What Share Of Companies Run A Soft Paywall Variant?
- By Ali Abouelatta
- n = 252
- Published
- Updated
- 2 min read
- paywall · monetization · ux-patterns · mobile · experiments
Short answer
Of 252 companies with paywall CTA data tracked by Lazyweb Research, 145 (57.5%) show a visible exit on at least one captured paywall — even though only 26.2% of individual screens are soft source[1]source[2]. Most companies run at least one soft variant while defaulting most screens to hard gates source[1]. The screen-level and company-level rates diverge because soft exits cluster in a subset of each app's paywalls source[1].
57.5% of companies (145 of 252) ship at least one soft paywall, versus only 26.2% of individual screens — Lazyweb Research, July 2026.
Screens are hard, companies are mixed
At the screen level, 710 of 2,708 paywalls (26.2%) are soft source[2]. At the company level, 145 of 252 companies (57.5%) run at least one soft paywall somewhere source[1]. The gap tells you soft exits are not evenly spread — a company will hard-gate most placements and soften a few (for example, an onboarding paywall versus a mid-session upsell).
How to apply it
The company-level number is the honest competitive benchmark: a majority of tracked apps have decided that at least one surface deserves a visible exit source[1]. If your app hard-gates everywhere, you are in the minority of companies (about 42%), even though hard is the majority of screens source[1]source[2]. Use surface, not app, as the unit of decision — pick which placements get an exit rather than choosing one policy app-wide.
Caveats
Both rates are lower bounds: undetected close controls and unlabeled CTAs would raise them source[1]. Company coverage varies — some apps have many captured screens and some just a few, so 'has at least one soft variant' is easier to satisfy for heavily captured apps source[1]. This is what-shipped evidence, not lift source[1].
Real in-market screens
Screens from real, in-market apps, tracked by Lazyweb Research.
Ai Chatbot1206 × 2622opens the full image 
Disney1125 × 2436opens the full image 
Fitbod1206 × 2622opens the full image 
Discord1170 × 2532opens the full image
The numbers
| # | Stat | Computed from |
|---|---|---|
| [1] | 145 of 252 companies (57.5%) have a visible exit somewhere | companies_with_any_visible_exit: 145/252 = 57.5% |
| [2] | 710 of 2,708 screens (26.2%) are soft | screens_with_any_visible_exit: 710/2,708 = 26.2% |
Methodology
Company-level rate over 252 companies; a company is soft if any of its captured paywalls shows a visible exit. Screen-level rate over 2,708 screens. Both are extraction-based lower bounds. July 2026.
Sources
- [1]
Lazyweb Research analysis of 252 companies with paywall CTA data (mobile app corpus), July 2026
Company counts as soft if any captured paywall shows a visible exit; a lower bound.
- [2]
Lazyweb Research analysis of 2,708 paywall screens (mobile app corpus, 252 companies), July 2026
Screen-level visible-exit rate.
Source: Lazyweb Research — proprietary analysis of real, in-market app screens. Cite as Lazyweb Research, 2026-07-07.