2025 Paywall Index: A Data-Driven Study Across Industries

Website Planet has published a study which explores how paywalls have evolved beyond news media to become the internet’s default business model, shaping digital content, SaaS, streaming, and even academic publishing.

Among our key findings:

  • Paywalls surged in the 2010s (120 new launches) but appear to have stagnated in the 2020s.
  • Hard paywalls dominate, with 50% of services relying on this model.
  • Nearly half (46.03%) of freemium models are in the software/SaaS sector.
  • Pay-per-view is rare overall, but 65% of academic journals with paywalls use it.

You can check their full research here: https://www.websiteplanet.com/blog/2025-paywall-index-a-data-driven-study-across-industries/

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