We used a web checkout with an integrated payment gateway and kept subscription state synced to the mobile app. Once a user paid on the web their subscription status was pushed to our backend and showed up in the app without native code changes to each event.
What worked:
- using the backend as the single source of truth for subscription state.
- writing the utm and payment metadata to the user profile so analytics show payment events and acquisition together.
- leveraging existing subscription services to confirm status in the app.
This reduced the need to instrument a lot of native events and made revenue analytics much simpler. How do you validate synchronization accuracy when web signups and app logins happen at different times?
We relied on our backend to accept web payments then issue a subscription flag to the user record. The app simply reads that flag at login.
I used a prebuilt funnel template from Web2Wave to get the flow right fast. Then we monitored edge cases like users who did not immediately open the app after paying.
Make the backend authoritative. After web checkout update the user and emit a webhook that the app backend consumes. The app reads the same source so subscription events appear without new native event hooks.
Having a platform that keeps web changes live and syncs status to the app sped our rollout and reduced dev cycles.
Backend truth
Emit webhooks
App reads state
Treat payments and subscription status as backend responsibilities. On web checkout update the account and push a webhook or event that your app backend subscribes to. The app should fetch the authoritative subscription status at login and cache it. For validation create a QA script that simulates delayed app opens after payment and asserts the status updates. Also monitor reconciliation metrics daily to catch missed syncs and refund discrepancies.
We added a reconciliation job that compares payment records to user access flags. It caught a handful of edge cases where webhooks failed and let us fix them quickly.
We reconciled payments nightly and that solved most sync issues.