On May 1, 2025, Stripe opened up their home page with rich-oriented documentation. This newly launched toolkit aims to help iOS devs avoid the app-store commission trap. This new resource comes on the heels of an important court ruling. The ruling represents a sea change in the payment environment for app creators, allowing them to link externally to payment systems from within their apps.
Stripe’s documentation provides developers with specific instructions on how to build and customize their own payment pages and checkout experiences. This innovative strategy powerful allows them to circumvent Apple’s common 30% cut out of all transactions. This right-of-way reuse approach offers a more cost-effective option. In the process, it gives developers more freedom to dictate the terms of their own revenue.
Stripe’s payment processing fees stand at 2.9% plus $0.30 per transaction, significantly undercutting Apple’s commission structure. Apple offers a lower 15% commission for its Small Biz program and subscription apps from the second year on. At least according to most developers, Stripe’s solution is the more cost-effective option.
Even David Heinemeier Hansson, creator of Ruby on Rails and co-owner of the company formerly known as 37Signals, applauded Stripe’s move. He painted a hopeful picture of what could be achieved with the new law, saying,
“Apple’s loss in court is immediately opening up a whole new world for app developers.”
The court’s ruling led to a surprising final order from Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, who ordered Apple to revise its policies. Because of this, developers are now able to include competitor payment options in their apps, allowing a more open and competitive ecosystem. Stripe’s documentation includes a great walkthrough for developers. It shows them how they could start accepting payments using Stripe—even beyond their own applications.
“Entire business models were impossible under the old 30% regime.”
Implementation of this solution therefore represents a new, exciting opportunity for responsible developers. That said, they’ll have to develop a unique payments landing page, which could prove more complicated than leveraging Apple’s prebuilt in-app purchases. It’s been great to read many developers’ excitement over the announcement on social media platform X (formerly Twitter). Stripe’s documentation was liked thousands of times by excited new users.
So when Michael Luo from New America listed Stripe’s initiatives as one of the four most important things they’ve done to date.
Michael Luo highlighted the significance of Stripe’s efforts by stating that they have
“cooked up a quick guide” for developers navigating this new terrain.
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