The moment to pay – one question, three products

In brief

All three products work and people use them for free. The next step is asking them to pay. Done badly, a paywall blocks the people who make a product useful. Done well, it appears at the moment the value is obvious.

1. Found the one moment in each product when paying makes sense: saving a 4th AI plan, publishing a week for more than 5 people, adding a second store.
2. Proposed plans and prices against what similar products charge, and explored two or three directions for each paywall.
3. Designed the chosen flows end to end, including saying no, and built them as interactive prototypes on one shared motion kit.

3 products, one rule: the price comes after the value

Designed and prototyped. Not yet shipped, so the results section is a measurement plan, not results.

01 · The Question

Show the price after the value.

Each product already proves itself before anyone pays. GATH3R drafts a whole dinner from one sentence. SynchroShift builds a real week in the guest trial. SEDERAN runs a store routine in the pilot. So the paywall should never come first. It should appear when people want to keep, publish or grow what they made, with that work still in view. But the buyers differ, from a friend paying with Apple in two taps to a chain buying through procurement. One rule, three designs.

Value first

No price until the user has seen what they would keep.

Nothing is lost

Saying no keeps the draft, the week or the store.

The price moves in view

Totals count to their new value, so nothing feels hidden.

Ask once

Once paid for, that wall never appears again.

02 · GATH3R Plus

Keep the plan you just made.

Drafting stays free, always. The sheet rises over the finished draft at the 4th saved AI plan of the month, with the menu and list visible behind it. People already pay for list and group apps: AnyList Complete is $9.99 to $14.99 a year, Splitwise Pro about $39.99. Plus adds AI planning on top, with 7 days free on yearly.

03 · SynchroShift Plans

Your week is ready. Publish it.

Once a team grows past the free 5, the plan choice appears at Publish, with the week built in the 24-hour guest trial beside the price. Planday charges about $2.99 to $4.49 per user a month, with 30 days free. Deputy is about $5 to $9, also with a free trial. The difference is not trial length but what the trial contains: a real AI-drafted week. The Team plan is priced per employee.

04 · SEDERAN Plans

One store proves it. The second one pays.

The upgrade appears when head office adds a second store. The per-store total moves as stores are added, and Chain unlocks at five. Store-execution tools like Xenia and YOOBIC price by quote; listings put Xenia around $99 to $199 a month. SEDERAN Store includes 300 AI photo checks per store; at five stores, Chain includes 2,500 a month, shared across the stores. From 20 stores it becomes a conversation, because that is how chains buy.

05 · One Motion Kit

Nine components, the same springs.

The paywalls look different because the products do, but they share one set of moving parts: plan cards and a success mark that pop once, prices and totals that count to their new value, and sheets and panels on springs that can be grabbed or reversed halfway. Every value comes from the motion-study kit. Under Reduce Motion each part lands at its end state, and nothing depends on movement.

06 · Saying No

The decline path is a path too.

Most paywalls fail here. Someone says no and loses what they made, or meets the same wall tomorrow. In all three products “Not now” keeps everything: the GATH3R draft for 7 days, the SynchroShift week as a draft to publish any time, the SEDERAN store to finish later. One gentle reminder, then nothing.

07 · What to Measure

Trial to paid

Share of trials that become paying plans, per product and plan.

Seen, then left

How many see the paywall and leave within a week.

Refunds and cancellations

Within 14 days of paying. A high number means the paywall overpromised.

Kept drafts that convert

“Not now” drafts later saved or published with a plan.

08 · Open Questions

What is still being decided.

Next: put the GATH3R sheet in front of real groups, as it is closest to how most subscription apps ask people to pay.

One Plus for a household?

Plus covers the groups its owner creates. Should two hosts in one home share one subscription?

Who approves when the scheduler is not the owner?

Exploring an approval link from the Publish dialog, the week kept as a draft meanwhile.

Should 5+ stores stay self-serve?

Or always include a walkthrough call? Procurement may prefer one yearly invoice.

What gets tested first

Whether the price at save, at Publish and at the second store beats a plain upgrade button.