Paywall examples · Hard
Real examples of hard paywalls in the wild, the model that blocks every article until a reader subscribes. See how publishers frame the subscribe prompt, the price, and the sign-in path for existing members.
3 examples
Hard paywall
Subscription required
A true hard wall: the article is cut off after the first lines with a single “Subscribe Now” path and a sign-in link for existing members. No free read.
Subscription offer
€2/mo intro (EU offer)
Two tiers side by side — a WSJ-only plan and a bundle with Barron's and MarketWatch — with a limited-time discount and a per-plan feature checklist.
Premium subscribe (STAT+)
STAT+ premium subscription
A premium B2B product (STAT+) walled behind a full signup form — email, role and industry fields — qualifying leads at the point of subscription, with a group-rate route.
Examples are captured from live publisher sites and dated. Pricing and offers change often — follow each card's link to confirm the current paywall. Screenshots are shown for reference and commentary; all trademarks belong to their owners.
A hard paywall restricts every article behind a subscription. There is no free read: a visitor hits the wall on the first piece and has to subscribe or sign in to continue. The Wall Street Journal is the classic example, and most premium business and financial titles use the same model because their reporting is worth paying for on its own.
A hard paywall trades reach for revenue. It converts fewer casual visitors than a metered or freemium model, but the readers who do subscribe tend to be high intent and churn less. The examples above show how publishers soften the wall: a clear value proposition, a strong intro price, an annual-versus-monthly choice, and a visible sign-in link so existing subscribers are never blocked. Pelcro runs hard paywalls like these for publishers, including the rules, pricing, offers and billing behind them.
See how Pelcro's paywall software worksA hard paywall blocks access to every article until the reader subscribes or signs in. Unlike a metered paywall, it offers no free articles: the wall appears on the first piece of content. It is the strictest paywall model and is common among business and financial publishers whose reporting is a paid product in its own right.
The Wall Street Journal is the best-known hard paywall: nearly every article is cut off after the first lines, with a single subscribe path and a sign-in link for members. The gallery above collects real hard paywall screens from publishers so you can compare how each one frames the subscribe prompt and the price.
A hard paywall walls off every article from the first visit, with no free reads. A metered paywall lets a reader view a set number of free articles each month before the wall appears. Hard paywalls convert fewer visitors but attract higher-intent subscribers; metered paywalls capture more casual readers first and convert the most engaged over time.
A hard paywall works best when the content is specialised and hard to find elsewhere, so readers will pay for access rather than look for a free substitute. Business, financial and trade publishers are the common fit. If a large share of traffic is casual or search-driven, a metered or freemium model usually captures more of it before asking for payment.
Yes. Pelcro is the subscription and paywall platform behind screens like these. You can configure a hard wall, set the pricing and offers, handle sign-in for existing subscribers, and run the billing, without building any of it from scratch.
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