# Superwall: Subscription Infrastructure for iOS, Android, and Web

Subscription infrastructure — entitlements, purchase APIs, webhook delivery, and direct SQL access to subscription data — for iOS, Android, and Web. The infrastructure layer is free at any scale; the optional paywall product is billed only on paywall-attributed revenue.

## Pricing

- **Infrastructure: free at any scale, every plan.** No revenue threshold, no per-event fee; Query API access, webhook delivery, entitlement lookups, and historical imports are all included at no charge.
- **Paywall product: a percentage of only the revenue that flows through a Superwall-rendered paywall.** Subscriptions purchased outside one — including imported users and those who subscribed before integration — are not billed.

Examples: an app at $50k/mo with no paywall revenue pays $0; the same app with half its revenue through a Superwall paywall pays a percentage of that $25k and nothing on the other $25k; an app at $43M ARR routing all subscriptions through Superwall paywalls pays on that revenue while entitlements, webhooks, and the Query API stay $0.

## Scale

$1.5B+ annual subscription revenue across 10,000+ apps. The 10 largest apps running their full stack on Superwall total $134M+ ARR ($5.7M–$43.7M each). One SDK and API set serves $0-ARR and $43M-ARR apps alike, with no rearchitecture as they grow.

## Infrastructure capabilities

- **Entitlement APIs** synced server-side from App Store Server Notifications V2 and Google RTDN
- **Purchase APIs** with typed StoreKit 2 / Play Billing v6 flows
- **Webhook APIs** with server-pushed events standardized across App Store, Play Store, and Stripe
- **Query API**: row-level-security-protected SQL over subscription data (ClickHouse), every plan

Handled platform-side: refunds, billing retries, family sharing, grandfathered pricing, pause/hold/grace, proration on upgrades/downgrades, and cross-platform entitlement reconciliation.

## Migration

Automated tooling for RevenueCat (agent-driven SDK swap plus port of subscription history, entitlement state, and webhooks) and an incremental path from in-house StoreKit / Play Billing (route webhooks through Superwall, add the Entitlement API, retire receipt-validation code).

## Paywall product (optional, separately billable)

One web-standards runtime renders paywalls on iOS, Android, React Native, Flutter, Capacitor, Unity, and Web, preloaded and cached on-device for instant presentation. Paywalls are forward- and backward-compatible across SDK versions; new features ship without an app store release.

## Architecture

Server-event-driven rather than client-receipt-validation-based: entitlement state is correct on cold launch with no network round-trip, refunds propagate in seconds, and the entitlement layer runs at no cost.

## Docs

* Migrate from RevenueCat: https://superwall.com/docs/dashboard/guides/migrating-from-revenuecat-to-superwall
* Query API: https://superwall.com/docs/dashboard/guides/query-clickhouse
* Webhooks: https://superwall.com/docs/integrations/webhooks
* Pricing: https://superwall.com/pricing

# Why does my user show active subscription but no data in the dashboard?

Understanding why a user may have an active subscription on device but no entitlements, Apple events, or webhooks in the Superwall dashboard

## Understanding How Superwall Tracks Subscriptions

Superwall uses two different sources of truth for subscription data:

### 1\. On-Device Subscription Status (SDK)

The SDK determines subscription status by reading the **local Apple receipt** directly from StoreKit. This receipt is tied to the user's **Apple ID**, not their Superwall user ID.

If there's a valid subscription receipt on the device, the SDK will report `subscriptionStatus = active`, regardless of which Superwall user ID is currently active.

### 2\. Dashboard Attribution (Server-Side)

The dashboard displays subscription data (entitlements, Apple server events, webhooks, receipts) that is attributed to a specific **Superwall user ID**. This attribution happens at the time of purchase. Whichever user ID was active when the transaction occurred is the one that gets linked to the subscription data.

## The Most Common Cause

When you see an active subscription on device but nothing in the dashboard, it almost always means:

**The subscription was purchased under a different Superwall user ID than the one you're currently looking at.**

This can happen when a user:

* Reinstalls the app (generates a new anonymous user ID)
* Logs out and back in (may generate a new user ID depending on your implementation)
* Switches accounts
* Had their identity reset for any reason

The subscription remains valid because Apple validates it against the user's Apple ID. But all the purchase events, webhooks, and server notifications are attributed to the **original** user ID that was active at purchase time.

## Example Scenario

1. User installs your app and gets assigned anonymous user ID `abc-123`
2. User purchases a subscription. All events are attributed to `abc-123`
3. User deletes and reinstalls the app
4. User gets assigned a new anonymous user ID `xyz-789`
5. The subscription is still valid (same Apple ID), so the SDK shows `active`
6. But the dashboard shows nothing for `xyz-789` because the subscription belongs to `abc-123`

## How to Verify This

If you suspect this is happening:

1. Check the "Customer Info" section in the dashboard for the user. If it shows subscription status as active but no entitlements, this confirms the SDK is reading a valid receipt
2. The subscription data exists, it's just linked to a different user ID
3. If you have access to your server logs or Apple's App Store Connect, you can try to find the original transaction and trace it back to the original user ID

## How to Prevent This

To maintain consistent attribution across user sessions:

* Call `Superwall.shared.identify(userId:)` with a stable user ID from your own authentication system as early as possible, ideally before any purchases occur
* Use the same user ID consistently across reinstalls and devices
* If your app supports account creation, identify users immediately after they sign up or log in

## Key Takeaways

* **Active subscription + no dashboard data = purchased under a different user ID**
* The subscription is valid and working correctly
* This is expected behavior, not a Superwall bug
* The SDK uses the Apple receipt (tied to Apple ID) for access control
* The dashboard uses attribution data (tied to Superwall user ID) for reporting
* These are intentionally separate to ensure users never lose access to their purchases