Codédex
Turned A Fast-Growing Free Coding Platform Into A Revenue-Ready Subscription Business
Setting up foundations to drive dramatic improvements in monetization across the free to paid journey.
Client Snapshot
- Company
- codedex.io
- Product
- Gamified online coding education for Gen Z
- Model
- Freemium consumer subscription
- Stage
- Early-stage, recently raised capital
The Situation
Codédex had everything you want in an early consumer subscription company: a highly engaging product, a differentiated brand, and organic traffic taking off.
But their paid product was not keeping up. Conversion from free to paid was below where it needed to be, MRR growth lagged behind user growth, and monetization was not strong enough to support long-term scaling.
They knew: if they did not get monetization right early, every month of missed revenue would be gone forever.
The Plan
We picked one goal: build a strong foundation for revenue without breaking what users love.
- 1.Run a deep audit of the full user journey from anonymous to free to paid
- 2.Install high ROI best practices around payments, recovery, checkout, annuals, and onboarding
- 3.Invest in key monetization features, especially the paywall and checkout
- 4.Define a clean metrics hierarchy and review it weekly with the team
The Results
Monetization performance improved meaningfully across the free to paid journey. The business moved from “great product, weak revenue engine” to a revenue-ready subscription model.
Gross Bookings
+121.1%
Total dollars collected minus refunds
Failed Payments
-12%
% of payments recovered after initial failure
MRR
+68%
Recurring revenue generated monthly
Free Account Sign Ups
+27%
Free accounts registered divided by anonymous visits per month
Monthly Churn
-24%
% of overall paid users canceling monthly
Free to Paid Conversion
+48%
% of free users that convert to paid users
% Annual Plan Sales
+71%
% of overall plans sold that are annual
12 Month ROI
5.7x
Return on consulting spend from MRR growth within 12 months
Execution: What We Did
Speed of implementation was a competitive advantage. For subscriptions, every day you delay working monetization is money lost forever.
Deep Audit of the Site
We walked every page, screen, CTA, and redirect like a new user, then documented confusion points, bugs, missing best practices, and gaps in monetization features.
- -Confusion — where the next step was unclear and users could drop
- -Bugs and edge cases quietly hurting conversion
- -Missing best practices in freemium flows and upgrades
- -Gaps in monetization features — how and when users were asked to pay
Align on Plan & Ship Best Practices Fast
We prioritized changes by expected ROI and ease of implementation, then attacked payment processing, revenue recovery, purchase flow, annual plan sales, and user onboarding.
- -Payment processing — tightening how effectively payments were collected
- -Revenue recovery — improving how failed payments were handled
- -Purchase flow — clarifying the upgrade path and reducing friction
- -Annual plan sales — giving users compelling reasons to lock in longer
- -User onboarding — getting new users to value quickly
Invest in Key Monetization Features
We focused product and design time on the places that print money: the paywall and checkout experience.
- -Paywall — overhauled language, structure, and gating rules
- -Checkout — rebuilt to be cleaner, more trustworthy, and conversion focused
Define Metrics & Weekly Reviews
We installed a metrics hierarchy for usage and monetization, then held weekly reviews with the team to build intuition and re-prioritize the roadmap.
- -Usage metrics: Setup, Aha moment, Active, Retained
- -Money metrics: Conversion rates, Plan mix, Time to upgrade
- -Payment retention vs usage retention tracking
“Working with Dan transformed how we think about monetization. The frameworks and metrics he put in place gave us the foundation to scale revenue alongside our user growth.”
Founder & CEO, Codédex
Why It Worked
Monetization First, Then Growth
We improved LTV before trying to pour more users into the funnel.
Focused on Money Moments
Paywall and checkout changes created leverage on every future user.
Installed a Feedback Loop
Weekly metric reviews turned random product work into a compounding system.