Overview

Two stage metered paywalls introduce a more flexible way to balance audience growth and subscription revenue. Instead of showing a single paywall after a set number of free articles, publishers can first prompt readers to register for free, then later invite them to subscribe.

This staged approach lets you capture more registered users, extend their engagement, and improve overall conversion rates, while keeping control over when and how each step appears.

By separating registration and subscription prompts, we aim to increase conversion opportunities, reduce user drop-off, and give customers finer control over access rules.

What is a Two-Stage Paywall?

A two-stage paywall allows for two distinct access thresholds:

1. Registration wall (Regwall) — shown after X free articles. Prompts anonymous users to register for free or subscribe.
2. Subscription wall (Paywall) — shown after Y additional articles. Prompts registered users to subscribe.

Each stage can have its own copy and buttons, allowing you to tailor the experience and messaging at every step.

Upcoming improvements to the two-stage paywall include:

• Adding the option to theme each paywall and metered paywall banner individually
• Adding the option to disable subscribing via the paywall until a user has registered

Where can it appear?

Two-stage paywalls can be applied anywhere metered access is already supported. Current examples include:

• Standard metered paywall journeys (anonymous > registered > subscribed)
• Registration-only experiences (anonymous > registered)
• Registration-required experiences (must register before reading any content)

The registration step currently shows both Register and Subscribe together. You can have as many different configurations of paywall as you like.

As with existing paywalls, subscribers remain unaffected as does content excluded from any meters.

Who can use it?

Two-stage paywalls are available to all customers using Bolt 4.XX.X and above.

They are ideal for publishers who want to:

• Increase registration rates before asking for payment
• Customise user journeys based on authentication state

What is needed to get it live?

To enable a two-stage paywall, your authentication provider must include a new paywall_override key in its verify response, and an additional key to ensure you can see analytics for users in different states.

This key tells the app which paywall stage to show. For example, switching from the anonymous meter to a registered meter once the user has signed up.

    <category scheme="http://schema.pugpig.com/paywall_override" term="register"/>

    <category scheme="http://schema.pugpig.com/user/custom_analytics/paywall_override" term="register"/>

Without this key, the app will continue to use the standard single-stage paywall configuration.

You will need to:

• Work with your authentication provider to add the two paywall_override keys to the verify response.
• Provide separate copy for your registration and subscription steps