Alternative in-app purchase system supports Apple Pay for smooth process

1 month ago 2

Alternative in-app purchase system supports Apple Pay (screengrabs of the flow shown)

Two payment companies have teamed up to let developers sell in-app purchases outside the App Store, offering a single service that works across iOS and web.

Even small businesses can save money on the deal, paying 10% on payments of under $10, and 5% plus $0.50 above that threshold. For users, the experience is almost as seamless as Apple’s own system when you opt to use Apple Pay …

Following the Epic Games court rulings, Apple has to allow developers to use external payment services without charging its own commissions. That could potentially be a clunky process, but two payment companies have teamed up to make it almost as smooth.

Paddle first announced its own in-app payment platform back in 2021, ready to take advantage of an anticipated victory by Epic. While the games company mostly lost its case against Apple, it did win on the key issue of requiring the iPhone maker to allow developers to use external payment links.

The Verge reports that Paddle has now teamed up with subscription platform RevenueCat to offer a seamless cross-platform solution.

Developers are less restricted by Apple’s commission charges and payment system, but would be faced with independently managing complexities like tax, compliance, and cross-platform support for subscriptions.

The RevenueCat and Paddle integration is designed to make these issues easier for developers to navigate. It’s supported across iOS, Android, and web, allowing consumers to subscribe on one platform and automatically unlock access across others. RevenueCat provides an analytics dashboard for managing performance insights, while Paddle handles payments, tax, and compliance on the web.

You can see above the three-step process:

The app displays the in-app purchase option(s)
When the user taps one, they are taken to a prefilled web form in Safari
Tap Apple Pay to complete the purchase and be returned to the app

9to5Mac’s Take

This is more expensive than developers rolling their own systems using existing payment providers, but the ease and slickness of the experience could make it an appealing option, especially for purchases of more than $10.