A paywall is a system of limiting access to content through a paid subscription. Sports web sites and online news are the most common users of paywalls.

There are three high-level models of paywall: Hard Paywall, Soft Paywall, and combination of both. Mainly, the content restrictions of a hard paywall are much stricter compared to the soft paywall. It will not allow users to access free content. Whereas, a soft paywall gives substantial access to free content so that it will encourage the users to subscribe for premium content.