Founder Playbook · Sub Club by RevenueCat
4 tactics from Ariel Michaeli
How To Legally Bypass Apple's 30% Fee
Watch the full episode“Absolutely you can use stripe braintree and others... apple does have very specific rules around you know who you can send off the app store so it's possible.”
Web Payments via Stripe Are Legal — Apple Has Specific Rules on Who Qualifies
Collecting subscription payments on the web to avoid Apple's 30% cut is legal but conditional. Apple allows it only for certain business models under specific conditions — at the time of recording, only a handful of app categories qualified. Stripe and Braintree handle the payment mechanics; qualifying for Apple's external-link entitlement is the real gate.
“They don't yet collect and remit payments... in the end the way apple and google do... if you are gonna collect on the web just be prepared to either be knowingly breaking local laws in some regions so talk to a lawyer talk to an accountant.”
Stripe Handles the Payment But Not the Tax Mess — Know What You're Taking On
Apple and Google silently handle tax collection and remittance across every jurisdiction. When payments move to Stripe or Braintree, that liability lands on the developer. The two-lines-of-code payment form is the easy part; compliant tax filing in 50+ countries is the hard part. Consulting a lawyer and accountant before going live is non-negotiable.
“With everything that's been happening with apple over the last almost year it's inevitable that apple will open up the stripe but now it's nearly impossible only a few different apps can do it and under like really crazy conditions but it has to change.”
External Payments Are Inevitable — Apple Will Be Forced to Open Up
Ariel called the regulatory inevitability early: antitrust pressure and developer advocacy would force Apple to loosen external-payment restrictions. The EU DMA by 2024 did exactly that. Developers who built web-billing infrastructure early were positioned to benefit the moment Apple's rules relaxed — and the 12-18 month timeline Ariel predicted proved accurate.
“We just added an integration with stripe for the exact same reason because we see more developers are trying now this.”
RevenueCat Built Stripe Integration Because Developers Are Routing Around Apple
RevenueCat's decision to build a Stripe SDK was a direct response to developer demand — a leading indicator that web billing was going mainstream before Apple officially allowed it. Infrastructure platforms follow developer momentum; when the billing provider starts building the workaround tooling, that is a signal the workaround is becoming legitimate practice.