# 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 v3 to v4 - iOS

SuperwallKit 4.0 is a major release of Superwall's iOS SDK. This introduces breaking changes.

## Migration steps

## 1\. Update code references

### 1.1 Rename references from `event` to `placement`

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.

| Before                                | After                                     |
| ------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------- |
| func register(event:)                 | func register(placement:)                 |
| func preloadPaywalls(forEvents:)      | func preloadPaywalls(forPlacements:)      |
| func getPaywall(forEvent:)            | func getPaywall(forPlacement:)            |
| func getPresentationResult(forEvent:) | func getPresentationResult(forPlacement:) |
| TriggerResult.eventNotFound           | TriggerResult.placementNotFound           |

### 1.2 Update PurchaseController method

The following has been changed in the `PurchaseController`:

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

This provides a `StoreProduct` object, which contains information about the product to be purchased.

## 2\. StoreKit 2

The SDK defaults to using StoreKit 2 for users who are on iOS 15+. However, you can choose to stay on StoreKit 1 by setting the `SuperwallOption` `storeKitVersion` to `.storeKit1`.
There are a few caveats to this however.

In the following scenarios, the SDK will choose StoreKit 1 automatically:

1. If you're using Objective-C and using a `PurchaseController`.
2. If you're using Objective-C and observing purchases by setting the `SuperwallOption` `shouldObservePurchases` to `true`.
3. If you have set the key `SKIncludeConsumableInAppPurchaseHistory` to `true` in your info.plist, the SDK will use StoreKit 1 for everyone who isn't on iOS 18+.

If you're using Objective-C and using `purchase(_:)` you must manually set the `SuperwallOption` `storeKitVersion` to `.storeKit1`.

If you're using a `PurchaseController`, you access the StoreKit 2 product to purchase using `product.sk2Product` and the StoreKit 1 product `product.sk1Product` if
you're using StoreKit 1. You should take the above scenarios into account when choosing which product to purchase.

### 3\. Getting the purchased product

The `onDismiss` block of the `PaywallPresentationHandler` now accepts both a `PaywallInfo` object and a `PaywallResult` object. This allows you to easily access
the purchased product from the result when the paywall dismisses.

### 4\. Entitlements

The `subscriptionStatus` has been changed to accept a set of `Entitlement` objects. This allows you to give access to entitlements based on products purchased.
For example, in your app you might have Bronze, Silver, and Gold subscription tiers, i.e. entitlements, which entitle a user to access a certain set of features within your app.
Every subscription product must be associated with one or more entitlements, which is controlled via the dashboard. Superwall will already have associated all your
products with a default entitlement. If you don't use more than one entitlement tier within your app and you only use subscription products, you don't need to do anything extra.
However, if you use one-time purchases or multiple entitlements, you should review your products and their entitlements. In general, consumables should not be associated with an
entitlement, whereas non-consumables should be. Check your products [here](https://superwall.com/applications/\:app/products/v2).

If you're using a `PurchaseController`, you'll need to set the `entitlements.status` instead of the `subscriptionStatus`:

| Before                                        | After                                                            |
| --------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Superwall.shared.subscriptionStatus = .active | Superwall.shared.subscriptionStatus = .active(Set(entitlements)) |

You can get the `StoreProducts` and their associated entitlements from Superwall by calling the method `products(for:)`. Here is an example of how you'd sync your subscription
status with Superwall using these methods:

## Tab

```swift Swift
func syncSubscriptionStatus() async {
  var products: Set<String> = []
  for await verificationResult in Transaction.currentEntitlements {
    switch verificationResult {
    case .verified(let transaction):
      products.insert(transaction.productID)
    case .unverified:
      break
    }
  }

  let storeProducts = await Superwall.shared.products(for: products)
  let entitlements = Set(storeProducts.flatMap { $0.entitlements })

  await MainActor.run {
    Superwall.shared.subscriptionStatus = .active(entitlements)
  }
}
```

## Tab

```swift RevenueCat
func syncSubscriptionStatus() {
  assert(Purchases.isConfigured, "You must configure RevenueCat before calling this method.")
  Task {
    for await customerInfo in Purchases.shared.customerInfoStream {
      // Gets called whenever new CustomerInfo is available
      let superwallEntitlements = customerInfo.entitlements.activeInCurrentEnvironment.keys.map {
        Entitlement(id: $0)
      }
      await MainActor.run { [superwallEntitlements] in
        if superwallEntitlements.isEmpty {
          Superwall.shared.subscriptionStatus = .inactive
        } else {
          Superwall.shared.subscriptionStatus = .active(Set(superwallEntitlements))
        }
      }
    }
  }
}
```

You can listen to the published property `Superwall.shared.subscriptionStatus` to be notified when the subscriptionStatus changes. Or you can use the `SuperwallDelegate`
method `subscriptionStatusDidChange(from:to:)`, which replaces `subscriptionStatusDidChange(to:)`.

### 5\. Paywall Presentation Condition

In the Paywall Editor you can choose whether to always present a paywall or ask the SDK to check the user subscription before presenting a paywall.
For users on v4 of the SDK, this is replaced with a check on the entitlements within the audience filter. As you migrate your users from v3 to v4 of the
SDK, you'll need to make sure you set both the entitlements check and the paywall presentation condition in the paywall editor.

![](https://34ba55bc-superwall-docs-staging.staffbar.workers.dev/docs/images/camp-presentation-conditions.png)

## 6\. Check out the full change log

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

## 7\. Check out our updated example apps

All of our example apps have been updated to use the latest SDK. We now only have two apps: Basic and Advanced. Basic shows you the basic integration of Superwall
without needing a purchase controller or multiple entitlements. Advanced shows you how to use entitlements within your app as well as optionally using a purchase controller
with StoreKit or RevenueCat.

## 8\. 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/).