Founder Playbook · Sub Club by RevenueCat
7 tactics from David Barnard
External Payment Link vs In-App Purchase: RevenueCat's $40k Experiment
Watch the full episode“at RevenueCat we acquired an app called Dipsy we acquired this app specifically to run these kind of experiments to beta test our revenue cap features within days of the ruling my colleagues built out a system to take advantage of this”
Acquire an app specifically to run live monetization experiments on your platform
RevenueCat bought Dipsy not for its users or revenue, but as a real production test bed — a live app fully instrumented with their own tools. This let them ship experiments within days of a legal ruling without convincing external partners. For founders building monetization tooling, owning a first-party app eliminates partner dependency and produces credible data to share publicly.
“the revenue per user on the web only paywall variant D was $1.96 on the inapp purchase only that was $29... it's about a 6% drop in proceeds on the web versus the inapp purchase”
Web payments at 30% Apple cut is a ~6% wash vs IAP — not the 30% windfall expected
RevenueCat's 4-variant live experiment on Dipsy found web-only checkout netted ~$1.96 per user vs ~$2.03 after Apple's 30% cut on IAP — a 6% gap, not the 30% windfall developers expect. The reason: web flows convert fewer trials despite lower fees. For apps on Apple's 30% standard rate, web billing is worth testing but not the slam dunk the fee savings suggest.
“if you are still in the small business program only paying Apple 15% it's going to be pretty tough to make the numbers work on external purchases you know this is a massive drop in revenue per user sending them to the web versus only using IAP”
If you're on Apple's 15% Small Business Program, external payments math doesn't work
The economics of routing users to web payments only hold up when paying Apple 30%. At 15%, the friction of leaving the app and lower web trial start rates erode any fee savings — resulting in a net revenue drop. Developers under the Small Business Program should stay fully in-app for now.
“the trial conversion rate is much higher on the web than it is in the app so that made up for the lower trial start rate more trials did convert even though fewer trials were started”
Web trials: far fewer users start them, but those who do convert at a much higher rate
Dipsy's web-only variant saw a dramatic drop in trial starts compared to IAP — users are reluctant to leave the app even with Apple Pay available. But those who did start a web trial converted to paid at a significantly higher rate. These two effects partially cancel: fewer starters, higher converters, near-equal aggregate conversion to paying.
“in variant C where we gave customers the choice of going to the web with a 30% discount only 68 out of 203 actually started a trial and then converted from that free trial only 68 compared to 75 selected the annual plan inside the app and then 57 selected the monthly plan inside the app”
Even with a 30% discount, only 68 of 203 chose web over IAP — most users prefer in-app
When Dipsy's paywall offered explicit choice — IAP at full price vs web at 30% off — more users chose IAP than web (132 vs 68). Despite the strong financial incentive, users default to the path of least resistance inside the app. A side-by-side choice paywall is unlikely to be the optimal web routing strategy; smarter ML-based routing without explicit user choice likely performs better.
“for all subscriptions in May who were billed on the web only three and a half percent are currently set to cancel... of that cohort that could potentially renew in 2026 almost 19% have already turned off autorenew”
Web billing has 5x better early retention than IAP: 3.5% vs 19% auto-renew cancellations
Early renewal data from Dipsy shows only 3.5% of web-billed annual subscribers had already turned off auto-renew, vs 19% of IAP subscribers eligible to renew the following year — a 5x difference in early cancellation signal. Even if initial web conversion is slightly lower, the long-term LTV picture is likely to favor web billing for annual plans.
“don't send everybody to the web don't leave everybody in the app... if you're not in the small business program and you are paying 30% I think the ultimate solution is going to be this hybrid approach where you send some folks to the web and keep some people in the app”
Hybrid paywall (some to web, some to IAP) is the optimal strategy for apps paying 30%
The experiment's conclusion is not binary: web beats IAP or IAP beats web. Web captures fewer trial starters but converts them better and retains them at 5x the rate. IAP captures more trials at lower individual conversion. A hybrid router that directs the right user segment to each channel extracts the best of both — and is likely where the industry lands at the 30% fee tier.