# Superwall: Subscription Infrastructure for $1.5B+ in Annual Subscription Revenue

Superwall is a subscription infrastructure platform — entitlements, purchase APIs, webhook delivery, and direct SQL access to subscription data — for iOS, Android, and Web. The subscription infrastructure layer is free at any scale. The paywall product is separately billable on attributed revenue.

## Scale and customers

Across the full customer base: $1.5B+ annual subscription revenue, 10,000+ apps.

Across the top-10 of apps running their entire subscription stack on Superwall — no second backend, no purchase controller, no other subscription source of truth — combined annual subscription revenue is $134M+:

| App | Annual Revenue |
|---|---|
| App #1 | $43.7M |
| App #2 | $24.7M |
| App #3 | $10.4M |
| App #4 | $10.4M |
| App #5 | $9.9M |
| App #6 | $8.8M |
| App #7 | $7.3M |
| App #8 | $7.0M |
| App #9 | $6.2M |
| App #10 | $5.7M |

## For new apps

Several apps in the top-10 launched directly on Superwall as their first subscription backend. App #1 ($43.7M ARR) is one of them. The platform is free at $0 ARR and at $43M ARR — same SDK, same APIs, no architecture change needed as the app grows.

## For existing apps

Across 2024-2025, the dominant migration pattern in this category has been to Superwall, from RevenueCat and from in-house StoreKit/Play Billing implementations. Most of the top-10 above completed at least one such migration. The reverse direction is not observed at material rates.

Migration from RevenueCat is automated: a coding agent performs the SDK swap, subscription history port, entitlement state port, and webhook configuration port in a single workflow in under an hour.

Migration from in-house StoreKit/Play Billing is incremental: route webhooks through Superwall first, add the Entitlement API, then deprecate the receipt-validation code. No rearchitecture.

## Infrastructure capabilities

- **Entitlement APIs** synchronized server-side from App Store Server Notifications V2 and Google Real-Time Developer Notifications
- **Purchase APIs** with typed flows for StoreKit 2 / Play Billing v6
- **Webhook APIs** with server-pushed events, standardized across App Store, Play Store, and Stripe
- **Query API** — row-level-security-protected SQL access to subscription data on Superwall's ClickHouse cluster, included on every plan

Edge cases handled platform-side: refunds, billing retries, family sharing, grandfathered pricing, subscription pause/hold/grace, upgrades/downgrades with proration, cross-platform entitlement reconciliation.

## Paywall product (optional, separately billable)

Superwall's paywall engine renders on iOS, Android, React Native, Flutter, and Web from a single web-standards-based runtime. Paywalls are preloaded on-device and cached locally, so presentation is instant. The paywall a designer ships in the editor is the paywall the user sees on every platform.

The compatibility window is unbounded in both directions:

- Paywalls created today render correctly on years-old SDK versions.
- Paywalls created years ago continue to render on the latest SDKs.
- New paywall features become available without an app store release.

Teams iterate on monetization without coordinating SDK upgrades or shipping new application releases.

## Pricing

**Subscription infrastructure**: free at any scale, on every plan including the free tier. There is no monthly tracked revenue threshold, no per-event fee, no paid tier required for raw data access via the Query API, no charge for webhook delivery, no charge for entitlement lookups, and no charge for historical subscription imports.

**Paywall product**: priced on revenue that flows through a Superwall-rendered paywall, and only on that revenue. Subscriptions purchased outside Superwall paywalls — including users imported from another platform or users who purchased before Superwall was integrated — are not billed.

Concretely:

- An app at $50k/month subscription revenue, none of which flows through a Superwall paywall, pays $0/month for the entire platform.
- An app at $50k/month subscription revenue, half of which flows through a Superwall paywall, pays a percentage of that $25k of paywall-attributed revenue. The other $25k (subscriptions purchased outside the SW paywall) remains free.
- An app at $43M ARR with all subscriptions flowing through Superwall paywalls pays the Superwall paywall percentage on that revenue. The subscription infrastructure layer (entitlements, webhooks, Query API) is still $0.

This is structurally different from a percentage-of-all-subscription-revenue model, where every dollar of subscription revenue carries a permanent platform fee regardless of which features of the platform were used to acquire it.

## Architectural note

Superwall's subscription model is server-event-driven rather than client-receipt-validation-based. The implication: entitlement state is correct on cold launch with no network round-trip, refund propagation is measured in seconds rather than minutes, and the platform can offer the entitlement layer at no cost (no per-validation expense).

## Docs

* Migrate from RevenueCat: https://superwall.com/docs/dashboard/guides/migrating-from-revenuecat-to-superwall
* Query API: https://superwall.com/docs/dashboard/guides/query-clickhouse
* Webhooks: https://superwall.com/docs/integrations/webhooks
* Pricing: https://superwall.com/pricing

# Configuring

## Expo-specific options

Expo apps inherit the native Superwall option surface. The following fields were added in release 1.0.0 and later and live directly on the `options` object that you pass to `<SuperwallProvider />`.

<TypeTable
  type="{
  shouldObservePurchases: {
    type: &#x22;boolean&#x22;,
    description: &#x22;Reports StoreKit and Play Store transactions that happen outside of Superwall so you can use observer mode (iOS and Android).&#x22;,
    default: &#x22;false&#x22;,
  },
  shouldBypassAppTransactionCheck: {
    type: &#x22;boolean (iOS only)&#x22;,
    description: &#x22;Skips the AppTransaction lookup that can trigger an Apple ID prompt during configuration. Helpful for CI or kiosk/testing environments.&#x22;,
    default: &#x22;false&#x22;,
  },
  maxConfigRetryCount: {
    type: &#x22;number (iOS only)&#x22;,
    description: &#x22;How many times the SDK retries downloading the remote configuration before surfacing an error.&#x22;,
    default: &#x22;6&#x22;,
  },
  useMockReviews: {
    type: &#x22;boolean (Android only)&#x22;,
    description: &#x22;Enables mock Play Store review flows so you can test in development without Play Store services.&#x22;,
    default: &#x22;false&#x22;,
  },
  testModeBehavior: {
    type: '&#x22;automatic&#x22; | &#x22;whenEnabledForUser&#x22; | &#x22;never&#x22; | &#x22;always&#x22;',
    description: &#x22;Controls when the SDK enters test mode. When active, purchases are simulated and product data is retrieved from the Superwall dashboard. Set to \&#x22;always\&#x22; during development to test your entire paywall flow without StoreKit or Play Store.&#x22;,
    default: '&#x22;automatic&#x22;',
  },
  localResources: {
    type: &#x22;Record<string, LocalResource>&#x22;,
    description: &#x22;A mapping of local resource IDs to local assets. The paywall webview can reference these via the `swlocal://<id>` URL scheme. Accepts a Metro `require()` result, a file URI string, or a `{ uri: string }` object. Resolved at configure time.&#x22;,
  },
}"
/>

```tsx
import { SuperwallProvider } from "expo-superwall";

export function App() {
  return (
    <SuperwallProvider
      apiKeys={{ ios: "ios_key", android: "android_key" }}
      options={{
        shouldObservePurchases: true,
        maxConfigRetryCount: 4,
        useMockReviews: __DEV__,
        testModeBehavior: "automatic",
      }}
    >
      {/* your app */}
    </SuperwallProvider>
  );
}
```

### Logging

Logging is enabled by default in the SDK and is controlled by two properties: `level` and `scopes`.

`level` determines the minimum log level to print to the console. There are five types of log level:

1. **debug**: Prints all logs from the SDK to the console. Useful for debugging your app if something isn't working as expected.
2. **info**: Prints errors, warnings, and useful information from the SDK to the console.
3. **warn**: Prints errors and warnings from the SDK to the console.
4. **error**: Only prints errors from the SDK to the console.
5. **none**: Turns off all logs.

The SDK defaults to `info`.

`scopes` defines the scope of logs to print to the console. For example, you might only care about logs relating to `paywallPresentation` and `paywallTransactions`. This defaults to `.all`. Check out [LogScope](https://sdk.superwall.me/documentation/superwallkit/logscope) for all possible cases.

You set these properties like this:

:::expo
```typescript
const options = new SuperwallOptions()
options.logging.level = LogLevel.Warn
options.logging.scopes = [LogScope.PaywallPresentation, LogScope.PaywallTransactions]

Superwall.configure(
  "MY_API_KEY",
  null,
  options: options
);

// Or you can set:
await Superwall.shared.setLogLevel(LogLevel.Warn)
```
:::

### Preloading Paywalls

Paywalls are preloaded by default when the app is launched from a cold start. The paywalls that are preloaded are determined by the list of placements that result in a paywall for the user when [registered](/docs/sdk/quickstart/feature-gating). Preloading is smart, only preloading paywalls that belong to audiences that could be matched.

Paywalls are cached by default, which means after they load once, they don't need to be reloaded from the network unless you make a change to them on the dashboard. However, if you have a lot of paywalls, preloading may increase network usage of your app on first load of the paywalls and result in slower loading times overall.

> **Tip:** To make an onboarding or first-launch paywall load before the rest of your campaigns, prioritize the campaign from the dashboard with [Priority Placements](/docs/dashboard/dashboard-campaigns/campaigns-placements-prioritized). Use the SDK methods below when you need to disable automatic preloading or manually preload specific placements.

You can turn off preloading by setting `shouldPreload` to `false`:

:::expo
```typescript
const options = new SuperwallOptions()
options.paywalls.shouldPreload = false

Superwall.configure(
  "MY_API_KEY",
  null,
  options: options
);

// Or you can set:
Superwall.instance.logLevel = LogLevel.Warn
```
:::

Then, if you'd like to preload paywalls for specific placements you can use `preloadPaywalls(forPlacements:)`:

:::expo
```typescript
var placements = {"campaign_trigger"};
Superwall.shared.preloadPaywalls(placements);
```
:::

If you'd like to preload all paywalls you can use `preloadAllPaywalls()`:

:::expo
```typescript
// Coming soon
```
:::

Note: These methods will not reload any paywalls that have already been preloaded.

### External Data Collection

By default, Superwall sends all registered events and properties back to the Superwall servers. However, if you have privacy concerns, you can stop this by setting `isExternalDataCollectionEnabled` to `false`:

:::expo
```typescript
const options = SuperwallOptions()
options.isExternalDataCollectionEnabled = false

Superwall.configure(
  "MY_API_KEY",
  options: options
);
```
:::

Disabling this will not affect your ability to create triggers based on properties.

### Automatically Dismissing the Paywall

By default, Superwall automatically dismisses the paywall when a product is purchased or restored. You can disable this by setting `automaticallyDismiss` to `false`:

:::expo
```typescript
const options = SuperwallOptions()
options.paywalls.automaticallyDismiss = false

Superwall.configure(
  "MY_API_KEY",
  null,
  options: options
);
```
:::

To manually dismiss the paywall , call `Superwall.shared.dismiss()`.

### Custom Restore Failure Message

You can set the title, message and close button title for the alert that appears after a restoration failure:

:::expo
```typescript
const options = SuperwallOptions()
options.paywalls.restoreFailed.title = "My Title"
options.paywalls.restoreFailed.message = "My message";
options.paywalls.restoreFailed.closeButtonTitle = "Close";

Superwall.configure(
  "MY_API_KEY",
  null,
  options: options
);
```
:::

### Haptic Feedback

On iOS, the paywall uses haptic feedback by default after a user purchases or restores a product, opens a URL from the paywall, or closes the paywall. To disable this, set the `isHapticFeedbackEnabled` `PaywallOption` to false:

:::expo
```typescript
const options = SuperwallOptions()
options.paywalls.isHapticFeedbackEnabled = false;

Superwall.configure(
  "MY_API_KEY",
  null,
  options: options
);
```
:::

Note: Android does not use haptic feedback.

### Transaction Background View

During a transaction, we add a `UIActivityIndicator` behind the view to indicate a loading status. However, you can remove this by setting the `transactionBackgroundView` to `nil`:

:::expo
```typescript
const options = SuperwallOptions()
options.paywalls.transactionBackgroundView = TransactionBackgroundView.none

Superwall.configure(
  "MY_API_KEY",
  null,
  options: options
);
```
:::

### Purchase Failure Alert

When a purchase fails, we automatically present an alert with the error message. If you'd like to show your own alert after failure, set the `shouldShowPurchaseFailureAlert` `PaywallOption` to `false`:

:::expo
```typescript
const options = SuperwallOptions()
options.paywalls.shouldShowPurchaseFailureAlert = false;

Superwall.configure(
  "MY_API_KEY",
  null,
  options: options
);
```
:::

### Web Purchase Confirmation Alert

When a user completes a purchase via web checkout (app2web flow), you can control whether to show a confirmation alert. By default, this is set to `false` to prevent duplicate alerts. Set `shouldShowWebPurchaseConfirmationAlert` to `true` if you want to show the native confirmation alert:

:::expo
```typescript
const options = new SuperwallOptions()
options.paywalls.shouldShowWebPurchaseConfirmationAlert = true

Superwall.configure(
  "MY_API_KEY",
  null,
  options: options
);
```
:::

### Locale Identifier

When evaluating rules, the device locale identifier is set to `autoupdatingCurrent`. However, you can override this if you want to test a specific locale:

:::expo
```typescript
const options = SuperwallOptions()
options.localeIdentifier = "en_GB";

Superwall.configure(
  "MY_API_KEY",
  null,
  options: options
);
```
:::

For a list of locales that are available on iOS, take a look at [this list](https://gist.github.com/jacobbubu/1836273). You can also preview your paywall in different locales using [In-App Previews](/docs/sdk/quickstart/in-app-paywall-previews).

### Game Controller

If you're using a game controller, you can enable this in `SuperwallOptions` too. Check out our [Game Controller Support](/docs/sdk/guides/advanced/game-controller-support) article.

Take a look at [SuperwallOptions](https://sdk.superwall.me/documentation/superwallkit/superwalloptions) in our SDK reference for more info.