Artists and other creators who sell memberships or subscriptions through Patreon’s iOS app will have to start factoring in Apple’s 30% transaction fee from November, either swallowing the cost or passing it onto their members and subscribers.
Patreon was previously able to direct in-app transactions within its iOS app to third payment providers, meaning no commission was due to Apple. However, last year the tech giant decided that the Patreon app must now comply with its often controversial App Store rule that says transactions relating to digital content must be processed via Apple’s own commission-charging payments system. That rule will be enforced on new subscription payments from November.
“Unfortunately, Apple is requiring us to switch over to their in-app purchase system for all iOS transactions or else risk being kicked out of the App Store altogether”, Patreon said in a message to creators yesterday. As well as having to pay Apple’s commission, some creators will have to change the payment options they offer their subscribers, the message added, because Apple’s “in-app purchase system is not built with our same level of creator-first flexibility”.
It’s quite surprising that Patreon - which allows creators to sell subscriptions and access to premium content - has managed to get away with taking in-app payments via third party providers for so long. Back in 2021, CEO Jack Conte revealed that Patreon didn’t have any special deal with Apple and that the company’s iOS app had gone through the usual checks, getting approved despite the third party transactions. But no more.
Apple’s rules around in-app purchases relating to digital content have been controversial for years. Lobbying and litigation by the likes of Spotify and Fortnite maker Epic Games has forced the rules to be relaxed to an extent. However, the changes mainly relate to the sign-posting of alternative payment options outside an app, rather than taking payments within the app. And neither Spotify nor Epic are happy with the changes anyway.
Apple enforcing its in-app payments rule against Patreon first impacted the sale of digital products through its iOS app back in January. But most creators use Patreon to take regular payments from subscribers, so the change to the processing of subscription payments in November is a much bigger deal. The change will only impact new subscriber payments and, obviously, the extra 30% commission will only apply to subscriptions bought within Patreon’s iOS app.
Anticipating that many creators will choose to pass Apple’s charge onto subscribers, Patreon has developed a tool which will allow users to charge one price in the iOS app, and another in its Android app and on its website. “Based on creator feedback”, Patreon says, “we've built an optional tool that can automatically increase your prices - only in the iOS app - to offset the cost of Apple's fee”. Although use of that tool is optional, it will be turned on by default.
Patreon allows creators to charge subscription fees in various different ways, including a monthly fee that is always charged on the first of the month, or a fee for each piece of content published. Those options will no longer be available within the iOS app because Apple’s transactions system can’t deal with those complexities. It will simply charge subscribers a monthly fee on whatever date of the month they first signed up.
While Patreon is clearly not happy with this turn of events, it has not been as scathing about Apple’s rules than both Spotify and Epic have been. Although it does suggest that creators direct their subscribers to a Patreon web page which explains that, from November, it will often be cheaper to subscribe to a creator through its website or Android app than its iOS app. So basically telling Apple users that they have to pay more because of Apple’s rules.