Paywall FAQ

Is there a built-in paywall?

No. A paywall is a feature you author, like any other. Opening your organization’s account creates no feature, so your first deployment answers every feature name in unknown until you author one and deploy it.

The site proxy asks for a feature named paywall, so name yours that if you use the proxy. The proxy opens the page only when the outcome’s type is allow. It gates the page for any other outcome, and when your deployment has no paywall feature for the site.

What happens when a user clears their cookies or opens a private window?

They are a new device, and a device meter starts again from zero for them. EdgeKit accepts this: the device cookie is not signed, and a user who wants a fresh count can always get one. A signed-in user is counted on their user, whatever device they read on, so signing in closes this gap.

Does a meter count across devices?

For an anonymous device, no: each browser has its own count. For a signed-in user, yes: a device meter or a user meter counts the user once across every device. See Whose count.

Does opening the same article twice use two free reads?

On a count meter, yes. A seen-set meter counts each key once, but its key is a signed content fact, and a read whose request carries none is never counted on it. See Set up a meter.

Do paying users use up the free allowance?

No. By default, a user who holds any live grant counts on no meter except a gift link’s, so they never use up an allowance they cannot see. A rule can still read the meter for them.

Does a section front or a home page count as a read?

Only if the page asks for a feature and the rule that wins counts on a meter. A meter never moves because a page loaded. It moves when a decide request names a feature whose winning rule has +1 if this rule wins.

Can my page show how many free reads are left?

Yes. Each decision carries meters, with the count and the allowance for every meter its rules read, as they were before this request counted. allowance - count is what was left. See The response.

When does a monthly allowance start again?

It depends on the period the rule reads the meter over. This month starts at midnight on the first day of the month, this week on Monday and today at midnight, all in your organization’s meter time zone. In the last n days is a rolling window: a read stops counting n days after it was counted.

Does deciding in the browser keep the article out of the page source?

No. A browser decision happens after your page has loaded, so whatever the page carries is already there. To keep text off a page the user may not read, decide on your server and leave the text out, or run the site proxy: it removes the gated region on the server when it can find it. When it cannot, it covers the page in the browser and the text stays in the page source. See Run the site proxy.

What does my page show when EdgeKit is slow or cannot be reached?

What your page shows for unavailable. The browser client waits 2 seconds, then answers unavailable for every feature it asked for, and never throws for a failed decision. Pick that state’s behaviour yourself: open the page, or show your own prompt. See the getting started FAQ.

Can a user change the facts my page sends?

The ones in context, yes: they come from the browser as sent, and a rule that opens a page because of one can be opened by anyone. Signed content facts would not be: decide refuses the whole request, 403, when their signature does not verify. No rule can test a signed content fact, though, so one can never open a page. See Page facts in context.

Is a page with no signed facts treated as free?

No. No rule can test a signed fact: stage refuses a rule that names one. So what a page’s signed facts say, or whether it has any, never opens or gates it. A page is gated when it asks for a feature whose rules gate it.

Can I write a rule on the facts my page sends in context?

Decide reads them, but the console’s rule builder lists only the facts in Facts, and context.* facts are not among them. A feature you author in the console never reads context.

Can I try a change before it reaches my site?

In the builder, yes: Preview runs your unsaved draft against a caller you describe and marks where they land. It sends no request and counts nothing. On your site, no: your site only ever gets the deployed version. See Try it with Preview.

Does a deploy tell me how many users will see a different outcome?

No. Stage checks that the draft is well formed: references resolve, error outcomes do not allow, meters run where they are read. It does not say how many users a change moves. Work that out before you deploy. See Review the preview.

Can I roll back a bad rule change?

There is no rollback. Change the draft back and deploy again, which adds a new version. See Undo a change.

Can a feature run on only some of my sites?

Yes. Pick its sites on the Feature tab. A feature with no sites picked runs on every site in your organization. On any other site it answers in unknown.

Why would two outcomes return the same id?

Because your page draws the same thing and what differs is what it cost. A read that counts on the meter and a read of an article already counted can both return article: the page needs one branch, and only one of the two outcomes sits on a rule that counts. Within one feature, outcomes that share an id must declare the same fields.

Can a canvas treat crawlers differently?

Only on a site with a crawler verdict. Your sites have none unless EdgeKit sets one up, so the crawler facts cannot be read there, and stage refuses a feature that reads them on such a site.

Do grant changes reach decisions straight away?

From your server, yes: every request reads the user’s current grants. From a page, a grant change reaches decisions the next time the page reads the sign-in session, and at most an hour later. See Grants are as fresh as the access cookie.

Can I design the paywall’s look in EdgeKit?

No. EdgeKit has no visual designer for what your page shows. An outcome returns an id and typed fields, such as a copy key, a design variant or an offer, and your own components render them in your own design system. The site proxy draws a built-in panel with English text chosen by the outcome’s id.

Does a decision create a user?

Not for anonymous browsing: until someone signs in, every decision is for an anonymous device. The one exception is a site where users sign in only through your own identity provider. There, a decision that carries a valid credential for someone EdgeKit has not seen before creates their user.

Can one feature’s answer change another’s in the same request?

No. Every feature in a request reads the same facts, and meters are counted only after every feature has its outcome. The order you name features in never changes an answer. One request can name up to 32.

Can a gift link be withdrawn?

No. A gift link opens until it expires, 7 days after it was made unless EdgeKit set a different lifetime for your organization, and there is no way to withdraw it sooner. To limit how often one link opens, read a gift_link meter in your rules. See Gift links.

Can I run an A/B test on the paywall?

Yes. Split devices or users into arms in Experiments, then test the arm in a rule. Decide returns the arms a request exposed in exposures, and your page sends each one as an analytics event. The browser and server clients leave exposures out of their results, so read it from the decide response itself. See Experiments.

Can the console send users to another page instead of returning an outcome?

Not from the console. It creates decision and operational features, and outcomes that allow, deny or take no access decision. Decide also serves redirects for journey features, but the console creates neither journey features nor redirect outcomes. See Journey features and redirects.