Pigeon

What Pigeon is

Pigeon is a cloud-based service for adding paywalls and managing subscriptions to digital content. It supports hard, soft, metered, time-based, cookie, advertising, newsletter, and credits-based paywalls. Publishers can connect it with WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, static-site generators, and custom-built content systems; listed integrations also include HubSpot, Magento, Wix, Squarespace, and several site frameworks. Pigeon includes subscriber and customer management, billing and subscription tools, and financial and engagement analytics. Its Theme Editor lets users adjust paywalls, registration pages, and account pages, including logos and colors. Supported payment methods include Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal, and manual payments. Pigeon says customers receive email support, documentation, regular check-ins, and implementation assistance during setup. The free Experiment plan is a functional demo but does not allow transactions. Publishers costs $99 a month, with a setup fee starting at $750 and 10% transaction fees. Pigeon also cautions that determined hackers using advanced tools may bypass its paywall.

Who it suits

Pigeon is suited to publishers of newspapers, magazines, newsletters, blogs, podcasts, video, educational resources, and digital downloads. It may also fit influencers and creators who want to manage subscriptions and paid access to content.

Limits

Experiment is billed forever at 0.00 USD and is a functional demo mode with no transactions. Publishers costs $99 a month, has a setup fee starting at $750 and charges 10% transaction fees. Enterprise costs $500 a month, with a setup fee starting at $2,500 and variable transaction fees.

Getting started

1. Open pigeon.io and choose the Experiment plan for a free demo or Publishers for transaction-enabled use.
2. If using WordPress, install Pigeon's plugin to enable scripts and widgets managed through a Pigeon.io account.
3. Connect Pigeon to your CMS or custom-built content-management system.
4. Set up paywall rules and select a supported paywall model.
5. Use the Theme Editor to adjust paywall, registration-page and account-page appearance.
6. Configure payment methods and subscriptions, then use the included implementation support during setup.

Verdict

Pigeon combines paywall rules, subscription administration, and analytics for digital publishers. Its free tier is a demo rather than a transactional plan, and paid plans carry setup and transaction fees.