Metered Paywall Software for Publishers
Give readers a set number of free articles, then ask them to subscribe. Set the free-article count and reset interval with no code.
Trusted by leading publishers worldwide
Real paywalls in the wild
Trusted by leading publishers worldwide
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How a metered paywall works
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Investigation
Inside the year that reshaped reader revenue
Subscriptions overtook advertising for the third straight quarter, and the newsrooms that moved first are setting the terms for everyone else.
Their editors describe a shift that began with a single decision: stop guessing which readers were ready to pay, and let the paywall decide it for them, article by article.
Best for
Who it's for
News and magazine sites with high article volume
Publishers testing how willing readers are to pay
Teams that want to protect ad traffic while gating content
Features
What it does
- Free-article count and reset interval
- Set how many articles a reader gets for free and how often that count resets, in days.
- Wide and regular meter styles
- Show the meter inline over the article or as a full-page prompt once the limit is reached.
- Targeting rules
- Show or skip the meter by location, device, referral source, article tag or a custom rule.
- SEO-safe by default
- Pelcro detects search crawlers and turns the paywall off for them, so metered articles stay indexable.
421% more new subscribers one month after introducing a Pelcro paywall
Times Review Media Group put its free New York titles behind Pelcro's paywall. In March 2019 it launched a metered paywall on articles tagged premium, giving readers three free premium articles, and bounce rates stayed unaffected.
Read the full case study“Our partnership with Pelcro has seamlessly allowed us to evolve our digital business model. The Pelcro team has been incredibly responsive and has both the business and technical capabilities to radically modernize the distribution model for our brands.”
Andrew Olsen, Publisher, Times Review Media Group
Last updated
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
- What is metered paywall software?
- Metered paywall software gives readers a set number of free articles over a period, then asks them to subscribe to keep reading. See metered paywall examples
- How many free articles should I offer?
- It depends on your traffic and goals. Pelcro lets you set and change the free-article count and reset interval without code, so you can test what converts.
- Does a metered paywall hurt SEO?
- Pelcro detects crawlers like Googlebot and disables the paywall for them by default, so your articles stay indexable and keep their rankings.
- How is a metered paywall different from a hard paywall?
- A metered paywall allows some free reads before gating; a hard paywall locks premium content immediately until a reader subscribes or pays. See hard paywalls
Get started
Launch your metered paywall with Pelcro
Set a free-article limit, target the right readers, and convert them to subscribers, all from one platform.
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