Durable Metered Paywall Using Device-Based Identification
š Problem Statement
Pelcro's metered paywall relies on cookies, which means users can trivially bypass free-article limits by opening incognito windows, clearing cookies, or restarting the browser. This requires no technical skill and is regularly flagged by clients as a core weakness ā undermining publisher confidence and estimated to cost 4ā6 % of metered revenue.
š” User Story
As a publisher using Pelcro's metered paywall, I want free-article limits to persist across sessions using device-based identification, so that casual meter abuse via incognito mode or cookie clearing is significantly reduced ā without requiring readers to log in for free articles or breaking SEO/crawler access.
šÆ Definition of Done (DoD)
A feature is done when:
āļø Given a reader on a metered site, when they exhaust their free-article limit and reopen the same browser in incognito mode or after clearing cookies, then the meter is not reset and the paywall continues to enforce the limit.
āļø Crawler and bot access remains unaffected.
āļø No login is required for free articles.
āļø The feature does not claim cross-device or cross-browser enforcement (scope is same-browser, same-device only).
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Comments6
Chris Gogos
Sep 16
Hi @Michael Ghattas Iāve been watching this, and was hopeful when I saw the August 31 date for release on it but have since seen it bumped down, and now see it under āNew Ideasā! Is it no longer being considered? Thanks, Chris
Michael Ghattas
Sep 17
Hey Chris, hope all is well. We did release fingerprinting on customer activity in order to assess whether it can be used for paywall targeting however our conclusion was that Apple is combating device fingerprinting, and hence it results in a large subset of their users having the same device fingerprint. If you would like, we can share the details of the results so that you can check it out and let us know if you have any ideas on how to solve it. Just create a ticket on support@pelcro.com and Iāll ask team to provide you the data and problem in more detail.
Michael Ghattas
Jun 10
We will move forward with implementing device fingerprinting on reader activity to test whether collision rates are acceptable ā meaning the wrong end-user never hits a paywall they shouldn't. If the data looks good, we'll integrate device fingerprinting into the metered paywall as a configurable, opt-in option for publishers.
Michael Ghattas
May 12
Thanks for sharing. Weāll discuss this internally today in our discovery call. Iāll keep you posted.
Chris Gogos
May 12
Thanks Michael
Chris Gogos
May 12
A reference article below. A couple of years old now but I doubt the numbers are better.
It is our experience that users will try and find ways to circumvent a paywall rather than pay.
Itās phychological, if itās easy enough to open another browser or switch to your phone or laptop to āextendā the meter, you will keep doing it. Users arenāt always deliberatly trying to avoid paying, but the moment they realise they can bypass the paywall, they will continue doing so. Itās habit.
We believe that it is very important to tighten the current leaky metered paywall.
Our analytics data backs it up too. We have thousands of regular true brand lovers who consume well over 15 articles a month, but only a small portion are paying subscribers. Suffice to say, they are finding means to extend their meterā¦
https://www.amediaoperator.com/analysis/over-half-of-readers-attempt-to-circumvent-publishers-paywalls/