Clew

How to add a paywall upgrade prompt in a Lovable app without a developer

A soft paywall in a Lovable app: when a free user reaches a paid feature, a modal explains the upgrade and links to your pricing page — targeted by plan, measured, and editable without a release.

Time
● 20 minutes
Price
14-day free trial, no card
Who does it
You and the Lovable chat

Example: an upgrade prompt in a Lovable app

A Lovable journaling app keeps AI insights for paid users. Free users who open /insights see “Weekly insights are part of Plus” with a link to the pricing page every time; the app shows its own locked state underneath.

What Clew does and doesn’t do. Clew shows the upgrade prompt — a modal with your text and a link to your own pricing or checkout page — to the users your rules select. It doesn’t take payments, doesn’t manage subscriptions and doesn’t hide or lock content: your app decides who has access, your billing provider charges the card.

This format is part of the Pro plan. Every new account starts with a 14-day free trial with all formats and audience rules, no card required. When the trial ends nothing is deleted and published items keep showing; the Free plan keeps tours and tooltips free.

How to add the paywall prompt in a Lovable app, step by step

  1. Step 01

    Copy your Clew snippet

    Create a free account (or sign in), add your site and open Admin → Overview. Click the line in the “No signal from the widget yet.” card to copy it — it carries your real site key instead of the placeholder.

    <!-- Clew: replace PASTE_YOUR_SITE_KEY with the site key from Admin > Overview -->
    <script src="https://tryclew.io/widget/PASTE_YOUR_SITE_KEY.js" async></script>
    Clew admin Overview with the embed line and a masked site key (paywall upgrade prompt in a Lovable app)
    Step 1 · schematic illustration
  2. Step 02

    Open the project chat in Lovable

    Open your project in Lovable. The chat edits the code directly; make sure you are on the main version you publish, not an old remix.

    An app builder with the AI chat panel next to the preview (paywall upgrade prompt in a Lovable app)
    Step 2 · schematic illustration
  3. Step 03

    Send the prompt with your key

    Copy the prompt, replace PASTE_YOUR_SITE_KEY with your key and send it. Besides the script tag it asks for what the paywall upgrade prompt needs from the code.

    Add the Clew onboarding widget to this app.
    
    Insert this exact tag once so it loads on every page, including after client-side route changes:
    <script src="https://tryclew.io/widget/PASTE_YOUR_SITE_KEY.js" async></script>
    
    This is a Lovable project (React + Vite): put the tag in index.html right before </head>.
    
    After the signed-in user is loaded, and whenever the subscription changes, call Clew.identify({ plan: <the user's current plan id as a string, e.g. "free"> }). If the widget may not have loaded yet, first define the queue stub: window.TutorKit = window.TutorKit || { q: [], identify: function (p) { this.q.push(["identify", p]); } }; then call window.TutorKit.identify(...). Add a data-tour attribute to the buttons of paid features (for example data-tour="export"). Do not add any payment, gating or paywall logic of your own and do not change what the buttons do.
    
    Rules:
    - Use the script URL exactly as given. Do not download it, bundle it or install an npm package.
    - If the project sets a Content-Security-Policy, allow https://tryclew.io in script-src and connect-src.
    - Change nothing else and show me the diff.
    AI chat with the Clew prompt in the message box (paywall upgrade prompt in a Lovable app)
    Step 3 · schematic illustration
  4. Step 04

    Check the change and publish

    Open the code view: expect index.html with one added line, plus the small additions from the prompt. Then press Publish — the widget works only on the published app.

    Code diff with one script line added to index.html (paywall upgrade prompt in a Lovable app)
    Step 4 · schematic illustration
  5. Step 05

    Write the upgrade prompt

    In Clew open Flows → + New flow and choose Modal window. One step: a title with the benefit (“Export to CSV is on Pro”), one sentence of value, and in Link text / Link URL the button and your pricing or checkout URL.

    An upgrade prompt modal over a web app, with a benefit headline and a link button to the pricing page (paywall upgrade prompt in a Lovable app)
    Step 5 · schematic illustration
  6. Step 06

    Choose where, when and for whom it shows

    In the same editor, set Where to show (page URL), When to show, Audience targeting and Frequency. These are the settings of the example above:

    SettingValue
    FormatModal window
    Where to show (page URL)Section by prefix /insights
    When to showRight on page load
    Audience targetingProperty plan equals free
    FrequencyEvery visit
    Clew tour editor with the format, page URL rule, trigger and audience rule fields (paywall upgrade prompt in a Lovable app)
    Step 6 · schematic illustration
  7. Step 07

    Publish and check it on the live site

    Set Status to Published and save. Open the page in a private window — Clew remembers who has already seen a “once” item, so your usual browser may skip it. Views, completions and drop-offs appear in the tour stats.

    Clew admin Overview with the green “Widget is live” card (paywall upgrade prompt in a Lovable app)
    Step 7 · schematic illustration

Pitfalls: paywall upgrade prompt in a Lovable app

Supabase auth loads after the page

Lovable apps usually sign users in with Supabase, so the user is known a moment after load. That’s fine: Clew.identify() re-checks the rules whenever it is called, and the paywall upgrade prompt appears then.

The editor preview is not your published app

Build and test the paywall upgrade prompt on the published URL (or your custom domain). URL rules compare paths, so the same settings work for both.

The prompt doesn’t replace access checks

If the paid feature is reachable for free users in your app, the modal appears but the feature still works behind it. Check that the server side enforces the plan; the prompt is only the message.

Update the property after upgrading

Properties live in the browser until the app sends a new value. Call Clew.identify({ plan: "pro" }) after a successful upgrade, or the new customer keeps seeing the prompt.

Questions and answers

Does Clew connect to Stripe?

No. The button links to your pricing or Stripe checkout page; Lovable’s Stripe integration handles payment.

Will the next Lovable prompts remove the line?

Usually not — it lives in index.html. If Admin → Overview stops showing “Widget is live” after a big regeneration, send the prompt again.

Does Clew take the payment?

No. The button links to your own pricing page or checkout; Clew never handles cards, subscriptions or access.

Is the paywall prompt free?

It needs the modal format and an audience rule, both in Pro. The 14-day trial includes them, no card.

One line on your site — then tours, tooltips and checklists without releases.

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