“Everything on the paywall should lead the eye to the CTA. The button should be the highest-contrast element on the page. If it's not immediately clear what to tap, you've already lost the conversion.”

High-contrast CTA button is the only thing on the page that needs color

Darryl Stone's design principle for paywall layout: strip out visual noise, make the call-to-action the single dominant element. This means neutral backgrounds, minimal decoration, and a CTA button color that has no competition. Stone notes that most app paywalls have too many competing visual elements — multiple color accents, icons, testimonial badges — each diluting the user's focus from the one action that matters.