RevenueCat, but free: use Superwall as your subscription layer

Use Superwall as your subscription and entitlement layer — even if you never show a paywall — so you read one property and ship. Superwall takes over purchasing, restoring, and entitlements for free, and paywalls and A/B testing are there when you want them.

Why it matters

The subscription layer is the most commoditized part of a subscription app's stack. Whatever vendor you use, it does the same job: process the purchase, restore it, and tell you which entitlements are active right now. Most teams pay for that — and write a pile of custom code around it anyway.

Superwall does that job for free. Install the SDK and it takes over all purchasing, restoring, and entitlement management. You don't have to show a single Superwall paywall to benefit — use it purely as your free subscription and entitlement backend, the way you'd use RevenueCat.

For growth teams, the upside is that the same SDK already powers remotely-configured paywalls and experiments. So the moment you want to test paywalls, offers, pricing, or onboarding without an app release, the foundation is already in place — at no added cost.

What you can do with Superwall

• Hand off purchasing and entitlements. Per the RevenueCat migration guide, if you used a custom purchase controller you simply remove it and the SDK takes over all purchasing, restoring, and entitlement management across the App Store and Google Play.

• Read one property for subscription state. Superwall tracks the subscription state of a user for you, so you don't add extra logic. Read subscriptionStatus, which returns .active(Set<Entitlement>), .inactive, or .unknown — with an isActive shorthand for "any entitlement active."

• Gate features without scattered checks. Instead of wrapping checks throughout your code, register a placement at the call site and keep entitlement requirements in dashboard audience filters.

• Switch with zero risk if you want it. Run observer mode to keep RevenueCat and Superwall side by side while you migrate.

• Turn on paywalls and experiments later. Because the same SDK drives paywall presentation and experiments, your growth team can test without an app release whenever they're ready — no second tool to buy.

How it works

• Install the SDK. Add the Superwall SDK via Swift Package Manager or CocoaPods and import it. See the install guide.
• Let the SDK manage purchases and entitlements. Remove any custom purchase controller; the SDK takes over purchasing, restoring, and entitlement management automatically.
• Read subscription state. Observe subscriptionStatus (.active(Set<Entitlement>)/ .inactive / .unknown) directly, or use the delegate to react to changes, as described in tracking subscription state.
• Gate premium features. Use register() with placements and the Feature Gating setting so gated features only run for users with an active entitlement.
• Add paywalls when ready. Build and A/B test paywalls remotely later — no app release required, no extra subscription-management bill.

Proof from customers

In Superwall's own voice-of-customer research, the strongest demand is not for "a paywall SDK" — it's for the ability to test and iterate on monetization fast, without shipping a build. Teams consistently describe wanting paywall experiments, price tests, and offer tests they can run without an engineering queue, plus one place for the data.

Adopting Superwall as a free subscription layer first is the low-risk way in: you keep credible purchasing and entitlement handling, and unlock the testing upside whenever your growth team wants it.

Migration demand from RevenueCat, Adapty, and similar tools shows up as well. When it does, it's usually tied to wanting better testing, better design control, and data parity — not just a swap of the underlying subscription plumbing.

Use cases

• Drop-in RevenueCat replacement. Use Superwall purely as a free subscription and entitlement backend; never required to show a Superwall paywall.

• New apps. Skip building purchase, restore, and entitlement logic from scratch — read subscriptionStatus and gate features.

• Cost reduction. Remove a paid subscription-management line item without losing purchasing, restoring, or entitlement coverage.

• Future-proofing growth. Land on a stack where remotely-configured paywalls and A/B tests are already available when you decide to monetize harder.

Get started

• Install the iOS SDK and configure it.

• Follow the RevenueCat to Superwall migration guide if you're switching.

• Wire up subscription state tracking and feature gating.

• Create your free account at superwall.com.