AB Design
AB Design
Paywalls are a near-universal feature of the internet media landscape. They're used extensively on national and international news sites, as well as business journals, audio and video services, and online magazines.
This article will start by introducing Bypass Paywalls Clean, the number one browser extension for circumventing paywalls, and then shed more light on paywalls themselves. How many different types of paywall are there, how do they differ, and how effective are they?
59.2 percent of readers leave the site immediately after reaching a paywall. Only about two out of every 1,000 readers subscribe on the spot. Approximately 18 percent shift to free content elsewhere on the site, about 13 percent click around in search of articles that are not behind the paywall, and about one in 10 successfully bypasses the paywall.
University of Notre Dame, IndianaJune 2026
As far as tools for getting past paywalls go, the Bypass Paywalls Clean extension is as good as things get. It was originally available on the Chrome Web Store and Add-ons for Firefox website, but after being hit with a DMCA takedown notice in 2023 it was removed from both sites and ported over to GitLab. After another takedown notice (and another after that on GitHub), the extension was moved to GitFlic, a repository owned and maintained by a Russian technology company.
Bypass Paywalls Clean can be installed as an extension in ZIP, CRX and XPI formats, as a userscript, and as an adblocker list (ie, a text file). The adblocker list works well; I tested it on the phone using Vivaldi Snapshot, but it should be just as effective on any other Android browser whose adblocker supports external filter lists or filter subscriptions.
The latest ZIP, CRX and XPI releases can be downloaded from the GitFlic repo and used on pretty much any PC browser. On Android, installing the XPI file on Firefox is straightforward – just remember to put the browser in Developer Mode before getting started.
Installing the CRX package on Android requires either Edge Canary or Quetta. As with Firefox, both browsers need to be put in Developer Mode; after that, Edge Canary can upload CRX files via the Developer Options at the bottom of the settings menu. I've found that sometimes Edge Canary can be a bit buggy and will randomly disable the Bypass Paywalls Clean extension. If this happens, just re-enable it.
The only other issue worth noting is that Edge Canary and Quetta are quite intrusive in terms of telemetry. Fortunately it's easy to identify the outbound pings and add them to the denylist in whatever Private DNS service you're using. I use Next DNS for this purpose and it works like a charm. Off the top of my head, Quetta pings three or four endpoints in China – they're all easy to spot and neutralize.
As for the userscript, I've not been able to get it to work. It's easy enough to install on a browser such as Via (or any other browser with an extension that manages userscripts), but it didn't work as advertised and failed on several sites I wanted to read. This said, it might be fine for other people who want a paywall blocker for just one or two specific magazines or news sites.
The four main types of paywall are outlined below. Some authors also talk about a fifth type, Dynamic Paywalls, which typically use AI to tweak paywall settings in response to users' behavior.
Soft Paywall Some content is free and in certain cases it may be possible to read the bulk of an article before being informed that a subscription is required in order to continue.
Hard Paywall Content is subscription only, nothing is free. This is the most polarizing type of paywall since it's not always easy for website visitors to assess the quality of what's on offer.
Metered Paywall This is a fairly common approach – the site grants people permission to read, say, a maximum of five free articles per month.
Freemium Paywall These keep basic content completely free for everyone while charging only for premium articles, special features, or bonus materials.
A great deal of thought has been given to the design of paywalls, and researchers have embraced the opportunity to conduct a slew of surveys to assess their effectiveness. One recent study, for example, concluded that best results can be achieved by combining discounts with a "less is more" approach. In this context, "less is more" refers to the teaser elements that sit in front of paywalls. These elements usually include the header, image, lede and intro.
Researchers found that revealing too many teaser elements correlates with a reduced likelihood of people subscribing. To me, this makes sense. If sufficient information is available in front of the paywall, readers might feel they've learned enough to grasp the story and don't need to subscribe lo learn more.
For the majority of people, though, no amount of coaxing, well-researched strategies or generous discounts will result in a new subscriber. Sure, most readers agree that paid content is generally superior to content that's free, but a key factor that can't be overlooked is subscription fatigue – people are simply fed up with paywalls and being asked to take out subscription after subscription.
Our goal is, at some point in the years to come, to remove that paywall. To allow all, regardless of their ability to pay, to read more Tribune journalism. It's a push we've started to make this year. We've raised $340,000 and counting to fully remove the paywall on all of our election coverage ahead of the critical 2024 races.
The Salt Lake TribuneAnnual Report, July 2024
Up until about 2024, staff at the Salt Lake Tribune viewed their paywall as a "necessary evil". The revenue it generated helped pay salaries and other expenses, but it dented the Tribune's readership and cut people off from what the paper describes as trustworthy, independent news. It also impacted negatively on a tight community of people for whom religion and news about religion is considered important.
To rid itself of this "necessary evil" and make news accessible to everyone, the newspaper expanded its outreach initiatives and focused more on increasing revenue from donors (both corporate and private), advertising, and growing its First Amendment Society, where membership costs $1000/year. The quote above was published in the Tribune's annual report in 2024. At the time of writing, September 2026, there is no longer a paywall on the website. Access to all content is now free.