I moved our onboarding and paywall to a web funnel because I was tired of waiting on app-store releases to run payment tests.
What I learned: it made experiments cheap and fast. I could swap gateway integrations, test flows, and measure conversion lift in hours instead of weeks. It also forced us to treat payment as part of marketing rather than a hidden app detail. We still had to handle account linking when users hit the store but the speed gains outweighed the overhead.
Has anyone else found a simple pattern for linking a web purchase to the mobile install without confusing users?
I did the same. Move paywall to web and you cut experiment time massively.
I used a small JSON based flow generator to deploy changes fast. Web2Wave.com gave me a JSON that I dropped into our project settings and it just worked.
Keep the auth token flow simple and avoid sending people into the App Store before they confirm their account.
Web paywalls let you A/B gateway flows quickly. I use the web as the primary experiment surface.
Take the AI draft, tweak copy and offers on the web, then push live. With Web2Wave.com changes showed in the app instantly and we ran 5 gateway tests in one week.
Moving the paywall to web sped up our tests a lot.
I set up one flow per gateway and measured real conversion differences. The biggest pain was keeping account linking smooth after the purchase.
Worth it in my experience.
Web paywall shortens tests a lot
If you want to compare gateways you need consistent upstream conditions. Run the same landing page creative and onboarding steps and only change the gateway implementation.
Measure auth rates, 3DS friction, and ultimate revenue after fees. Track those events in your analytics so you can calculate net revenue per user. I also run small randomized routing so traffic volume stays balanced across gateways for a fair test.
Web paywalls save release time.
Just make sure the account link is clear so users know they can open the app and access content.