Two stage metered paywall
Written by Benji Weiser
Updated at October 31st, 2025
Table of Contents
Customer changes required
This feature requires a minor adjustment to your auth setup, detailed below in the What is needed to get it live? section.
Cross entitlement
We strongly recommend setting up cross entitlement / receipt postback / subscription linking in your app if you intend to have a two stage paywall, so that users who register and then subscribe can link their in-app subscription with your third party auth provider.
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 at least two distinct access thresholds:
- Registration wall (Regwall) - shown after X free articles. Prompts anonymous users to register for free or subscribe.
- Subscription wall (Paywall) - shown after Y (can be the same value as X) 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?
These 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 long as your auth provider is capable of differentiating the users.
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 iOS 4.14.0 and above. Android support is soon to follow.
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.
Paywall override format
Paywall override strings should be sent as follows:
<category scheme="http://schema.pugpig.com/paywall_override" term="registered"/>
<category scheme="http://schema.pugpig.com/user/custom_analytics/paywall_override" term="registered"/>We require both the override key and the override analytics key, both of which must match.
Values should be sent in a standardised, case-sensitive, format, such as:
- registered
- lapsed
If you would like any others please let us know.
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_overridekeys to the verify response. - Provide separate copy for your registration and subscription steps
While not essential, as recommended at the top of the article, we would strongly encourage cross entitlement to be configured.