“What I gave up potentially in having a less permissive paywall strategy I made up for in essentially free marketing — because the app is used by so many more people. I'm spending that capital by just making my paywall more permissive and making it have more natural virality.”

A Permissive Paywall Is a Viral Marketing Machine

WidgetSmith's free tier includes enough customisation that users can create genuinely beautiful home screens without paying — and those screens are inherently shareable on social media. Every screenshot showing a WidgetSmith widget is an ad. David frames a generous free tier not as revenue foregone but as a paid-acquisition budget spent on virality instead.