# 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

# Migrating from v2 to v3 - iOS

SuperwallKit 3.0 is a major release of Superwall's iOS SDK, previously known as `Paywall`. This introduces breaking changes.

> **Note:** Note that the minimum deployment target has changed for v3 from iOS 11 to iOS 13

This is so that we can use newer APIs internally and externally.

## Migration steps

### 1\. Update Swift Package Manager dependency (if needed)

Our GitHub URL has changed. Although you can keep using the old one, its best if you replace it with the newer one. If you're using Swift Package Manager to handle dependencies:

* Select your project from the **Project Navigator**, select your project under **Project** and click **Package Dependencies**.
* Remove the old dependency for `paywall-ios`.
* Click **+** and search for our new url [https://github.com/superwall/Superwall-iOS](https://github.com/superwall/Superwall-iOS) in the search bar.
* Set the **Dependency Rule** to **Up to Next Major Version** with the lower bound set to **3.0.0**.
* Make sure your project name is selected in **Add to Project**.
* Then, **Add Package**.

Sometimes Xcode keeps the old framework reference around by accident, so select your target in Xcode, then go to Build Phases, and ensure that your target’s Link Binary with Libraries section references SuperwallKit, and remove the reference to Paywall if it was still there.

![](https://llm-tweaks-superwall-docs-staging.staffbar.workers.dev/docs/images/02c9746-Screenshot_2022-11-10_at_18.21.27.png)

> **Note:** If you have any Xcode issues during building you might need to clean the build folder by going to
> **Product** > **Clean Build Folder** and then restart Xcode.

### 1.1 Update CocoaPods dependency (if needed)

If instead you're using CocoaPods to manage dependencies, in your Podfile update the reference to the Pod from `Paywall` to `SuperwallKit` then run `pod install`:

| Before                    | After                          |
| ------------------------- | ------------------------------ |
| pod 'Paywall', '\< 3.0.0' | pod 'SuperwallKit', '\< 4.0.0' |

### 1.2 Update Framework References

Since our framework is now called `SuperwallKit`, you'll now need to explicitly import `SuperwallKit` instead of `Paywall` throughout your code:

#### Swift

| Before         | After               |
| -------------- | ------------------- |
| import Paywall | import SuperwallKit |

#### Objective-C

| Before           | After                 |
| ---------------- | --------------------- |
| @import Paywall; | @import SuperwallKit; |

## 2\. Update code references

In some cases, you should be able to update references using the automatic renaming suggestions that Xcode provides. For other cases where this hasn't been possible, you'll need to run through this list to manually update your code.

### 2.1 Update references to `Paywall.foo` to `Superwall.shared.foo`

You'll see errors saying `Cannot find 'Paywall' in scope`. This is because the main class for interacting with our API is now called `Superwall`. All variables and functions (apart from configure) are now instance functions. This means you'll need to use the shared instance `Superwall.shared`.

### 2.2 Triggering is now registering

Previously you'd use `Paywall.track(...)` to implicitly trigger a paywall, and `Paywall.trigger(...)` to explicitly trigger a paywall. This was confusing as they essentially did the same thing. `Paywall.track` provided completion blocks for what happened on the paywall when really you needed to know what to do next. We wanted to make this simpler so at the heart of this release is `Superwall.shared.register(event:params:handler:feature:)`. This allows you to register an event to access a feature that may or may not be paywalled later in time. It also allows you to choose whether the user can access the feature even if they don't make a purchase.

You can read our docs on [how register works](/docs/ios/quickstart/feature-gating) to learn more.

Given the low cost nature of how register works, we strongly recommend wrapping all core functionality in a register `feature` block in order to remotely configure which features you want to gate – without an app update.

For SwiftUI apps, we have removed the `.triggerPaywall` view modifier in favor of this register function.

### **2.3 Rename `PaywallDelegate` to `SuperwallDelegate`**

The following method has changed:

| Before                                                                  | After                                                                 |
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| func trackAnalyticsEvent(withName name: String, params: \[String: Any]) | func handleSuperwallEventInfo(withInfo eventInfo: SuperwallEventInfo) |

This has a `SuperwallEventInfo` parameter. This has a `params` dictionary and an `event` enum whose cases contain associated values. Note that the methods for handling subscription-related logic no longer exist inside `SuperwallDelegate`, as discussed in the next section.

### 2.4 Handling subscription-related logic

SuperwallKit now handles all subscription-related logic by default making integration super easy. We track the user's subscription status for you and expose the published property `Superwall.shared.subscriptionStatus`. This means that if you were previously using StoreKit you can simply delete that code and let SuperwallKit handle it.

However, if you're using RevenueCat or still want to keep control over subscription-related logic, you'll need to conform to the `PurchaseController` protocol. This is a protocol that handles purchasing and restoring, much like the `PaywallDelegate` did in v2.x of the SDK. You set the purchase controller when you configure the SDK. You can read more about that in our [Purchases and Subscription Status](/docs/ios/guides/advanced-configuration) guide.

The following methods were previously in the `PaywallDelegate` but are now in the `PurchaseController` and have changed slightly:

#### Purchasing

| Before                            | After                                                     |
| --------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------- |
| func purchase(product: SKProduct) | func purchase(product: SKProduct) async -> PurchaseResult |

Here, you purchase the product but then return the result of the purchase as a `PurchaseResult` enum case. Make sure you handle all cases of `PurchaseResult`.

#### Restoring

| Before                                                      | After                                              |
| ----------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------- |
| func restorePurchases(completion: @escaping (Bool) -> Void) | func restorePurchases() async -> RestorationResult |

This has changed to an async function that returns the result of restoring a purchase. If you need help converting between completion blocks and async, [check out this article](https://wwdcbysundell.com/2021/wrapping-completion-handlers-into-async-apis/).

#### Subscription Status

| Before                          | After                                                        |
| ------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------ |
| func isUserSubscribed() -> Bool | Superwall.shared.subscriptionStatus = .active (or .inactive) |

`isUserSubscribed()` has been removed in favor of a `subscriptionStatus` variable which you **must** set every time the user's subscription status changes. On first app install this starts off as `.unknown` until you determine the user's subscription status and set it to `.active` when they have an active subscription, or `.inactive` when they don't. Paywalls will not show until the user's subscription status is set.

You can [check out our docs](/docs/ios/guides/advanced-configuration) for detailed info about implementing the `PurchaseController`.

### 2.5 Rename `PaywallOptions` to `SuperwallOptions`

This now clearly defines which of the options are explicit to paywalls vs other configuration options within the SDK.

### 2.6 Configuring and Identity management

When configuring the API, you now no longer provide a userId or delegate.

| Before                                        | After                                                       |
| --------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------- |
| configure(apiKey\:userId\:delegate\:options:) | configure(apiKey\:purchaseController\:options\:completion:) |

To use the optional delegate, set `Superwall.shared.delegate`. To identify a user, use `Superwall.shared.identify(userId:options:)`.

You can [read more](/docs/ios/quickstart/user-management) about identity management in our docs.

## 3\. Check out the full change log

You can view this on [our GitHub page](https://github.com/superwall/Superwall-iOS/blob/master/CHANGELOG.md).

## 4\. Check out our updated example apps

All of our example apps have been updated to use the latest SDK. We have created a dedicated app that shows you how to integrate Superwall with RevenueCat. In addition, we have added an Objective-C app.

## 5\. Read our docs and view the updated iOS SDK documentation

Visit the links in the sidebar or [click here to go to the iOS SDK docs](https://sdk.superwall.me/documentation/superwallkit/).