Apple's commission against Stripe's fees, on one subscription.
The 30% and 15% App Store commission beside Stripe's card and Billing fees, worked through on a real subscription price, with what the web side costs that the store does not.
The two rates
The App Store takes 30% of an in-app purchase, or 15% if you are in the Small Business Program (under $1 million in proceeds the previous calendar year) and on any auto-renewing subscription after its first year of paid service. Apple is the seller: it collects and remits sales tax and VAT, handles refunds, and absorbs card fees and chargebacks.
Stripe, on a US card, charges 2.9% plus 30¢ per successful charge, and Stripe Billing, which runs the renewals, adds 0.7% of recurring volume on pay-as-you-go pricing. International cards and currency conversion cost more. On the web you are the seller, which matters below.
On one subscription
What you keep from each charge, before tax, on a US card:
| Price | App Store at 30% | App Store at 15% | Stripe on the web |
|---|---|---|---|
| $9.99 a month | $6.99 | $8.49 | $9.33 ($0.66 in fees) |
| $59.99 a year | $41.99 | $50.99 | $57.53 ($2.46 in fees) |
The fixed 30¢ is why the gap is proportionally smaller on a cheap monthly plan than on an annual one: on $9.99 it is most of the fee. Annual plans are where web checkout pays best, which is also why most web funnels lead with one.
Where this applies
- A purchase made on the web, reached from the web (an ad, an email, your site) carries no Apple commission in any storefront. The app only recognises the subscriber. See web-to-app funnels, explained.
- A link out from inside the app on the US storefront carries no commission under the April 2025 order in Epic v. Apple.
- A link out on the EU storefronts is permitted under the Digital Markets Act, on Apple's terms and with Apple's own fees, which have changed more than once. Check them before you count the saving. The details for both are in showing a web checkout link inside an iOS app.
What the web adds back
- Tax. As the seller, registering for, collecting and remitting sales tax and VAT is yours. Stripe Tax will calculate it for a further fee; the registrations are still yours to hold.
- Refunds and chargebacks. The store handles its own. On the web a disputed charge is returned to the bank with a dispute fee on top, and you answer it. Passback writes the evidence at purchase time so the answer is ready before the dispute is.
- Conversion. The App Store sheet is one tap with Face ID. A web checkout with Apple Pay is close; a card form is not. A lower price or a better offer on the web is how the difference is made up.
- Tooling. A funnel, a checkout, and the trip back into the app. Built, or bought.
Where a flat-priced tool breaks even
Passback is $250 a month with no revenue share and no per-transaction fee, and every charge lands on your own Stripe account. The number of paying web subscribers at which the commission saved covers that, on the fees above:
| Plan | Instead of 30% | Instead of 15% |
|---|---|---|
| $9.99 a month | 107 subscribers | 298 subscribers |
| $59.99 a year | 194 subscribers | 459 subscribers |
Below those numbers the commission alone does not pay for the tool, and the case rests on the rest: attribution that survives the install, a paywall you can split-test on the web without a release, and a customer record on your own Stripe account. A tool priced on a share of revenue has the opposite shape: cheap at the start, and the largest line on the bill at scale.
Rates change; check stripe.com/pricing and the Small Business Program for the figures as they stand. This is not tax or legal advice. Updated 24 September 2026. Corrections via contact. Related: Passback vs FunnelFox, Passback vs RevenueCat.