Restricting access to paid users

Gate parts of your app — or the whole thing — behind a subscription or one-time purchase.

Sometimes you want users to sign up for free, but only paying users can access certain features. Here's how to set that up.

Two common patterns

Whole-app paywall — the simplest. Anyone can sign up, but they can't use the app until they pay.

Lock the whole app behind a paid subscription. Sign-up is free, but the user can only access pages after they subscribe.

Feature-level paywall — some pages or features are free, others are paid.

Let signed-in users see the Dashboard and add up to 10 records for free. Lock the Analytics page and Export button to paid subscribers only.

What paid means

Before you can gate access, you need a payment option set up. See Selling your app for the quick-start.

Once you have prices, the AI knows what paid means and can gate accordingly.

What unpaid users see

Three options — your choice:

1. A locked screen with a Subscribe to continue call-to-action
2. A teaser preview (e.g. blurred Analytics charts) with a subscribe prompt overlaid
3. A redirect straight to checkout

Just describe what you want:

When an unpaid user clicks Analytics, show them a blurred preview of the page with a big Subscribe button in the center.

Free trials

You can offer a free trial period.

Give new users 14 days of free Pro access. After that, they need to subscribe to keep going.

The AI handles the timing and the upgrade prompts.

Tracking who's paid

Open the editor sidebar → Users. Each user has a payment status: Free, Trialing, Active, Past due, Canceled.

You can also export this list for your own records.

When a user cancels

Their access stays until the end of their current billing period (so if they paid for the month, they keep access for the rest of the month). After that, they revert to free-tier access automatically.

What to read next

• Selling your app — set up payments first
• Roles and permissions — finer-grained access