Been looking into external payment options for our iOS app since the new rules rolled out.
Wondering if anyone has actually gone through the implementation process and how smooth it was. Apple’s documentation feels pretty vague on some parts.
We tried it a while back. Very complicated and the Apple review was really slow.
Rolled this out for two apps in the past 8 months. The technical setup isn’t terrible but Apple’s review team asks a lot of questions.
They want detailed explanations of your payment flow and screenshots of every step. Took us 3 rounds of back and forth just to get approval.
The real pain is managing two payment systems. Users get confused about which option to pick, and our support tickets went up about 20% in the first month.
Revenue wise, we saw maybe a 3-4% bump from lower fees, but the extra dev work and support costs ate into that pretty quickly.
Not worth the hassle. Stick with Apple payments.
Did it for a client last year. The key is having solid web payments working before you submit to Apple. Most teams rush into it without testing the user flow properly. You need clear messaging about why users should pick external payments and seamless redirect handling. Apple will reject you if the external flow feels confusing. Make sure your web checkout loads fast and works on mobile Safari perfectly. The 3% savings only matter if you convert users to the external option.