Apple Tells Patreon To Move Creators To In-App Purchase For Subscriptions (techcrunch.com) 47
Apple is forcing Patreon to move all remaining creators onto Apple's in-app purchase subscription system by November 2026 "or else Patreon would risk removal from the App Store," reports TechCrunch. "Apple made this decision because Patreon was managing the billing for some percentage of creators' subscriptions, and the tech giant saw that as skirting its App Store commission structure." The tech giant initially told Patreon that it must do so by November 2025, but the deadline was pushed back. From the report: "We strongly disagree with this decision," its blog post states. "Creators need consistency and clarity in order to build healthy, long-term businesses. Instead, creators using legacy billing will now have to endure the whiplash of another policy reversal -- the third such change from Apple in the past 18 months. Over the years, we have proposed multiple tools and features to Apple that we could've built to allow creators using legacy billing to transition on their own timelines, with more support added in. Unfortunately, Apple has continually declined them," it says.
Creators can read more about the transition plan on Patreon's website. It has also built several tools to support these changes, including a benefit eligibility tool to see who has paid or is scheduled to pay, tier repricing tools, and gifting and discount tools to offer payment flexibility. An option for annual-only memberships will be introduced before November 2026 as well. The commission on in-app purchases and subscriptions is 30% on Apple's system, but "drops to 15% for a subscription that has been ongoing for more than a year," notes MacRumors. Patreon lets creators either raise prices only in its iOS app to cover Apple's fee or keep prices the same by absorbing the cost, while iPhone and iPad users can avoid the App Store commission entirely by paying through Patreon's website instead.
Creators can read more about the transition plan on Patreon's website. It has also built several tools to support these changes, including a benefit eligibility tool to see who has paid or is scheduled to pay, tier repricing tools, and gifting and discount tools to offer payment flexibility. An option for annual-only memberships will be introduced before November 2026 as well. The commission on in-app purchases and subscriptions is 30% on Apple's system, but "drops to 15% for a subscription that has been ongoing for more than a year," notes MacRumors. Patreon lets creators either raise prices only in its iOS app to cover Apple's fee or keep prices the same by absorbing the cost, while iPhone and iPad users can avoid the App Store commission entirely by paying through Patreon's website instead.
Patreon has an app? (Score:5, Insightful)
I think I'm fine using the website. Seems like it would waste less resources on my phone.
Re:Patreon has an app? (Score:4, Interesting)
My policy for everything is, "i don't do apps". So far the only negative consequence of this is the mediocre chain barbershops nearest my house won't let me check in over the phone. The only app I have installed on my phone that didn't come by default is WhatsApp.
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The biggest consequence for me was not being able to get the full menu and/or reasonable prices at McDonald's. My response was to stop going to McDonald's.
Off-topic but have you been to any new location they've constructed in the last few years? The layout could be described as "hostile architecture". The places are designed to literally hide the staff behind a wall and a corner. You have to essentially walk into the kitchen to find someone. Which you will have to do when the ordering kiosks are broke. And
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Same. I am not signing up for an app so I can get affordable pricing. I do periodically go to mcdonald's, but only for their 20pc McNuggets which are alarmingly cheap, $7, and while not super healthy, extremely convenient, high protein toddler food
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I stopped eating nuggets when I saw what happens when you leave them on the counter. It looks a lot like slug sex.
Re:Patreon has an app? And McDonalds kinda doesn't (Score:2)
The biggest consequence for me was not being able to get the full menu and/or reasonable prices at McDonald's. My response was to stop going to McDonald's.
The ongoing enshittification of their app is amazing. It doesn't work right if you block location access, but spoofing seems to be OK with some caveats. Keeps changing the selected restaurant to the closest one (which is funny if I'm spoofing being in the middle of Lake Erie, though once it did lead to an order being sent to the wrong location, and it wasn't cancelable, so I had to cancel it via the credit card.)
And it just keeps getting slower, and has adopted that modern UI convention where tapping a li
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Coming from someone who started this journey of a device always in my pocket with a Palm IIIx. I think it's stunning to have a web browser with camera, audio, and 3D (webGL) support as pretty much the bare minimum smartphone. The apps are almost worse in every way beyond that base level of functionality.
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My policy for everything is, "i don't do apps".
Frankly, that's just weird. Do you also not install programs on your PC?
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You do know that you can use the browser on your phone to access websites?
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You do know that there's more out there than websites?
Do you only have a browser installed on your PC?
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Frankly, that's just weird.
No it's not. RMS doesn't use smartphones. [slashdot.org]
Oh, wait...
So what about a large charity's ios app? (Score:2)
So, does a large charity who has an iOS app in the app store which accepts donations both in the app, on the web, and in-person have to funnel all the donations through the iOS app now?
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Patreon commisions: 10% (*); Apple commissions: extra 30%.
(*) Legacy creators will be paying 8-12% depending on their plan, new creators since mid-2025 are on 10%. There are currency conversion fees on top of this if creators and patrons are operating in different currencies.
Yeah, there's no way this doesn't end with Patreon dropping their app.
Re: iOS? Just say no! (Score:2)
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I don't think the lines you are drawing are supportable. If this were the first time Apple was strong arming content apps into paying their tax, perhaps you could infer something, but it really, really isn't.
WTF? (Score:5, Insightful)
Why does Patreon need an app? They have a web site.
I'd tell Apple to take a long walk off a short pier.
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Patreon wants to satisfy their customers (content creators) by offering ways to donate that are as easy as possible for their user demographic. Patreon is afraid the customers might decide to move the business to another platform if they feel or even only imagine, that their revenue will be affected if the users (donors) don't have access to an app.
Re:WTF? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:WTF? (Score:4, Informative)
Generally, to track you to a greater extent than possible through a locked-down browser, and to otherwise extract money from you. Particularly, in this case, it's so additional parties (Apple) can get in on the extraction action.
Re: WTF? (Score:2)
It's not fun to live under D-M-C-A
Re: WTF? (Score:2)
Apple made the decision because Trump (Score:3, Insightful)
Love him or hate him Donald Trump is not going to enforce antitrust law. Although he does usually get a kickback whenever there's a merger going on...
Just another nail in the coffin for Apple having t (Score:2)
Complete BS (Score:4, Funny)
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I'm shocked they haven't gone after Amazon to get a percent of each purchase that people make in the Amazon app on iphone.
Or eBay for that matter.
Amazon did avoid Apple's ransom coercion for ebooks on Amazon's Kindle app.... by not providing any way to purchase books in it.
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Funny thing that. You can buy digital goods that don't technically exist, labor, services, etc. ... you pay the apple tariff.
But you buy physical goods (amazon, walmart, temu, etc.) and ... no apple tariff.
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MMph! Bad for customers. (Score:2)
I'd been considering for a year or so whether I should get an Apple computer to supplement my Linux system. (Well, really to generate programs that could run on an IPad.)
This is so unpleasant that I'm even thinking MS might be a better choice...and I haven't dealt with MS since the turn of the century.
OTOH, what it's really going to turn on is which company comes up with a good voice controlled computers that can read novels to me with reasonable pacing and emphasis. But Apple seems to be lagging behind
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Stick with Linux. Apple's taxes aren't worth it. And Windows has too many other issues.
Voice Control:
https://talonvoice.com/ [talonvoice.com]
https://numenvoice.org/ [numenvoice.org]
Readers:
https://johnfactotum.github.io... [github.io]
https://thorium.edrlab.org/en/ [edrlab.org]
Individuals are in control (Score:1)
Apple's 30% should be considered and prosecuted as a usary practice.
That said, no is forced to pay it, as no one is being forced to use an Apple device. Those that choose to be part of the problem and pay Apple's taxes should have that option.
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If you're a creator...you're basically forced in to it if you want to use Patreon now. If a person decides to use the ios app to sign up; guess what...they're taking a chunk of your subscription. Your only choice is to...not use Patreon. You're not afforded the option to block iOS subscriptions either. It is entirely up to your subscribers as to if they let Apple fuck you over.
And people...are fucking stupid. They won't care. They will do the easiest goddamn thing for them.
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Or you could use an Android phone? Or a browser on a laptop?
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If you're a creator...you're basically forced in to it if you want to use Patreon now. If a person decides to use the ios app to sign up; guess what...they're taking a chunk of your subscription. Your only choice is to...not use Patreon.
Untrue. You have one more option, which is to set a higher price for iOS users. Sadly, you cannot customize it, e.g. adding an extra $10,000 on iOS to discourage anyone from signing up in that way. All you can do is charge the actual difference. However, the actual difference ends up being well over 40%, so if every creator does this does this, then unless the iOS users are complete idiots, this should not have a meaningful impact on Apple's revenue.
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That said, no is forced to pay it, as no one is being forced to use an Apple device.
What you're advocating here is for Apple to be able to dictate terms of transactions to half of the smartphone users in the country. It doesn't matter who was "forced" or not, what matters is that the consumers can't be expected to be educated about these issues. The purpose of antitrust law is to protect people whether they become experts on anticompetitive behavior or not.
Just (Score:2)
Stop developing or updating your apps on iOS. Stop continuing to allow Apple to sit there and triple dip on one source, while providing literally nothing in return.
"Oh but my revenue will suffer." Yeah, find a new path. Sticking with Apple isn't worth it. Have some god damned backbone.
Not sure who to root for, here! (Score:3)
On the one hand, Apple grabbing other people's revenue stream.
On the other hand ... Patreon's entire business model is to stick their fingers in other people's revenue streams. I was so excited about Patreon back when I signed up over a decade ago. Aggregating micropayments and then efficiently disbursing them! Awesome! But AFAICT they have turned into a cozy wrapper around credit-card fees, plus they keep trying to turn themselves into a social network or media platform or something of the sort. I mean, great, everyone is trying it, but why should I shed tears for their problems?
Hey Tim Apple... (Score:2)
So You're Telling Me.... (Score:2)
Now if some subscriber decides to sign up on iOS....Apple takes a chunk of MY earnings....despite the fact I'm pretty much anti-Apple.
And I can't block iOS transactions because Apple said so.
It's pure stupidity that people allowed this to happen by supporting the company and voting for people that allowed this to happen.
Apple has always been a would-be monopoly. (Score:2)
That Tim Cook showed up to the WH for the "premier" of Melanoma, and donated to 47's campaign and inauguration is just icing on the cake.
EPIC / Banks (Score:2)
Banks : should the Apple rule(s) apply to each and every bank app, since they allow money transactions ?