3 ms·

SaaS costs money to though - there's not an analysis of that in this article, if you use AWS or Azure they cost as well. I can see Apple need to charge for thei

SaaS costs money to though - there's not an analysis of that in this article, if you use AWS or Azure they cost as well. I can see Apple need to charge for their service (I'd want a lot to argue with developers all day :-)), they could probably charge less though, but the same argument can be made for all their products. Personally I think its great that I can write some code publish an App and Apple looks after a lot of stuff for me, would I like it if they charge less, sure - but its a level playing field, everyone on the App Store pays the same, so just add 30% to your price and move on. As a user, I like that I can reasonably trust the apps I download from the App Store - and thats who apples customers are, users, not developers. If you want to use apples service then you have to pay a premium, if you don't like it you can probably go to android (I'm sure this is Apples position).

maguay 6y ago
Author here, and agreed—I mentioned the payment processing fees, and that SaaS might also pay Stripe an additional 1% (or something like Recurly even more) to manage subscriptions, but that’s only part of the costs. And that’s the problem I think. SaaS already has all these other costs, from hosting to account management to cross-device development, none of which the App Store help with. The App Store does offer native app developers value, in licensing, distribution, updates, and more—none of which apply to the SaaS model. Which is where I think part of the conflict comes from: SaaS developers incur the costs of building SaaS, get little-to-no value from the App Store, and so find the 30% fee more frustrating.
- chadcmulligan 6y ago
  Yes, I see that, but I'd say that Apple isn't really interested in making SaaS players lives easier - its not their business. Edit: and upon thought, SaaS actually competes with their business model.
  - maguay 6y ago
    True enough—and yet, the App Store by not offering software upgrades, has in many ways pushed developers to the subscription model.
    - chadcmulligan 6y ago
      I never really thought of that - maybe thats what they wanted :-), they get a continuous stream of money forever from all the apps.

maguay 6y ago

Author here, and agreed—I mentioned the payment processing fees, and that SaaS might also pay Stripe an additional 1% (or something like Recurly even more) to manage subscriptions, but that’s only part of the costs. And that’s the problem I think. SaaS already has all these other costs, from hosting to account management to cross-device development, none of which the App Store help with. The App Store does offer native app developers value, in licensing, distribution, updates, and more—none of which apply to the SaaS model. Which is where I think part of the conflict comes from: SaaS developers incur the costs of building SaaS, get little-to-no value from the App Store, and so find the 30% fee more frustrating.

chadcmulligan 6y ago
Yes, I see that, but I'd say that Apple isn't really interested in making SaaS players lives easier - its not their business. Edit: and upon thought, SaaS actually competes with their business model.
- maguay 6y ago
  True enough—and yet, the App Store by not offering software upgrades, has in many ways pushed developers to the subscription model.
  - chadcmulligan 6y ago
    I never really thought of that - maybe thats what they wanted :-), they get a continuous stream of money forever from all the apps.