Patreon's iOS App to Undergo Major Changes Due to Apple's AppStore Rules, Subscription Costs to Rise
TapTechNews August 13th news, the paid creative community Patreon has today confirmed that due to Apple's enforcement of AppStore rules, its iOS app will undergo major changes and the cost for new subscribers will increase.
Starting from November this year, all new member subscriptions on Patreon must be completed through in-app purchases in the AppStore, and the platform needs to pay a 30% commission to Apple. Although Patreon has been using in-app purchases and paying the 30% fee related to digital products to Apple since January this year, previous member subscriptions bypassed Apple's in-app purchase system.
In order to deal with this additional expense, Patreon has provided two options for creators: one is to only increase the subscription price within the iOS app, and the other is for the creator to bear the cost and keep the same price across platforms. It should be noted that this change only affects new members purchased through iPhone or iPad after November, and existing subscribers are not affected.
Patreon stated that by default, it will automatically increase the subscription price on the iOS platform and does not recommend that creators choose to bear the cost themselves. However, the platform will still respect the decision of the creators and allow them to choose to maintain the original price and deduct the 30% fee from their own revenue.
In addition, since the AppStore in-app purchase system does not support flexible payment methods such as pay-per-use or fixed-date payment per month, Patreon will migrate all creators to the subscription model, which is expected to be completed by November 2025.
If Patreon does not comply with Apple's in-app purchase regulations, it may be kicked out of the AppStore. To ease the dissatisfaction of users, Patreon suggests that creators guide fans to view the platform's help center article to understand the fee differences on different platforms.
It is worth noting that Apple's 30% commission is even higher than the share that Patreon gets from creators. Patreon collects an 8% to 12% fee from paid member subscriptions, plus a payment processing fee, and a 5% fee for digital product sales.
According to TapTechNews' understanding, Apple has adopted a tiered pricing policy for subscription services, and the commission rate will be reduced from 30% to 15% after one year. In recent years, Apple has continuously strengthened the management of digital goods and previously required Facebook to pay in-app purchase fees for advertising purchases on iOS devices.