How Many Devices Should One Subscription Allow?

Pete pays the New York Times about $30 a month.

One morning, it asked him to prove it.

He was scrolling LinkedIn, reading a post from magazine publishing legend Bo Sacks about paywall violations. The post linked to a story about a New York Times lawsuit, so Pete clicked. He hit a login screen, logged in, and then got stopped again.

The NYT asked him to confirm his account. It had noticed multiple devices using his subscription, and he needed to request a verification code by email to keep reading.

In this episode of the Paywall Podcast, Pete uses that moment to answer a question publishers ask him often: should you worry about password sharing?

Listen to the full episode:

Why did the New York Times flag a paying subscriber?

LinkedIn opened the link in its own built-in browser.

LinkedIn, Facebook, and other social apps all do this. When your reader taps a link, they aren’t in Safari or Chrome. They’re in the app’s browser, and they have to log in all over again. To your site, that looks like another device.

Here’s what Pete’s household looks like:

His wife reads the NYT in the app about 99% of the time, and on the website once in a blue moon.
Pete uses the app, plus a web browser once in a while.
Their kids don’t read it.

That’s about three logged-in sessions. The LinkedIn browser made four, and the NYT flagged it.

Looking to grow your publication?

All Pete had to do was request a one-time code. He isn’t canceling. But as a paying subscriber, he felt the friction.

Is password sharing normal?

Yes. When one person in a household subscribes, their partner usually shares the login.

Pete thinks his family is pretty typical, and that many readers see sharing as expected. If your login rules treat a couple sharing one account as a problem to stop, your paying subscribers feel it first.

How do concurrent login limits work?

A concurrent login limit caps how many browsers one account can be logged in from. Go over the limit, and the reader gets blocked or asked to verify.

In WordPress, plugins do this for you. There are several concurrent login plugins, and they work. You decide the number, and the plugin enforces it.

Leaky Paywall runs on native WordPress logins, so a concurrent login plugin works on your site like any other WordPress plugin.

How many devices should you allow?

Keep it generous. Four or five devices is a good starting point.

Your readers log in from the app, a web browser, and the in-app browsers inside their social apps. A tight limit catches honest subscribers first.

Here’s what happens when you get strict:

Support tickets go up. Readers email you: “I can’t log in.”
Login friction goes up. Login is already a point of friction. Every extra check adds more.

When Canadian news outlet iPolitics restricted incognito browsing, its helpline was flooded with complaints. (Read more in The Problem With Password-Sharing.)

Some friction can be a fair trade-off. Just make that trade on purpose.

When should you lock content down?

B2B and financial publishers have good reason to be strict.

B2B publishers. One login can end up with a hundred employees at the same company. Tighter limits protect your revenue and give you an opening to sell a group plan instead.

Financial publishers. Pete’s advice: put your content behind a hard paywall, period.

If you sell to consumers, like a local news site, a niche publication, or a magazine, start generous.

How do you turn password sharing into revenue?

Sell a family plan.

Family plans work. They convert, and people pay for them.

Here’s how it often happens: someone subscribes and thinks, “My wife would like this.” For a little more money, they move to a plan with three or four seats. You decide how many.

Mexico News Daily, a Leaky Paywall publisher, sells one. When Pete reviewed its subscription page, the family plan was $15.99 a month for you plus two more people, compared to $8.99 a month for an individual plan. (Read the full subscribe page teardown.)

In Leaky Paywall, you set this up with the Group Accounts extension. You choose the number of seats, the subscriber invites family members by email, and each person gets their own login.

Password sharing shows you there’s demand for more seats. A family plan lets you charge for it.

What should you try first?

Start with the reader experience, then decide how strict to be.

Test your own login like a reader. Open your site in your phone’s browser, your laptop, and a link from LinkedIn or Facebook. Count how many sessions a normal household racks up.
Set a generous limit. If you add a concurrent login plugin, start at four or five devices.
Watch your support inbox. If “I can’t log in” emails jump after the change, loosen the limit.
Tighten only where it pays. B2B and financial publishers can lock down harder. Pair stricter limits with a group plan so companies have a way to pay.
Launch a family plan. Set up Group Accounts with three or four seats, priced a little above your individual plan.
Put it on your subscribe page. Show the family plan right next to your individual plan so households see it before they share a password.

Watch the full episode on YouTube