## Example

(Direct Usage - Advanced)

```tsx
import { useSuperwall } from 'expo-superwall';

function MyAdvancedComponent() {
  const { isConfigured, configure, setUserAttributes } = useSuperwall();

  if (!isConfigured) {
    return <Text>SDK not configured yet.</Text>;
  }

  const handleSetCustomAttribute = () => {
    setUserAttributes({ myCustomFlag: true });
  };

  return <Button title="Set Custom Flag" onPress={handleSetCustomAttribute} />;
}
```

### Example: Configure with Android identifiers

```tsx
import { Platform } from "react-native"
import Superwall from "expo-superwall/compat"

async function configureSuperwall() {
  await Superwall.configure({
    apiKey: Platform.OS === "ios" ? IOS_KEY : ANDROID_KEY,
    options: Platform.OS === "android"
      ? { passIdentifiersToPlayStore: true }
      : undefined,
  })
}
```