I’m not a developer (but lord i wish i was!) but a finance bod modelling out a new mobile app for purchasing physical products. The app will be free to download with limited features. My client would then like to charge a monthly subscription for premium features, i.e… tracking certain product prices, removing ads, etc.
My question is, would the premium subscription be impacted by the 30% apple fee charge or does it fall outside of this? I’ve spent lots of time trying to work this out but cant seem to lay my hands on a definitive piece of advice.
Yes, if the paid benefits/features are digital (removing ads happen inside the app, tracking product price happen in the app too), then you have to use Apple in-app purchase mechanism, which Apple will take 30% fees.
You can work around this by implementing the subscription system outside the app, but you cannot show/tell your users that they can subscribe outside the app, or provide any mention or link to purchase outside. (Like Spotify / Netflix).
Hi @darbar1982, welcome to the community! I found this under subscriptions on the Apple site, “The net revenue structure for auto-renewable subscriptions differs from other business models on the App Store. During a subscriber’s first year of service, you receive 70% of the subscription price at each billing cycle, minus applicable taxes. After a subscriber accumulates one year of paid service, your net revenue increases to 85% of the subscription price, minus applicable taxes.”
Reesource: Auto-renewable Subscriptions - App Store - Apple Developer . Hope that gives more clarity.