Mobile Development · head to head
Adapty vs Superwall
Adapty
Mobile Development
In-app subscription and paywall platform, free below 5,000 USD of monthly revenue then 1 percent, with add-ons charged separately
- From
- Free
- Rated
- -
Superwall
Mobile Development
Remotely configured mobile paywalls that can be tested and changed without shipping an app update
- From
- Free
- Rated
- -
The short version
- Each has a real cost: Adapty the 1 percent headline is only the base rate; Refund Saver at 0.2 percent of revenue, Ads Manager at 3.5 percent of ad spend, Attribution at 0.03 USD per install and Adapty Mail at a 20 percent revenue share stack on top and are individually easy to switch on.; Superwall it does not manage entitlements or validate receipts, so most teams still pay a subscription infrastructure vendor as well and carry the cost and complexity of two systems.
- They diverge on capability: Adapty covers Visual paywall builder, Superwall covers Server driven paywalls.
- Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Adapty and Superwall actually diverge.
Identical on both: starting price (Free), pricing model (Per month by tracked revenue), free tier (Yes), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Mobile Development).
What each one covers
Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.
Only in Adapty
- Visual paywall builder
- A/B testing on paywalls
- Cross-platform entitlements
- Subscription analytics
- Refund Saver add-on
- Attribution and Ads Manager add-ons
Only in Superwall
- Server driven paywalls
- Paywall experiments
- Audience rules
- No release cycle dependency
- Revenue analytics
- Paywall editor
What people use each for
The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.
Adapty
- A growth marketer who needs to test paywall pricing weekly without an engineering ticket or an app releasenot Superwall
- A small subscription app that wants to stay free longer than the 2,500 USD threshold offered by the main competitornot Superwall
- Consolidating subscription analytics and paywall experimentation in one place rather than wiring an analytics tool to a billing SDKnot Superwall
- Automating Apple refund responses where a measurable share of revenue is lost to refund requestsnot Superwall
Superwall
- A subscription app whose paywall conversion rate is the main lever on revenuenot Adapty
- Teams blocked by App Store review times from testing pricing and copy at a useful cadencenot Adapty
- Showing different paywalls by acquisition channel, region or user behaviournot Adapty
- Letting design and growth staff change paywalls without consuming engineering sprintsnot Adapty
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
Adapty
- The 1 percent headline is only the base rate; Refund Saver at 0.2 percent of revenue, Ads Manager at 3.5 percent of ad spend, Attribution at 0.03 USD per install and Adapty Mail at a 20 percent revenue share stack on top and are individually easy to switch on.
- Revenue is calculated before platform fees, so the fee applies to money Apple and Google have already taken a 15 to 30 percent cut of, making the effective rate on received cash noticeably higher than the quoted figure.
- Adapty Mail at a 20 percent revenue share is a large ongoing cost for a channel most teams would otherwise run through an email platform they already pay a flat fee for.
- The integration ecosystem, third-party tutorials and hiring pool are smaller than the category leader, so engineers are less likely to have used it before and edge cases have fewer public answers.
- Paywall configuration and entitlement state live with the vendor, so a migration later means rebuilding both the billing integration and every paywall the marketing team has created.
Superwall
- It does not manage entitlements or validate receipts, so most teams still pay a subscription infrastructure vendor as well and carry the cost and complexity of two systems.
- Pricing scales with tracked subscription revenue, which means the tool becomes more expensive precisely as it succeeds, and that cost sits on top of the store's own commission.
- A server driven paywall adds a network dependency to the moment of purchase; the fallback paywall bundled in the app must be maintained or a connectivity failure costs a sale.
- Statistically valid paywall experiments need substantial traffic, so small apps will run tests that never reach significance and will be tempted to act on noise.
- The visual editor covers common paywall patterns, and anything unusual in layout or animation still requires native work, which reduces the promised independence from engineering.
Pricing, plan by plan
Adapty
Free- Pro under thresholdFree
- Free until monthly revenue reaches 5,000 USD
- All core features, no tiers and no fixed costs
- Paywall builder and A/B testing included
- Pro$undefined/month
- 1 percent of monthly revenue above the 5,000 USD threshold
- Refund Saver adds 0.2 percent of monthly revenue
- Ads Manager adds 3.5 percent of monthly ad spend
- Enterprise$undefined/year
- Quoted
- White-glove onboarding
- 24/7 dedicated Slack support and a success manager
Superwall
Free- Free tier$undefined/month
- Full paywall and experiment functionality below a monthly tracked revenue threshold
- Intended to carry an app until subscription revenue is material
- Paid tiers$undefined/month
- Priced against monthly tracked subscription revenue, so cost rises as the app earns more
- Charged in addition to any subscription infrastructure vendor you also run
Which should you pick?
Choose Adapty if
- You need visual paywall builder.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on iOS, Android, Web, React Native, Flutter.
- You also want a/b testing on paywalls.
Choose Superwall if
- You need server driven paywalls.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on iOS, Android.
- You also want paywall experiments.
Questions people ask
- Is Adapty or Superwall better?
- Neither clearly leads. Adapty starts at Free and Superwall at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Adapty or Superwall?
- Adapty starts at Free and Superwall at Free.
- Does Adapty or Superwall run on more platforms?
- Adapty runs on iOS, Android, Web, React Native, Flutter. Superwall runs on iOS, Android.
- Can I use Adapty for free?
- Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
- What is Adapty best used for?
- Adapty is most often used for a growth marketer who needs to test paywall pricing weekly without an engineering ticket or an app release, a small subscription app that wants to stay free longer than the 2,500 usd threshold offered by the main competitor, consolidating subscription analytics and paywall experimentation in one place rather than wiring an analytics tool to a billing sdk, automating apple refund responses where a measurable share of revenue is lost to refund requests. Of those, a growth marketer who needs to test paywall pricing weekly without an engineering ticket or an app release and a small subscription app that wants to stay free longer than the 2,500 usd threshold offered by the main competitor are not what Superwall is typically brought in for.
- What can Adapty do that Superwall cannot?
- Adapty covers Visual paywall builder, A/B testing on paywalls, Cross-platform entitlements, Subscription analytics. Superwall covers Server driven paywalls, Paywall experiments, Audience rules, No release cycle dependency.
Answered from the vendors’ own pages
Adapty: How much does it cost above the free threshold?
1 percent of monthly revenue, measured in USD before platform fees, with billing starting once you exceed 5,000 USD in a 30 day period.
Superwall: Do we still need RevenueCat or StoreKit?
Yes in nearly all cases. Superwall presents and tests the paywall; something else must own entitlements and receipts.
Adapty: Is the free tier really more generous than RevenueCat?
On the base product yes, 5,000 USD against 2,500 USD of monthly revenue, but add-ons are priced separately where the competitor bundles more into its single rate.
Superwall: Does Apple allow remotely configured paywalls?
Yes. Configuring presentation remotely is normal; the purchase itself still goes through the store billing APIs.
Adapty: Can marketing change paywalls without a release?
Yes, that is the main reason teams choose it; paywalls are configured server side and published without going through app review.
Superwall: How much traffic is needed for useful tests?
Enough paywall impressions per variant to detect a few percentage points of conversion difference. Below a few thousand a week, results will mislead.
Adapty: What does Refund Saver actually do?
It responds to Apple refund requests with transaction evidence to contest them, and it costs an additional 0.2 percent of monthly revenue.
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