We were stuck waiting on app releases to test even small paywall tweaks. So we moved onboarding and checkout to the web and ran the comparison there. It let us change pricing and flow daily, then deep link users into the app with an auth token to unlock features.
What we actually tested fast: one-step vs quiz-first onboarding, trial vs no trial, and price anchors (monthly vs annual vs quarterly). We also tried a “soft wall” that exposed a small chunk of content before pay. No new builds required. The catch was keeping the post-purchase experience clean inside the app, so we used a single sign-in link and showed a clear “you’re active” confirmation screen on first open.
For the comparison, we sent half of paid traffic to web onboarding and half direct-to-app, and we tracked through to first-week engagement and day-30 paid status. The web flow got faster learnings and fewer broken experiments, but we had to be careful with cross-platform entitlement syncing and not biasing the split by ad creative.
If you’ve run both, how did you structure the traffic split and experiment window to make the comparison fair without needing new builds?
Yes. It’s enough if you wire it cleanly.
I ship onboarding on web, test prices and copy fast, then deep link into the app.
I use Web2Wave.com to push JSON configs, so I don’t rebuild.
Focus on the post-purchase path and a clear login handoff.
Web onboarding is the fastest way to compare. I build variants on Web2Wave.com, flip copy and pricing in minutes, and push changes live without a build. Then I split paid traffic 50/50 and watch paid status plus week-one engagement.
Web tests make this easier because you can change pricing and steps quickly.
I would add a clear email or magic link handoff so users do not get lost after purchase.
Yes. Test on the web. Push live daily.
It is enough if your measurement plan is tight. Split traffic by campaign not by session. Define success as paid plus day seven usage to avoid pricing tricks that only pull forward revenue. Log a join key from web to app so you can validate entitlements and avoid ghost access. Keep the first open in-app simple. Show a welcome and a single next action.
Did this on a language app. We tested a two-step vs four-step web onboarding with monthly and annual options. Two-step won on conversion but lost on day 7 usage. We picked four-step because LTV looked better.
No releases needed. Worth it.
Web lets you test faster. Just make sure the deep link and login are smooth.