4 ms·
I'd argue this is why you should distribute your app on the App Store, but don't rely on Apple to handle the payments. Make your app free, with a payment to you
by hellofunk 10y ago
I'd argue this is why you should distribute your app on the App Store, but don't rely on Apple to handle the payments. Make your app free, with a payment to your site directly, where you then provide an activation code or password, etc, to run the free iOS app. One additional perk is that you don't give Apple 30% when you do this.
For the App Store to approve your app, you provide a test username/password or authentication code in the notes to the reviewer. After the app is approved, you can then deactivate that test account.
This requires more development overhead from the developer, certainly. But the extra 30% you get in revenue and the comfort of being solely in control of your payment process can be worth it.
There are a few apps that do this, but not many.
- shalmanese 10y agoThis is also prohibited by the app store TOS.
- hellofunk 10y agoThe terms of service prevent you from soliciting payment via an outside source within your app. But I don't think there's anything against what I described, so long as you don't link to your site for payment. Is this not the case?
- grapehut 10y agoIf you're big enough that the 30% makes a difference, you're not going to want to risk having your app banned by flagrantly violating the ToS. And even if you ignore that, the extra friction you're going to cause users is going to dwarf that 30% fee. I've literally spent hundreds of dollars on apps, and generally don't mind forking out $3 or $4 for something I think might be useful. However the probability of me giving some app that's violating the app-store policies my credit-card details is pretty close to zero. I might consider paypal (which I don't even have the details of on my phone), but if there's any equivalent app, I sure as hell will just buy it through the app store.