Compare Paywall Providers
So you're looking for the perfect paywall software for your website? Well, when we shop for something big, we like to do a lot of research. You’re probably the same way. So to help you in your research, we’ve compiled a list of every paywall provider that we’re aware of. Here at Pigeon, we don’t mind you shopping around and comparing the competition, we encourage it. That way, when your research inevitably circles you back around to us, you’ll be absolutely certain that you’re making the best choice possible.
Key Features to Look for in Paywall Software
When shopping for a good paywall solution, there’s a few key features to look for. If you will be charging people to access content on your website, then the following features will be required.
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Paywall
Obviously, you’ll need the ability to block content for non-subscribers, while allowing access to paying cusomters. If you are continually pushing out new content, or intend to offer a variety of complex access plans, then you will want it to be easy to determine what content goes behind the paywall. Additionally, you should have the option to implement a variety of paywall models such as metered, soft, or hard paywall.
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Payments
You will need the ability to collect payments, charge recurring subscriptions, and offer refunds.
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Manage Members
If you have lots of customers, then storing and browsing customer contact information, subscription and billing details, and even customer support tools will be important.
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Communication
Communication with your customers is critical. Sending email messages and newsletters is essential, and its even more powerful when you can automatically target specific customers based on specific criteria.
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Analytics
Knowledge is power. Being able to access and browse different layers of engagement analytics, combined with tools for financial reporting, can help you make more informed decisions.
Those are the minimum features you’ll need to run a successful subscription-based business. Many of the solutions listed below only include some of these features though, which means you may need to purchase additional software services from another vendor. Mixing and matching services is technically fine, but can get costly, cluttered, and confusing. You could end up using Mailchimp for email communication, Salesforce for customer management, Stripe for subscription and payment handling, and something else yet for the paywall content protection. In our list below, we’ve tried to identify which of these features are available in each solution.
Other Important Factors in Choosing a Paywall Solution
Beyond these required software features, there’s a few other factors to consider that are a little more intangible:
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Financial
Pricing structures vary widely. Investing in the right paywall from the start can help avoid costly changes later.
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Software
If it’s good paywall software, it will have subscriber and user management tools, which means you’ll likely be using the software nearly everyday. So you want to make sure that it’s easy to work with and sparks joy each time you use it. No one wants to use software everyday that’s ugly or fills you with a sense of dread each time you login. Some of these products look like their interfaces were designed 25 years ago. Seeing Windows XP in product screenshots should be a big red flag.
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Support
The quality of support is another major factor for consideration. If you have questions, will it be possible to get a hold of someone? This varies widely across the different paywall companies. With a few of these companies, you can expect a quick response and a quality answer. With some other providers, you can only expect reasonable levels of support if you’re a mega-huge corporation, while medium to small-sized businesses should expect to find themselves forgotten and neglected. And with other paywall solutions, don’t count on ever being able to contact a real support person. You will be completely on your own.
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Flexibility
With many of the paywall companies, what you get is what you get and don’t expect a lick more. If you have a unique situation that requires something custom, most will not even entertain a discussion. So if you have special needs, your options will be more limited.
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Universal
If you are married to a certain content management system, you’ll want to make sure the paywall software is compatible with your website. Some of the solutions only work with specific CMSs, and some providers even require you to migrate your website to their exclusive CMS, which may be more of a headache then you are willing to accept.
With all that in mind, we hope the following list will aid you in your research. To eliminate any bias, we’ll simply list the solutions in alphabetical order. Good luck on your research journey!
Admiral
Relationships Matter.
Growing great relationships leads to the best in life and in business. Welcome to Admiral: The Visitor Relationship Management Company. A single platform helping Publishers grow Visitor Relationships and Revenue via simple, powerful, marketing automation.
Adapty
In-app subscriptions made profitable
Integrate in-app purchases within an hour. Double your subscription revenue in 3 months with A/B testing for paywalls. Run monetization experiments faster and cheaper.
Quick Notes
- This is specifically for mobile apps.
Aptitude - Formerly MPP Global
Driving transformation.
Finance transformation solutions that drive growth, efficiency and sustainability.
Blink
Change the way you use the Internet
Blink offers an easy way to log in to different publications and make digital news purchases. Access the content you love. Support those who create it.
Blox Digital - formerly TownNews
Activating content. Delivering results.
BLOX Digital empowers you to deliver cutting-edge digital experiences that engage and convert—on every platform.
Quick Notes
- If you already have a website, you must switch to their proprietary CMS.
ChargeBee
Unlock a lifetime of subscriber growth and retention
Thousands of subscription businesses trust Chargebee’s unique Revenue Growth Management platform to acquire, grow, retain, and manage customers in 227 countries and territories globally.
Quick Notes
- Primarily a subscription billing platform.
- Paywall functionality is weak and only works in WordPress.
Corrily
How subscription companies grow revenue
The all-in-one platform to design, test, deploy and analyze your monetization strategies across web and mobile
Quick Notes
- Despite using the word “paywall” repeatedly, Corrily does not actually offer the typical paywall technology that blocks users from accessing content. Rather, Corrily allows you to create experimental pricing pages. Corrily refers to these pricing pages as “paywalls”.
- Seems to only handle the paywall pricing page. You will still need other services to handle subscriptions, billing, and customer management.
Evolok
The engagement and monetisation platform for digital media
Helping online publishers and content brands engage audiences and grow subscription revenues.
FewCents
Turn Casual Visitors Into Engaged Users
Fewcents reimagines micro access to individual content with global payments and sponsorships. Built for any digital media, the Fewcents Wall is a plug-and-play widget that unlocks revenue and data from undervalued casual visitors.
Quick Notes
- Not a typical paywall solution.
- All about micropayments and just selling access to individual articles.
Flip-Pay
Digital Publishing Content Monetization and Solutions
Rapidly test, deploy and grow your digital revenue business with advanced user journeys and customer retention tools. Flip-Pay delivers insights, segmentation, subscriptions, carts and more for digital publishers.
Ghost
Independent technology for modern publishing.
Ghost is a powerful app for professional publishers to create, share, and grow a business around their content. It comes with modern tools to build a website, publish content, send newsletters & offer paid subscriptions to members.
Quick Notes
- Ghost is a publishing platform comparable to Substack and Medium.
- If you already have a website, you’ll need to migrate to Ghost’s CMS instead.
Google Reader
Grow your revenue and deepen your reader engagement
Reader Revenue Manager provides publisher solutions to deepen audience engagement and convert subscribers or contributors
Quick Notes
- Most publishers are trying to get out from under Google’s thumb, not get in bed with Google.
- It's a somewhat experimental Google project, so no guarantee it will be around for the long haul.
Leaky Paywall
The flexible subscription platform for publishers. Built for WordPress.
Elevate your readers’ subscription experience. Engage and nurture casual visitors, populate your CRM, and grow revenue.
Quick Notes
- Still need a separate CRM service.
- Email communication is an extra paid service.
MediaOS
One Software for All Things Publishing
CRM Software for Magazines, Newspapers and Digital Publishers
MemberGate
Easily launch your own subscription website
Start a profitable website by collecting recurring fees using the MemberGate software.
Quick Notes
- If you already have a website, you must switch to their proprietary CMS.
MemberPress
The “All-In-One” Membership Plugin for WordPress
With MemberPress you can monetize your WordPress site, build a perfect membership site, control who sees your content, sell online courses and digital downloads, and accept credit cards and digital wallets securely.
Mocono
The next-generation paywall platform
Sell and manage subscriptions for your content with Mocono. We don’t charge fixed fees, there’s no minimum term, and no setup costs.
MultiPub
Subscription and Recurring Billing Platform
Multipub, our subscription and audience management platform, automates accounting, fulfillment and marketing operations. Designed to help you work more efficiently, we offer full-service capabilities, in addition to our on-premise or Cloud solutions.
Quick Notes
- Looks like extremely antiquated software.
- Demo videos still show Windows XP!
Nami
Optimize your paywalls faster and easier
Designed to help businesses optimize their in-app purchase and subscription revenue, Nami offers an advanced, no-code paywall CMS that enables faster paywall experimentation.
Quick Notes
- This is specifically for mobile apps.
Omeda
Unlock your audience's full potential with Omeda
Omeda is enterprise software that combines subscription management, customer data platform, and email and marketing automation so you can manage, activate and monetize your audience more efficiently. Improve lead generation, spark engagement, reduce churn, and increase revenue — all in one unified platform.
Paid Member Subscriptions
Effortless Subscriptions and Recurring Revenue for Membership Sites
Launch your WordPress membership site, online course, or paid community, increase conversions, and generate subscription revenue with one flexible and seamless solution.
Paywall Project
WordPress paywall web development for local news publishers
PaywallProject supports small and medium-sized digital news publishers by relieving them from the responsibility of creating and managing their own tech stack.
Quick Notes
- This is a managed web design and hosting provider for newspapers.
Pelcro
Make clients want to pay you faster.
Personalize invoices, accept all payment types, and design experiences with ease.
Piano
Analytics + Activation
Empower every team to understand and influence customer behavior.
Pigeon
The perfect paywall for any project
Create profitable paywalls and easily manage subscriptions and customers with our flexible and robust plugin.
Poool
The Membership and Subscription Suite
The simple, all-in-one audience conversion, management & retention platform to turn content into business.
Recurly
Acquire, retain, and grow subscriptions
The subscription management platform trusted by leading brands to grow recurring revenue.
Restrict Content Pro
The easy membership plugin for WordPress
Robust content restriction tools and a powerful WordPress membership site, all in one easy to manage plugin.
RevenueCat
In-app subscriptions made easy
The world's best subscription apps use RevenueCat to power in-app purchases, manage customer data, and grow revenue on iOS, Android, and the web.
Quick Notes
- This is specifically for mobile apps.
Subscription DNA
Automate Your Recurring Billing Business with Subscription DNA
Subscription DNA's powerful SaaS platform creatively integrates subscription billing, robust subscription management, paywalls and authentication.
Subscription Genius
Love Publishing
Our cloud software replaces costly fulfillment houses and clunky spreadsheets, giving you the power to grow.
SuperTab - formerly LaterPay
We’re changing the way the game is paid.
A lot of great content can be found behind paywalls, but no one can afford to subscribe to everything. That’s why we built Supertab. Now you can access just the content you want and simply “put it on your Tab”.
Quick Notes
- Not a typical paywall solution.
- All about micropayments and just selling access to individual articles.
Wallkit
Paywalls Made Easy
Wallkit is a powerful paywall & memberships platform that helps publishers monetize audience access to editorial content, newsletters, events and advertising.
Zoura - formerly Zephr
Do modern business.
Companies rely on Zuora to build, run and grow a modern business. Whether your business model is based on subscriptions, consumption, or a hybrid approach, our flexible monetization solutions will help you unlock your full growth potential.
Zlick
Simple paywall software for WordPress subscription sites
The effortless paywall to maximize conversions and increase revenue. 10-min setup, no developers needed.
The Graveyard
We’ve also seen quite a few paywall solutions go the way of the Dodo bird over the years. Here’s just a few that we remember...
CoinTent
PressPlus
RevenueWire
Swishu
TinyPass
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Pico
Pico has rebranded as Hype, and pivoted away from the paywall to instead building tools for social media creators. It is now primarily link-in-bio software.
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MediaPass
MediaPass just suddenly vanished. Records indicate that they raised $1.75 million in Series B funding in March 2012, but they must have took the money and ran, because they completely disappeared immediately after that.
The Do-It-Yourself Paywall
Lastly, if you have a technically savvy team, you could attempt the daunting task of building your own custom paywall solution. We’ve talked with numerous companies that ultimately decided they could save themselves some money by developing their own in-house paywall solution. Each time we cautioned them that there are innumerable “gotchas” that will need to be considered and accommodated for that won’t be immediately obvious. That even with a talented and dedicated team, it will take a minimum of several years just to build a basic paywall. Unless you’re the size of the New York Times, it is very rarely worth the time and energy to attempt such an undertaking.
We often wish these enterprising companies good luck and say, “You’ll be back.” So far, every time this conversation has happened, they returned a year later and admitted, “You were right. We're abandoning our endeavor as this is far more difficult than expected. We should have just signed up with Pigeon from the start, because now we’re way behind schedule and have wasted tons of money.”
Here at Pigeon, we’ve been refining and expanding our paywall software for more than 15 years. Not only have we been constantly building innovative new features during that time, but we’ve seen and accommodated for every conceivable scenario and predicament for paywalls, subscription plans, payments, and more. We’ve done the hard work so you don’t have to. Let us take care of the paywall, so you can focus on what really matters—creating great content.
Conclusion
We genuinely hope this information helps you determine the best solution for your needs. Not every project needs a tool with extensive features, and some can succeed with relatively basic software. Other projects, however, demand a robust platform capable of managing large-scale challenges and complexities. We hope this guide will help you find the tool best for your particular project.
If you're still unsure about which tool to choose, we encourage you to schedule a demo with Pigeon. We believe it's the perfect paywall for any project and we'd be thrilled to connect with you and learn more about your business.
Connect with our team and schedule a demo.
Schedule a Demo Visit Pigeon.io