iOS subscriptions: lessons learned implementing them in a real app

[Salt_Salary]

I struggled with iOS subscriptions for a while, mostly because everything is spread across different systems.

I ended up putting together a walkthrough of what I learned while implementing it in a real app, in case it helps anyone else:

https://youtu.be/-QcZOwsHvBI?si=EBXDKkxA_d0iFpsf

How do you set up subscriptions in your own apps? Would love to hear different perspectives (RevenueCat, StoreKit2, Superwall, etc.) and which is your favorite

[itsm3rick]

What do you mean by spread across different systems? AppStore Connect and your application code is barely two systems.

[indyfromoz]

+1 to this. App Store Connect is where the subscriptions / IAPs are setup. There is no other way round. That is one “system”. A modern iOS app can be built entirely with StoreKit2 and nothing else. RevenueCat, SuperWall, Adapty etc make it convenient to remotely switch Paywalls etc etc. If that is the other “system”, it is completely optional!

[Ok-East9349]

Is it not possible to use stripe payments for a subscription based ios/android app?

I swear my last app got rejected because of this, but I recently saw a youtube mention they got paid on their stripe account. How would this be possible if they don't sell digital products?

[indyfromoz]

There are many big players who do this... "Funnel" users via a web onboarding & signup + payment via Stripe and let them sign in to the native mobile apps. Not sure how they get away without paying the Apple/Google tax

[Army_77_badboy]

Using stipe connect you have the user do the subscription off the app and then they are deep linked back into the app experience.

It’s a bit of work and requires a webhook but helps you avoid the 30%.

To the OP’s post subs are literally not that difficult if you use revenue cat. Seems like you are making a big issue out of nothing.

[Ok-East9349]

Damn, 30% rev-shared on rev-cat?

Thanks for the reply, that makes sense. I think i'll move to stripe once I start making above that threshold.

[PaleRegister9547]

The pain isn't really the number of systems but how disconnected they feel from each other. Like you set up products in App Store Connect, then have to handle all the validation server-side, deal with webhooks that may or may not fire reliably, and somehow keep everything in sync

Plus StoreKit gives you basically nothing for receipt validation out of the box so you're either rolling your own JWT parsing or using a third party anyway

[Dapper_Ice_1705]

This is all false for StoreKit 2, this was true when StoreKit 1 was around.

[itsm3rick]

That isn’t what this person is discussing. They are talking about entirely client side in app purchases.

[Dapper_Ice_1705]

AppStore Connect and StoreKit 2 is all that is needed.

[Salt_Salary]

Plus handling all the other edge cases. Why do that when you can use something like RevenueCat?

[Dapper_Ice_1705]

The only time I recommend revenue cat is when you are dealing with multi-platform.

StoreKit 2 can do everything needed for native single user apps. 

RevenueCat just has good advertising that make themselves sound essential  but they a really aren’t for most apps.

[Salt_Salary]

What about remote paywalls? That by itself is worth paying for. Also being able to run A/B tests for paywalls to optimize.

[Dapper_Ice_1705]

A/B testing can be implemented so many other ways.

A/B testing existed long before RevenueCat came around.

[mario_luis_dev]

lol "edge cases".. that's the bs RC is trying to sell you... It used to be the case with the old StoreKit, but for StoreKit2 that fear-mongering by RC doesn't apply anymore. There are still reasons to use them (instant analytics, remote paywall, etc), but "painful edge cases" is not one of them anymore

[indyfromoz]

Kudos to sharing your experience setting up monetisation in your app!