# 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

# Paywall Not Showing

## Issue

Any unexpected paywall presentation behavior, including:

* Paywall is not showing when it should
* Paywall is showing when it shouldn't
* Paywall is showing but loading indefinitely

## Debugging Steps

### Check your subscription status logic.

> **Info:** This only applies if you're using a PurchaseController. If you're using Superwall to handle all purchase logic (the default) you can skip this

* Important: When using a `PurchaseController` (such as with RevenueCat), the subscription status starts as `.unknown` by default. Your app must manually set it to either `.active()` or `.inactive()` on app launch - the SDK will not automatically determine this for you. Paywalls will not show if the subscription status is unknown

### Test device considerations.

If you’ve previously purchased a subscription, the paywall won’t show again. On iOS, if you’re using a local StoreKit config file, delete and reinstall the app to reset the device’s subscription state.

When basic app deletion doesn't resolve test subscription persistence, consider the following:

* Cross-account subscription persistence: Test subscription status persists at the device level even when switching between different app accounts within the same app. If you've made a test purchase on one account, it affects paywall presentation for all accounts on that device.

* Hidden test purchases: Test purchases made through StoreKit may not appear in your iPhone's standard Settings > Apple ID > Subscriptions list, making them impossible to cancel manually. This is normal behavior for sandbox/test purchases.

* Alternative reset methods: For production App Store testing when app deletion isn't sufficient, use a different physical device or fresh simulator instance that hasn't made the test purchase.

### Review your campaign configuration.

Confirm your placement name is spelled correctly and that all necessary properties are passed to match the audience filter. Also check for any holdout groups that might block the paywall.

If you've recently updated your campaign, make sure to quit and re-open your app to fetch the latest configuration

### Specific Campaign Configuration Considerations

Be aware of the default entitlement settings for new campaigns. By default, campaigns are set to "For Unsubscribed Users Only" in the entitlements section. If you want to test paywalls while having an active subscription, change the entitlement dropdown to "For All Users."

When encountering console errors, specifically "Skipped paywall presentation: no\_rule\_match," it indicates the user doesn't match the audience filters for that placement. This helps distinguish between configuration issues versus subscription status problems.

For `noAudienceMatch` errors, systematically verify that your audience configuration includes the current user's specific attributes, subscription status, and any custom properties you're tracking.

### Verify product configuration.

If your paywall references unavailable or invalid product identifiers, you’ll see a console error. When using a StoreKit file, be sure to add your products before testing paywall presentation.

## Paywall Loading Indefinitely

Your paywall shows a white screen with gray placeholder boxes that never finish loading. This typically occurs on iOS when using Apple's `WKAppBoundDomains` feature in your app's `Info.plist`.

### Cause

WKAppBoundDomains is an iOS 14+ privacy feature that restricts WebView capabilities. When enabled, it disables WebView message handlers that Superwall requires for bridge communication between the native SDK and the paywall content. You may see this warning in the WebView console:

```
[Warning] [WebKit] Unable to send message - WebKit message handler not available.
```

### Solution

Remove the `WKAppBoundDomains` key from your app's `Info.plist` file:

```
<!-- Remove this section -->
<key>WKAppBoundDomains</key>
<array>
    <string>example.com</string>
</array>
```

After removing this configuration, rebuild and relaunch your app. The paywall should now load correctly. If you require WKAppBoundDomains for other parts of your app, please contact Superwall support to discuss alternative integration options.