The following is the email chain with Apple and RevenueCat about acceptable forms of app monetization. Watch the vid and use this for reference.
My take away
- Build app which is useful with initially downloaded functionality. Make them pay for download or make it free depending.
- Only offer subscription for functions legitimately beyond initial functionality and never force such subscription by blocking functionality that was there at download time. Functionality cannot disappear (unless it’s a clearly marked official eval period in AppStore)
Wesley from RevenueCat set the record straight for me:
“Re processing a payment outside Apple through stripe for the extra functionality:
We do support Stripe, however Apple may not accept you during App Review if you use Stripe for products, instead of their in-app purchases. Here are their guidelines on what is accepted in terms of in-app purchases.”
“Regarding combining a download charge with an in-app purchase later on:
According to their documentation under “Paymium”, Apple does say that they allow for an app to be both paid and have in-app purchases.”
Then from Apple’s Paymium Doc: “Paymium
In this combination of the paid and freemium models, users pay to download your app and have the option to buy additional features, content, or services through in-app purchases if they want to engage more deeply. It offers the possibility of lowering the app’s download price while using in-app purchases for ongoing monetization. Successful paymium apps offer premium design, functionality, and content, as well as advanced features intended to complement the experience”
https://forums.developer.apple.com/forums/thread/722874
“Effectively you want a paid app (no access without buying it) but you want to provide a trial/temporary access. The way to do this on the App Store is to setup 2 non-consumable in-app purchase products.
IAP Setup: **1) Free Trial non-consumable – ** The first one will be for your trial – therefore priced at $0/free and will be named specifically to the trial you are offering. ie: “7-day Free Trial” or “30-day Free Trial” “1-month Free Trial”, etc. Your app must accurately provide free trial access based on the name of the IAP and will use the transaction purchaseDate to reliably start/end their trial experience. With a non-consumable the transaction will be consistent across all their devices with that Apple ID – from new devices, re-installs, etc. 2) 2nd non-consumable representing the paid 1-time purchase – This will be the 1-time purchase non-consumable that is priced accordingly.
**Logic – ** Your app will have some core logic to execute upon launch. See the “WWDC22 Proactive Restore” session for more info on checking status on launch seamlessly. But for the most part it was do proactive restore upon app launch and your logic on what transactions it finds or doesn’t find will be:
- Active Customer: First check should be to see if purchased the 1-time purchase non-consumable, if so, then grant access. If not go to -> #2
- Active Trial Customers: now check if they bought Free Trial non-consumable. If so, check if that trial is active or not. If active grant access, if not go to ->#3
- Inactive Trial Customer: They bought the trial but that trial period has ended, so you then merchandise your paid 1-time purchase non-consumable. But if no transaction is found, go to -> #4
- New Customers: this is when no IAP was found to be purchased, therefore they are “new” and you should merchandise the Free Trial non-consumable.”
https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/133857:
“Forcing users to buy the app every year has been a goal with various devs for some time. Apple resisted then, and still does now, preferring that users either pay and go, or, subscribe to additional features that keep them on the hook, witnessed by this quote from the ASRGs:
Apps must not force users to rate the app, review the app, download other apps, or other similar actions in order to access functionality, content, or use of the app.
If you consider including a free trial, ASRGs say this about that:
Non-subscription apps may offer a free time-based trial period before presenting a full unlock option by setting up a Non-Consumable IAP item at Price Tier 0 that follows the naming convention: “XX-day Trial.” Prior to the start of the trial, your app must clearly identify its duration, the content or services that will no longer be accessible when the trial ends, and any downstream charges the user would need to pay for full functionality. Learn more about managing content access and the duration of the trial period using Receipts and Device Check.
Your issue, tho, is that you want repeating charges, not just a one-time unlock, which then become subscriptions, so yeah, IAP.
My advise is to create an app that offers enough functionality that users want it on their device regardless of annual level-up fees and that App Review still wants it in the store. Any cost burdens that an annual buy-again are meant to cover would of course be tied to a yearly IAP subscription.”
My last idea I asked the Apple Engineer about:
“I assign a UUID to each device local storage if it doesn’t have one yet. My REST API server will maintain a credit counter associated with the UUID. I will clearly document this in my terms of use and make it clear the UUID will not be used for any other reason than tracking the number of free search credits allowed from a device. It won’t store the name or contact info for the user or any other personal info.
So this solution would not track ANY personal data whatsoever!
When they download the app, I would start them off with 30 free searches/mo. If they run out before EOM, I would prompt them to register and buy a premium plan.”
Apple: >> Hello Kornel,
>> What you’re describing cannot be achieve without in-app purchase, you can view the following Apple Developer Forum post for a better idea on how other developers handle similar situation:
>>
>> https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/133857
https://forums.developer.apple.com/forums/thread/722874
>> I cannot comment on App Review requirements and feedback as the team I’m under is not involve in app review process, but you may want to consider in-app purchase route again or find some other way to deliver the service you want.
>> If you have additional questions related to this request, please refer to case number 102237674345.
>>
>> Kind regards,
>>
>> Kay
>>
>> Apple Inc.
>>
>>> On Mar 12, 2024 at 3:30 AM, Kornel<kornel@synkre.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> My whole problem started when Apple told me in app review that I must separate out the functionality that doesn’t require a sign up and make them able to use it, like researching supplements, without entering user credentials. When I initially turned in the app the first screen that appeared was the login screen. That worked very well for my business model. They wanted me to remove that and only prompt for a login when they enter their own regimen to track, but not when they just search for supplements. The review team must have thought those were free Internet searches but no they are not! They are searches in my own MongoDB for which I have to pay and possibly using my machine learning models which cost me money also. Apple was forcing me to provide functionality free which is simply said not free at all for me.
>>>
>>> I made the changes Apple asked me to do and now they can do the search functions without logging in and I pay for the server time from my own pockets. But if I continue down this route I must limit the time and make it into an eval period or limit it to 10 searches a day or something like that so that they will either pay eventually or they must stop using the app. I still don’t see a clear way how to create a profitable business model.
>>>
>>> If at download time they could download for an eval period and use a fully functional app for say two weeks free without registering then they get automatically charged by the App Store unless they cancel the eval in the App Store, that would work because I would only provide free use for two weeks. If they downloaded for free and sign up and login to do all functions voluntarily, then I could also let them do free search for an eval period of two weeks, because I would know who they are. But Apple doesn’t want them to have to log in for the search function which makes the in app purchase with eval route impossible.
>>>
>>> I am desperately searching for a business model. I can’t be providing any aspect of this service free for an extended period of time. This is a for-pay and for-profit service!
>>>
>>> On Mon, Mar 11, 2024, at 7:03 PM, Kornel wrote:
>>>
>>>> I can’t let them use the app free because I have to pay for server resources and this is a very heavy server centric app. I can do free trial but on-going free use. It has to be strictly time limited. Everything goes to my REST API and to my database and other server functions. So that rules out in-app purchases since that sounds like its starts with free use of the app that possibly never ends.
>>>>
>>>> Ok then I will have to make them pay for the app at download time. You called this “app subscription”. The word subscription implies to me that I can limit it for a time period. Can I say – and put in my terms of use – when they download it they are paying for 6 months or 1 year of use, say $4/mo=$48 for a year charged upfront? Then when time is up, I guess they would have to redownload a new version of the app for another new time period. That would make this a subscription, because they have to keep doing it to use the app and my back end database and services.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Mon, Mar 11, 2024, at 2:44 PM, Apple Support wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Hello Kornel,
>>>>>
>>>>> You can only offer in-app purchase subscription instead of app subscription, user would have to pay for the app or download it for free then purchase in-app purchase base on their need, you would not be able to implement a mandatory automatic in-app purchase once user download the app, user would have to do so willingly and manually on their end.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> You can set up_ introductory offers for auto-renewable subscriptions_ . An introductory offer is a limited-time discounted price or free trial for the initial period of a subscription.
>>>>>
You would not be able to review and manage app content and service base on how many times the user use the service on certain device. App Store Connect provides the _reporting tools_ to help you measure the performance of your apps and in-app purchases on the App Store. You can review what is available for you to review in App Analytics.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> If you have additional questions related to this request, please refer to case number 102237674345.
>>>>>
>>>>> Kind regards,
>>>>>
>>>>> Kay
>>>>>
>>>>> Apple Inc.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>> On Mar 10, 2024 at 9:21 AM, Kornel<kornel@synkre.com> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Dear Apple Support,
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I was not really looking for an in-app purchase, but maybe that is the only solution, unfortunately!
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Option 1 — Subscription from the beginning:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> The main thing I am trying to achieve is that I do not want to sell the app for an infinite period of time because I have server resource costs. What if after people start using the app I find those costs are much higher than I expected and I might want to discontinue the app altogether. Or I might want to charge more, etc. When I publish the app I can say they can download it for $5 or so. What I really want to say is they can download it for use for 1 year. Or they can use it for $5 each month. So I want a subscription from the start so I don’t have to offer services forever after they download the app.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Can I do that? Is it possible to make an app download somehow time bounded.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Option 2 — Daily quotas per device:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Another option would be to track how many times someone comes in from the same device. Is this possible to track? Then I could say you get 10 supplement searches from this download a day. (My app is a supplement search and dosing management tool.) After that you have to register and pay for a subscription. This would be an in app purchase.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> For this, is there a way to track the device id? I would need to know the same guy is coming in the 11th time and block it until he pays up!
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I’d rather chose Option 1 where Apple manages the subscription but I don’t see that being possible. It looks like I can only charge them a flat rate for download and not immediately set up a subscription as their part of buying the app.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Pls tell me: Is option 1 possible (Apple managed subscription) or I must do option 2 a separate process from app purchase and download that I have to manage on my own.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Looking forward to your advice!
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Kornel
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On Sat, Mar 9, 2024, at 6:52 PM, Apple Support wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Hello Kornel,
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> My name is Kay, senior Advisor with Apple Developer Program Support, and I am happy to follow up on your case.
>>>>>>>
It seems like you’re talking about creating a in-app purchase subscription and would like to know if you can modify it in the future, you can learn about how to manage in-app purchases subscriptions _here_ , and learn more about offering auto-renewalable subscription _here_ .
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> I am your point of contact for case 102237674345. To contact me, you can reply to this email or follow the link below to leave a voice or text message. You must sign in with the Apple ID on record for this case to leave me a message.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> https://supportmessaging.apple.com/app/eb6644bc-9380-48ad-a7c3-3852a15cce66?locale=en_US
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> My normal office hours are 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. CST, Monday through Friday.
>>>>>>> You can also check phone support availability at _our website_ if you want to speak with an Apple Developer Program Support Advisor immediately.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Kind regards,
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Kay
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Apple Inc.