I’ve noticed a lot of chatter around iOS external payment links in growth circles lately.
I’m curious if this is genuinely beneficial for subscription apps or just adding more compliance hassle.
Some apps find the setup hard and struggle to track everything accurately.
Ran tests on this for a meditation app that had solid monthly retention. The revenue bump was nice - around 18% after we got the flow working smoothly.
But here’s what nobody mentions: user experience takes a hit. People expect to just tap and pay within the app. When you send them to Safari, you lose some conversions right there.
We had to A/B test the messaging heavily. “Save 30% by paying direct” worked better than just showing the external link without context.
Only makes sense if your app already converts well and users stick around. Don’t do this as a band-aid for other growth problems.
External payments let you keep more revenue
Apple takes 30% of subscription revenue through their payment system.
With external payment links, you can direct users to pay directly on your website and keep almost all the money. But you need to handle the extra work of managing payments outside the app store.
The compliance overhead is real but worth it for apps with decent LTV. You need proper payment processing, subscription management, and customer support flows outside the app store ecosystem. Most apps see 15-20% revenue lift after accounting for the extra costs. The key is having your retention dialed in first. If users churn quickly, the added complexity won’t pay off.