“The number one fear blinkist would get was that they were afraid they were going to forget to cancel their free trial. So they redesigned their paywall around the free trial itself — the timeline, and notifying the user two days before it ends. We got about a 23–25 percent increase in starts and it really did not seem to have a significant impact on conversion.”

Transparency Paywall Lifted Trial Starts 25% With No Drop in Conversion Rate

Blinkist redesigned its paywall to lead with how the free trial works — not the product features — and added a reminder two days before charge. None to Run copied the pattern and saw a 23–25% lift in trial starts with no meaningful drop in conversion rate. The lesson: users who fear being accidentally charged either skip the trial or cancel on day one; removing that fear increases both top-of-funnel and long-term LTV.