App store fees vs web checkout: what you keep from a subscription

The short version

Say you sell a recipe membership or a pilates program for US$15 a month, and you have an app. There are three ways a member can pay:

1. In-app purchase. They tap Subscribe inside your iPhone or Android app and pay Apple or Google, who pass the money on to you minus a commission.
2. Link-out. Your app shows a button that opens your website, and they pay you there through Stripe or another processor.
3. Web only. They join on your website from your Instagram bio, a newsletter or a Google search, then sign in to your app with the same account. Nobody buys anything inside the app.

Each route has different fees and different rules, and the rules for route 2 are still being argued in court. Here’s where things stand on 8 October 2026.

App store fees at a glance

From Apple’s, Google’s and Stripe’s own pages, checked on 13 October 2026:

How the member pays	Fee on a subscription
Apple in-app purchase, subscriber’s first year	30%
Apple in-app purchase, after a year of paid service	15%
Apple Small Business Program (up to US$1 million in proceeds a year)	15% from the start
Google Play Billing in the US, UK, EEA, Australia and Japan	15% (10% service fee + 5% billing fee)
Google Play Billing in other countries	15%
Stripe checkout on your website (US cards)	2.9% + 30 cents, plus 0.7% for Stripe Billing

The sections below explain each one.

What Apple charges

Apple’s standard commission on in-app purchases is 30%. For auto-renewing subscriptions, Apple’s developer documentation says that drops to 15% once a subscriber has a year of paid service. So a member who stays 18 months costs you 30% for the first 12 payments and 15% after that.

The App Store Small Business Program cuts the rate to 15% from day one for developers who earned up to US$1 million in proceeds across all their apps in the previous calendar year. You have to apply, and if you pass US$1 million in a year, the standard rate applies to later sales. Most creator businesses are well under that line, so for most of you the real Apple rate is 15%.

Prices in the US App Store are shown before tax, and Apple collects and pays sales tax for you. That’s worth something, and it’s one of the costs you take on yourself when you sell on the web.

What Google charges

Google rebuilt its fees after settling with Epic Games. From 30 June 2026, in the US, UK and European Economic Area, Google splits its charge into two parts, according to the Android Developers Blog:

• a service fee of 10% on auto-renewing subscriptions, however the member pays
• a billing fee of 5% when the payment goes through Google Play’s own billing

So a subscription sold through Google Play Billing in the US costs 15% in total. If you use an alternative processor or send the member to your website from the app, the billing fee drops away but the 10% service fee still applies, and your processor’s fee comes on top. Australia and Japan followed on 30 September 2026, according to Google’s Play Console Help, and Google says other markets will follow later. Elsewhere, the long-standing 15% subscription rate still applies.

Link-outs: where the law stands

In the US

In April 2025, in Epic v. Apple, a US district judge found Apple in contempt of an earlier anti-steering injunction. Apple had allowed link-outs but charged 27% on purchases made through them. The judge barred Apple from taking any commission on link-out purchases from US apps, and Apple changed its App Store Review Guidelines so US apps can include buttons and links to buy on the web.

In December 2025 the Ninth Circuit upheld the contempt finding but said a total ban on any commission went too far. It sent the question of a fair rate back to the district court. On 13 August 2026, Apple filed a proposal asking for 15% on link-out sales for standard developers and 5% for Small Business Program members. Epic is opposing it. Separately, the US Supreme Court agreed in June 2026 to hear part of Apple’s appeal, limited to the contempt question.

What that means today: as of this guide, Apple charges no commission on link-out purchases from US storefront apps, because no rate has been set. That could change once the district court rules, and nobody can tell you when that will be. If you’re planning a business around link-outs, model both the zero rate and Apple’s proposed rate.

In the EU

Under the Digital Markets Act, Apple published new EU terms that took effect on 1 October 2026. According to Apple’s announcement, in-app purchase in EU App Store apps costs 26%, or 15% for Small Business Program members and for subscriptions after their first year. Linking out to buy on the web costs 15%, or 10% for developers in those same programs. Apple describes the terms as the result of work with the European Commission, but whether the Commission considers the matter closed isn’t settled.

Everywhere else

In most other countries, Apple’s rules still say apps can’t include buttons or links that send people to buy outside in-app purchase, unless the app holds a specific entitlement for that country. A handful of countries have their own legal carve-outs. If most of your members are in Australia, New Zealand or Canada, plan on the standard rules.

Can an app simply skip in-app purchase?

This is route 3, and it’s how many creator businesses work: members join on the web, then download the app and sign in. There are three relevant parts of Apple’s guidelines, and which one applies depends on your app:

• Reader apps (3.1.3(a)) cover magazines, newspapers, books, audio, music and video. They can let people use subscriptions bought elsewhere without offering in-app purchase.
• Multiplatform services (3.1.3(b)) can unlock things bought on your website, but the guideline says those items must also be available as in-app purchases.
• In the US storefront, apps can now point people to the web regardless.

Google Play has its own payments policy with comparable rules. Apple’s reviewers make the final call on which category your app falls into, so settle this with whoever builds and submits your app before launch, not after.

Stripe fees on web checkout

On the web you pay a payment processor instead of an app store. Stripe’s standard US rate for domestic cards is 2.9% plus 30 cents per successful charge. If you use Stripe Billing to run recurring subscriptions on the pay-as-you-go plan, Stripe adds 0.7% of billing volume. International cards and currency conversion cost more.

On a US$15 monthly subscription that works out to:

• card fee: 2.9% of US$15 = 43.5 cents, plus 30 cents = 73.5 cents
• Billing fee: 0.7% of US$15 = 10.5 cents
• total: about 84 cents, or 5.6%

The fixed 30 cents hurts on small prices. On a US$5 subscription the same fees take about 48 cents, or 9.6%. That’s one reason annual plans make more sense on the web than in an app: one charge of US$120 pays the 30 cents once rather than twelve times.

Web checkout also brings jobs Apple and Google would otherwise do: sales tax, VAT and GST, failed card retries, refunds and chargebacks. Stripe has tools for each, some with their own fees. In return you get the member’s email address and the billing relationship, which matters if you ever want to move platforms or run a win-back email.

Worked example: US$15 a month

Here’s what you keep from one US member paying US$15 a month, before tax, by route. Web figures use Stripe’s 2.9% + 30 cents plus 0.7% Billing. Link-out rows with a proposed rate are estimates of a fee that doesn’t exist yet.

Route	Platform fee	Processing	You keep
Apple in-app, standard, first year	US$4.50 (30%)	included	US$10.50
Apple in-app, Small Business Program or second year	US$2.25 (15%)	included	US$12.75
Google Play Billing (US, from 30 June 2026)	US$2.25 (10% + 5%)	included	US$12.75
Google, link to your website (US)	US$1.50 (10%)	US$0.84	US$12.66
Apple link-out, US, today	none	US$0.84	US$14.16
Apple link-out, US, if the proposed 15% is approved	US$2.25	US$0.84	US$11.91
Apple link-out, US, Small Business rate of 5% if approved	US$0.75	US$0.84	US$13.41
Web only, member never buys in the app	none	US$0.84	US$14.16

Scale that to 1,000 members. Through Apple’s Small Business Program you’d keep US$12,750 a month. Through web checkout you’d keep about US$14,160. The gap is roughly US$1,410 a month, or about US$16,900 a year. Against Apple’s standard first-year rate the gap is US$3,660 a month.

Notice the Google link-out row. Because the 10% service fee still applies, sending Android members from your app to your website can leave you slightly worse off than letting them pay through Google Play.

The catch: conversion

Fees only matter if people buy. In May 2025, RevenueCat ran a test on Dipsea, a subscription app it owns, with new US iPhone users split between paywalls. Its published results:

• in-app purchase only: 27.0% started a trial
• in-app purchase plus a cheaper web option: 23.5%
• web checkout only: 18.1%

Web buyers converted from trial to paid at a higher rate, but not enough to close the gap. RevenueCat reported that adding the web option earned 93 cents for every dollar the in-app-only version earned, even with Apple taking 30%. It estimated 86 cents per dollar under the 15% Small Business rate. RevenueCat called the data preliminary, and it was one app.

The lesson isn’t that web checkout loses. It’s that inside an app, Apple’s payment sheet with Face ID is hard to beat. The test measured people who were already in the app when they decided to pay.

That’s rarely how creator memberships sell. Your members usually decide on your website, after a reel, a post or an email, and then download the app. For that path, the in-app paywall never comes into it, and the web margin is the one you get. If you’re weighing a native app at all, our guide on recipe app vs recipe website covers when the app earns its place.

How to choose

• Your sales start on social or email: sell on the web and let the app be where members use what they’ve bought. Check the reader and multiplatform rules first.
• Your sales start in the App Store: in-app purchase will likely convert better. Join the Small Business Program so you pay 15%, not 30%.
• You’re in the US and want both: test a link-out next to in-app purchase, and model what happens if Apple’s proposed rate is approved.
• Most of your members are in the EU: budget for 15% on link-outs (10% for small developers) as well as Stripe’s fees.

To see how fees change your annual numbers at your own price and member count, try the membership revenue calculator.

How Voyage handles it

Voyage launches creators web first: members join and pay on the creator’s website, into the creator’s own Stripe account, and sign in to the app with the same account, with no app store commission on those subscriptions. When a creator adds their own iOS and Android app, members can also subscribe inside it through the App Store or Google Play, using RevenueCat to keep both kinds of subscription on one account. Apple and Google take their commission only on the in-app sales. Voyage takes a revenue share from 10% of sales, agreed before launch, and Stripe’s card fees apply. You can read more about your own app with Voyage.