CalAI, 2024’s breakout AI calorie tracking app does a staggering $1M/Month (stated by one of the founders).

The app is pretty simple, run by teenagers.

Here’s how they’re dialling in their conversion rate, and how it could be even better (step-by-step).

Firstly, What is Cal AI?

Users snap photos of their meals and get a macro breakdown to hit weight goals. It uses the recent advancement in AI image recognition with a habitual experience to simplify calorie tracking.

And here’s 6 ways they get users to subscribe in waves...

1. Clarity and psychology

When first downloading the app, It’s all about clarity and leveraging psychological principles like motivation and cognitive ease.

They make the app’s PURPOSE (tracking macros) unmistakably clear, and strategically reinforce the BENEFITS throughout the first screens to tap into users’ desire for an easy solution.

The message? If you want to lose weight, this app provides the simplest and most efficient path, appealing to both logic and emotion.

2. Strategic onboarding

From the initial splash screens, the ONBOARDING does the heavy lifting:

Getting the user setup

  • Getting the user setup
  • Capturing data for product and marketing
  • Reinforcing the app’s value and priming for the paywall (more on this shortly)

3. Visualising the outcome

During setup, they cleverly break up questions to keep motivation high with key visual screens.

For example, the first of four screens is a chart showing the benefits of using CalAI (losing weight effectively) vs. other methods..

...Strategically placed right before asking for height and weight (to help reduce the notorious bounce rates on personal questions).

4. The 'preview before signup'

Next, there's a dashboard preview. This shows the users target goals (weight loss date + total daily macros) on an aesthetically pleasing interface, rewarding users for completing setup questions.

Presenting this pre-signup is a proven conversion technique used by top apps like Canva, which teases a blurred dashboard before account creation.

5. The build to the paywall

This all culminates to the paywall step. The way they’ve built toward this is clearly deliberate. Techniques used to drive subscription include:

Letting users try it for free for three days, but require opt into an annual subscription.

  • Letting users try it for free for three days, but require opt into an annual subscription.
  • Price anchoring with a monthly price that is far more expensive with no trial.
  • Alleviating concerns with trial-end reminder notifications (which celverly also gets the notification opt-in to keep users engaged throughout the trial)

6. Account creation as a last step

The final step is account creation. A smart move saving the mundane task until after not only the onboarding, but even the subscription screen.

And after starting a subscription, who wouldn’t sign up?

Notably, there’s also no email signup- Only Apple & Google options. This ensures users only verify via their existing accounts to further reduce friction.

Summary

From all the SaaS reviews I’ve done, it’s clear this app uses best-practice app conversion strategies to drive more subscriptions. It’s likely one the significant contributors to their explosive MRR.

Although it's effective, it could be improved further:

Reduce repetition. If possible, cut down on the number of ‘goal questions’ and ‘outcome’ screens. It felt unnecessarily long.

  • Reduce repetition. If possible, cut down on the number of ‘goal questions’ and ‘outcome’ screens. It felt unnecessarily long.
  • Personalisation. When users complete steps, can these individual captured data points be shown on the ‘outcome’ charts? (currently they're all generic)
  • Consider updating the stats and customer review examples to appear more trustworthy.

Whether you’re building B2B or B2C SaaS, hopefully there are some worthwhile takeaways here.

What do you think of CalAI’s conversion tactics?