Paywalls + metering, the right friction at the right moment, subscriptions Google can still see.
Paywalls earn their keep when they convert without breaking SEO and convert without alienating the first-time reader. We build the metering logic, the Stripe Billing layer, and the edge middleware that gates without throwing the entire article behind login.
What we build
Metered access tracked per device, not just per session
Free-article counters survive cookie clearing via a privacy-aware fingerprint. The reader gets the journalism on first visit; the paywall lands at the article where the engagement signal says they'd subscribe.
Edge middleware for the gate
The paywall decision runs at the CDN edge in milliseconds. Subscribers never see the gate; metered readers get the right counter; first-touch readers get the article. Origin server gets a clean traffic profile.
Stripe Billing for the subscription engine
Plans, trials, upgrade paths, regional pricing, dunning, all handled by Stripe Billing wired against a typed subscription state machine. New plan launches are config changes, not engineering sprints.
Google Flexible Sampling support
Articles stay indexable; Google's crawlers see the full content with the proper meta. First-click-free is configurable per section. The SEO team gets a setting; the engineering team gets to ship.
Newsletter + paywall as one product
Email subscribers feed into the same audience model as paid subscribers. Upgrade flows from free newsletter to paid plan run in-line, not in a separate flow. Audience growth and revenue are the same graph.
Editor controls for per-article gating
Editorial set premium, free-this-week, or members-only per article in the CMS. Bulk operations for a whole investigation series. The marketing team can run a free-week promotion without engineering involvement.
Where this fits
Your publication has a growing newsletter and wants to launch paid subscriptions without breaking the part that's working.
Your current paywall lives in a vendor SaaS that doesn't fit your editorial workflow.
Your paywall is converting but Google traffic is dropping because the indexing is half-broken.
Tech stack
- TypeScript
- Stripe Billing
- Edge Middleware
- Postgres
Want this for your team?
30 minutes with a founder or senior engineer. We'll scope what you need and tell you straight whether Stacklane fits.
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