Apple In-App Purchase (IAP) is a fantastic deal… at first.

It handles the complex plumbing of global taxes, disputes, and payment recovery while offering the lowest-friction checkout experience on the planet. But as you scale, the economics of that convenience start to shift.

Understanding when to trade that "one-tap" ease for the control of web billing is one of the most critical decisions for a growing B2C subscription brand.

Phase 1: Why You Should Stay on IAP

If you are in the early stages of your business, the convenience of IAP usually outweighs the cost. You should stay fully within the Apple ecosystem if:

• You are pre-Product-Market Fit: You should be focused on tuning your funnel, onboarding, and pricing, not managing billing operations.
• You lack operational bandwidth: Managing global sales tax (Nexus) and chargebacks is a heavy lift that Apple handles for you.
• You qualify for the Small Business Program: If you are doing under $1M per year, your fee is only 15%. At this level, the "Apple tax" is a bargain for the friction it removes.

Phase 2: Entering the "Gray Zone" ($5M–$10M ARR)

Once you cross the $1M threshold, the fee jumps to 30%. By the time you reach $5M–$10M ARR, that "tax" becomes a massive line item on your P&L. You’ve likely entered the "Gray Zone" if:

1. The 30% fee is painful: You’re handing over millions every year that could be reinvested into growth.
2. IAP feels like a "Black Box": You want to customize the checkout, run A/B tests on the paywall, or out-optimize standard recovery flows, but Apple’s restricted environment won't let you.
3. You have the infrastructure: You finally have the team and tools to trade convenience for control.

The "Test a Slice" Method: Trading Friction for Margin

The biggest fear of moving to web billing is conversion dropoff. When you move a user from a FaceID payment to a manual credit card form, some people will inevitably drop out.

The move isn't "all or nothing." The right strategy is to test a slice of your traffic. If you shift a percentage of your new users to a Stripe-powered web billing flow, run the math:

• The Risk: Conversion drops by 5%.
• The Reward: You save ~25% in platform fees (the 30% Apple fee vs. the ~5% Stripe/Processing fee).
• The Result: Your Net Revenue per Visitor goes up significantly despite the lower conversion.

If the net revenue increases, keep shifting traffic. If it doesn't, stop, optimize your web checkout for 1–3 months, and retest.

Two Trends Favoring Web Billing in 2026

The cost-benefit tradeoff is moving toward web billing for two main reasons:

1. Shifted Consumer Behavior

Users are being "trained" to pay via web flows by category leaders like Substack, OpenAI, and Atlassian. The friction of entering a card on a mobile web view is decreasing as consumers grow accustomed to these external flows.

2. The Specialized Stripe Ecosystem

The "operational gap" that once made IAP superior is closing. Between Stripe Tax, advanced chargeback management, and specialized failed payment recovery layers (like Redux), you can now build a specialized billing stack that outperforms Apple’s generalist tools.

Is your "Apple Tax" funding your growth or hindering it? If you're in the Gray Zone, it’s time to look at the data.

Get a free Redux Audit to see how much "invisible churn" is happening in your current billing setup, and what your recovery potential looks like on the web.

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