Last time this came up Patreon simply allowed the creators to charge the commission directly on top of the price for non apple users, or eat the 30% loss. So everyone not using iOS would pay, say, $5/month, iOS users would pay $5+30%. Hope they retain that option.

It's against App Store rules to inform your customers they're being fucked by Apple in any way. If you do, they'll take it down.

That would be nice, but when Apple says "jump," all the other businesses ask "how high?"

The world is full of morons with more money than sense.

I was actually curious how this currently works as I've never used the Patreon app, so thanks for that. I'm sure it's a nice convenience to be able to transact through the app, but not 30% passive Apple income levels of nice. It's too bad they are stuck in their flat-rate commission model, because alienating third-party developers and businesses in this manner will kill their ecosystem.

Can any current creators on Patreon provide some insight into how the revenue streams break down between the iOS/Android app platforms versus the website? What impact do you foresee if instead of a payment option in the app it simply directs you to the website?

It reminds me of gas stations that only accept ATM cards and not credit cards, because they don’t want to lose the 3% that credit card companies take per transaction. They’re trying not to lose that 3%, but it will inconvenience some customers and lose them some business. That could easily be worse than 3%.

So yes Patreon could say “go find a laptop and enter your credit card number in our web page” but there are people who won’t do all that because they expect to be able to pay with one tap. And businesses are on the AppStore because that great payment experience makes it super easy for them to convert customers.

It’s just not as straightforward as saying “fuck you Apple, I’ll take my business elsewhere.”