If you’re looking for a rundown of the collective lessons from 30+ subscription app founders, builders, and growth experts, then you’re in the right place.
App Growth Annual 2025 is our one-a-year gathering for people building and scaling subscription apps — a full day of live keynotes, hands-on workshops, and a little bit of chaos (the good kind). This year’s speakers spanned category leaders like Duolingo and Ladder, to fast-moving indies and growth consultants.
Here’s the 11 top takeaways on monetization, growth, and retention — plus every RevenueCat product announcement.
1. Duolingo: If users love your core product enough, keep it free and monetize around it
How do you build a product that millions use for free, but still choose to pay for? Natalia Castillejo, Director of Product at language-learning titan, Duolingo, shared valuable lessons on creating value with freemium products.
Free is core to our growth, not just our mission.
Natalia Castillejo, Director of Product — Duolingo
- Keep the core product free to power growth: Free is an engine. Brand love → word-of-mouth → massive top of funnel → more subscription opportunities. If you invest in your free experience, it compounds your paid experience — when people are passionate about the free version of your app, they want to pay for more.
- Gamify habit formation via loss aversion: Daily streaks on Duolingo create consistency and build habits with users. By monetizing ways to protect streaks (celebrations, Streak Freezes), they become product levers for premium.
- Outcome > features: Duolingo learned from unsuccessful features like Duo TV to prioritize user needs — “We started with a business need rather than a learning need.” Similarly, AI-themed messaging on new features flopped, while repositioning around a concrete job (e.g. “become confident speaking”) drastically improved sales.
- Micro-delight is more than cosmetic: Animations, character reactions, and minor customizations all cascade into growth. Duolingo’s A/B tests show higher engagement and active users when delight is sprinkled throughout the interface.
2. Ladder: To stand out in a crowded space, you need to be willing to reinvent
Ready for the growth playbook of a #1 App Store app? Greg Stewart, CEO of Ladder, delivered a masterclass on scaling subscription apps in a competitive market. From honing in on what users really care about, to constant iteration based on customer feedback, Ladder’s success has come from relentless focus on solving user problems.
We overhauled our entire monetization strategy. If we hadn’t… I don’t think we’d be here.
Greg Stewart, CEO — Ladder
