# 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

# register()

A function that registers a placement that can be remotely configured to show a paywall and gate feature access.

> **Warning:** **Deprecated SDK**We strongly recommend migrating to the new [Superwall Expo SDK](/docs/expo), see our [migration guide](/docs/expo/guides/migrating-react-native) for details.

## Purpose

Registers a placement so that when it's added to a campaign on the Superwall Dashboard, it can trigger a paywall and optionally gate access to a feature.

## Signature

```typescript
async register(params: {
  placement: string
  params?: Map<string, any> | Record<string, any>
  handler?: PaywallPresentationHandler
  feature?: () => void
}): Promise<void>
```

## Parameters

<TypeTable
  type="{
  placement: {
    type: &#x22;string&#x22;,
    description: &#x22;The name of the placement you wish to register.&#x22;,
    required: true,
  },
  params: {
    type: &#x22;Map<string, any> | Record<string, any>?&#x22;,
    description: &#x22;Optional parameters to pass with your placement. These can be referenced within audience filters in your campaign. Keys beginning with `$` are reserved for Superwall and will be dropped. Arrays and dictionaries as values are not supported and will be omitted.&#x22;,
    default: &#x22;undefined&#x22;,
  },
  handler: {
    type: &#x22;PaywallPresentationHandler?&#x22;,
    description: &#x22;A handler whose functions provide status updates for the paywall lifecycle.&#x22;,
    default: &#x22;undefined&#x22;,
  },
  feature: {
    type: &#x22;(() => void)?&#x22;,
    description: &#x22;An optional completion callback representing the gated feature. It is executed based on the paywall's gating mode: called immediately for **Non-Gated**, called after the user subscribes or if already subscribed for **Gated**. If not provided, you can chain a `.then()` block to the returned promise.&#x22;,
  },
}"
/>

## Returns / State

Returns a Promise that resolves when registration completes. If you supply a `feature` callback, it will be executed according to the paywall's gating configuration, as described above.

## Usage

With feature callback:

```typescript
Superwall.shared.register({
  placement: "premium_feature",
  params: {
    source: "onboarding"
  },
  feature: () => {
    // Code that unlocks the premium feature
    openPremiumScreen()
  }
})
```

Using promise chaining:

```typescript
await Superwall.shared.register({
  placement: "premium_feature",
  params: {
    source: "onboarding"
  }
}).then(() => {
  // Code that unlocks the premium feature
  openPremiumScreen()
})
```

With presentation handler:

```typescript
import { PaywallPresentationHandler } from "@superwall/react-native-superwall"

const handler = new PaywallPresentationHandler()
handler.onPresent((info) => {
  console.log("Paywall presented:", info.name)
})
handler.onDismiss((info, result) => {
  console.log("Paywall dismissed:", result)
})

Superwall.shared.register({
  placement: "onboarding_complete",
  params: {
    source: "onboarding"
  },
  handler: handler
})
```

## Behavior

This behavior is remotely configurable via the Superwall Dashboard:

* For **Non-Gated** paywalls, the feature callback is executed when the paywall is dismissed or if the user is already paying.
* For **Gated** paywalls, the feature callback is executed only if the user is already paying or if they begin paying.
* If no paywall is configured, the feature callback is executed immediately.
* If no feature callback is provided, the returned promise resolves when registration completes.
* If a feature callback is provided, the returned promise always resolves after the feature callback is executed.

Note: The feature callback will not be executed if an error occurs during registration. Such errors can be detected via the `handler`.