Theme

Access Wall

Overview

The Access Wall asks readers to sign up or subscribe to keep reading. One experience covers every kind of wall:

a sign-up wall, where a free account unlocks the article
a paywall, where a subscription unlocks it
a metered wall, which lets readers open a number of free articles first
sign up, then subscribe: a free account gives a few more articles, then plans are offered

Readers pick a plan and pay in a checkout window without leaving the article, and the article unlocks as soon as they have paid. Subscribers and, for a sign-up wall, logged-in readers never see it.

Create an Access Wall

In Audience Operation → Experience, click New Experience and choose Access Wall.
Start from a template, then change any setting:

Template	Starts as
Sign-up wall	Inline after 3 paragraphs, can't be dismissed
Soft sign-up prompt	Overlay that can be dismissed, back after 7 days
Metered wall	3 free articles a month, then plan cards
Subscription wall	Plan cards on every article, best value highlighted
Sign up, then subscribe	Sign up for 2 more free articles, then plan cards

Show it on your articles with an Orchestration or a Journey, for example only on premium article pages.

Settings

Setting	Options
Mode	Sign-up: a free account unlocks it. Subscription: a plan unlocks it. Sign up, then subscribe.
Access	Hard: always shows. Metered: after free articles. Soft: can be dismissed.
Display	Inline in the article: the article stops and the wall takes its place. Overlay on the page: the wall covers the page.
Article container	The CSS selector of your article body, e.g. `.article-content`.
Paragraphs shown	How many paragraphs readers see before the wall.
Fade the cut	Fades the last paragraph into the wall.
Withhold the text on the server	No: the article is cut in the reader's browser. Yes: your site sends only the preview, see Protected Content.

Metered access

Setting	What it does
Free articles and Per	How many articles a reader can open each day, week or month before the wall shows.
Articles left banner	Tells readers how many free articles they have left.
Extra free articles after signing up	With Sign up, then subscribe, how many more articles a free account gives.

The meter counts each article the wall is shown on once, however often the reader opens it. It's kept on the reader's device, so it starts again on a new device or after the reader clears their browser data.

Soft walls

Show again after (days): when a reader dismisses a soft wall, it stays away on every page for this many days.

Plans

With Subscription or Sign up, then subscribe:

Plans offered (1 to 3): the Stripe plans shown as cards.
Highlighted plan: the card marked with the badge, e.g. Best value.
Unlocks for: Any active subscription, or Only these plans.

Text and style

Write the headline, text, button labels and optional small print, and pick the accent, background and text colours. The preview updates as you type.

Custom styling

Every part of the wall has a class you can style in Custom CSS or in your site's stylesheet:

Class	Part
`.unis-aw`	The wall. With `.unis-aw--inline` or `.unis-aw--overlay` for the display.
`.unis-aw__panel`	The box holding the message.
`.unis-aw__headline`, `.unis-aw__body`, `.unis-aw__note`	Headline, text and small print.
`.unis-aw__plans`, `.unis-aw__plan`, `.unis-aw__plan--highlighted`	Plan cards, and the highlighted one.
`.unis-aw__plan-name`, `.unis-aw__plan-price`, `.unis-aw__plan-period`, `.unis-aw__plan-badge`, `.unis-aw__plan-cta`	Parts of a plan card.
`.unis-aw__signup`, `.unis-aw__login`	Sign-up and log-in buttons.
`.unis-aw__meter`	The articles left banner.
`.unis-aw__fade`, `.unis-aw__backdrop`, `.unis-aw__close`	The fade, the overlay background and the close button.

Colours, font, corner radius and width are CSS variables you can override:

.unis-aw {
  --unis-aw-accent: #0f766e;
  --unis-aw-radius: 0;
  --unis-aw-max-width: 640px;
}

The variables are --unis-aw-accent, --unis-aw-bg, --unis-aw-text, --unis-aw-muted, --unis-aw-font, --unis-aw-radius and --unis-aw-max-width.

Measure

The experience's insight shows how often the wall was shown and clicked. The Conversions section of the Audience Overview shows the sign-ups and subscriptions it led to.