Can I use some 3rd party payment gateway like PayPal for subscription purpose in an iOS app?
For your primary Question answer is NO.
You can't accept third-party payment for content within your app.
If you do your app will get rejected.
Yes, you can accept third-party payments for Goods sell outside of the App.
3.1 Payments
3.1.1 In-App Purchase:
If you want to unlock features or functionality within your app, (by
way of example: subscriptions, in-game currencies, game levels, access
to premium content, or unlocking a full version), you must use in-app
purchase. Apps may use in-app purchase currencies to enable customers
to “tip” digital content providers in the app. Apps and their metadata
may not include buttons, external links, or other calls to action that
direct customers to purchasing mechanisms other than in-app purchase.
Here is link to all guideline, may it help you further: https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/#payments
Related
Guideline 3.1.1 - Business - Payments - In-App Purchase
Your app unlocks or enables additional functionality with mechanisms other than the App Store, which is not appropriate for the App Store.
We noticed that your app contains a payment mechanism other than in-app purchase for digital content or to unlock features or functionality within your app, which is not appropriate for the App Store. In-app purchase is the only valid in-app payment mechanism for digital content.
Note: Continuing to hide functionality within your app or other dishonest acts may result in the removal of your apps from the App Store and termination of your Apple Developer Program membership and all associated memberships.
Next Steps
To resolve this issue, please remove all external or third-party payment mechanisms and implement in-app purchase to facilitate digital good transactions, including unlocking features or functionality within your app.
If you believe your use of an alternative payment mechanism is a permissible use case, please respond directly to this message in Resolution Center with detailed information.
#sujeet,
First of all, you have not mentioned what type of product you are selling to users? If you are selling digital content i.e. any kind of plan, activation, You must have to use In-App Purchase.
Apple is providing 4 types of In-App Purchases, choose your best on from that and create a In-App Purchase Items in iTunes Connect.
Apple will not allow any kind of third-party payment system in any apps which sells degital content from app.
I am developing an app for PDF and downloading PDF, I am using using Paytm - Third party payment gateway for payments on web view. Without using an "In-App purchase", will it affect the Apple review guidelines?
In-app currency is only used inside of your app.
3.1.1 In-App Purchase: If you want to unlock features or functionality within your app, (by way of example: subscriptions, in-game currencies, game levels, access to premium content, or unlocking a full version), you must use in-app purchase. Apps may not include buttons, external links, or other calls to action that direct customers to purchasing mechanisms other than IAP.
For third party payment.
3.1.5 Physical Goods and Services Outside of the App: If your app enables people to purchase goods or services that will be consumed outside of the app, you must use purchase methods other than IAP to collect those payments, such as Apple Pay or traditional credit card entry. Apps may facilitate transmission of approved virtual currencies (e.g. Bitcoin, DogeCoin) provided that they do so in compliance with all state and federal laws for the territories in which the app functions.
Apple has no issue implementing payment process in UIWebView but you have to provide very clear explanation of your payment process to get your app approved without any objection.
As per Apple guide lines given below, If you are purchasing physical goods which can be consumed out side of the App, then you can go for other payment gateway, else your App will be rejected.
3.1.5 Physical Goods and Services Outside of the App: If your app enables people to purchase goods or services that will be consumed outside of the app, you must use purchase methods other than IAP to collect those payments, such as Apple Pay or traditional credit card entry. Apps may facilitate transmission of approved virtual currencies (e.g. Bitcoin, DogeCoin) provided that they do so in compliance with all state and federal laws for the territories in which the app functions.
I'd like to integrate payment for subscription to our services. Currently the website offers manually-renewable subscription for 6 or 12 months, and we take the payment by Credit Card (authorize.net payment gateway) or PayPal. As we'd like to offer the users to be able to renew subscriptions from our iOS app, too, I was thinking if I could integrate the Paypal and Authorize.net SDKs in our app instead of using in-app purchases.
Here are the points related to my question from the App Store Review Guidelines:
11.2. Apps utilizing a system other than the In-App Purchase API (IAP) to purchase content, functionality, or services in an App will be rejected
11.12. Apps offering subscriptions must do so using IAP, Apple will share the same 70/30 revenue split with developers for these purchases, as set forth in the Program License Agreement.
11.13. Apps that link to external mechanisms for purchases or subscriptions to be used in the App, such as a "buy" button that goes to a web site to purchase a digital book, will be rejected.
The above points don't exactly answer my following question:
If I must use in-app purchases for subscription renewals, can I also provide users the options to pay via Paypal and Credit Card through my iOS app besides in-app purchases? Note that the "buy" button won't go to a website to purchase the subscription - I'll be integrating PayPal and Authorize.net SDKs to receive purchases from the app.
Apple handles the payment options for you, you cannot offer your "own" payment providers for In-App Purchases. (You can, but your app will be rejected)
The official payment options vary on the user's country: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202631
Please note that there are things happening in this space.
According to recent news, apple is forced to allow external payments.
I don't know if it is already in effect in the guidelines of apple but I suspect it will be coming.
We are working on a game app on iOS. Our target users are in Asia which have limited credit card access thus that make it difficult to use In-App Purchase API. Can we implement another way of payment instead, or just instruct users to pay somewhere else ?
Apple does not allow this. In the App Store Review Guidelines under section 11 Purchasing and currencies it states clearly -
11.2 Apps utilizing a system other than the In-App Purchase API (IAP) to purchase content, functionality, or services in an App will be rejected
I am a developer of apps for iPhone and iPad.
One of my apps is a companion app to an online personal finance management tool which provides its services and functionality through a website. A section of these features will be made available to the iPhone audience through a native iOS app that I am creating.
The portal allows users to use most of the features for their personal finance management free of charge. It also has a subscription model which provides the user additional features on the website and provides for expansion of some services both on portal and the mobile app.
I am planning to continue using the same subscription model on app, and will redirect users to a payment gateway if they want to subscribe for the personal finance management services through the app.
My question here is do my app falls under in-app purchase (non consumable)? Since my iPhone app is not the only medium where I could subscribe those services. I can open the web portal and subscribe and can login as normal user in my iPhone app.
I had gone through the apple in-app purchase guidelines and found this information is not clearly stated.
Any help will be appreciated.
Looks like your business model does fall under the In-App Purchase.
If you want to unlock features or functionality within your app, (by way of example: subscriptions, in-game currencies, game levels, access to premium content, or unlocking a full version), you must use in-app purchase.
Apps may not include buttons, external links, or other calls to action that direct customers to purchasing mechanisms other than IAP.
You may offer a subscription inside of your app via the In-App Purchase, but you may not redirect user to your website as this would be considered "directing customers to purchasing mechanisms other than IAP".
If you were providing subscription to a monthly coffee delivery, for example, then using IAP would not be acceptable, as this would fall under "Physical Goods and Services Outside of the App".
The latest iteration of Apple Review Guidelines concerning In-App Purchase can be found here https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/#in-app-purchase
You can use Paypal for this purpose as iOS sdk is also available for this as that will be supported both on your site and app.