PATREON CHANGED ITS IPHONE PAYMENT SYSTEM BECAUSE APPLE'S RULES CHANGED THE ECONOMICS
For creators, the same $10 subscription could suddenly be worth a very different amount depending on where the fan bought it.
Patreon was built around a simple idea:
Creators make something. Fans pay them directly.
But once those payments started happening inside an iPhone app, another company entered the transaction.
Apple.
And Apple's App Store rules changed the economics of Patreon memberships.
PATREON DIDN'T ORIGINALLY NEED APPLE TO PROCESS THE MEMBERSHIP
For years, Patreon could send fans through its own payment system rather than Apple's in-app purchasing system.
That meant a creator could have a $10 monthly membership and Patreon could process the payment through its own infrastructure.
Apple wasn't taking its App Store percentage from that transaction.
Then Apple's rules changed.
In 2024, Apple required Patreon to move new digital purchases made inside the iOS app to Apple's In-App Purchase system if Patreon wanted to remain on the App Store.
Patreon began applying the system to digital products in January 2024.
New memberships followed in November 2024.
THE 30% PROBLEM
Apple's standard App Store fee for these Patreon iOS purchases is 30%.
So imagine a fan buys a:
$10/month Patreon membership
through Apple's in-app payment system.
Before other Patreon fees, roughly:
$10 → Apple takes $3 → $7 remains
That creates a problem.
The creator may have expected the economics of a $10 membership.
But the same fan buying through an iPhone could generate substantially less after Apple's fee.
And Patreon still has its own platform fee.
PATREON HAD TWO CHOICES
Patreon didn't simply have to accept the lower earnings.
It gave creators a choice.
OPTION 1
Raise the iPhone price.
The creator could let Patreon increase the iOS price so that, after Apple's 30% fee, the creator would receive approximately the same amount as from a web purchase.
To fully offset a 30% fee, the price needs to rise by about 42.86%.
So:
$10 web price
could become approximately:
$14.29 on iOS
before considering other applicable fees.
Patreon made this higher-price approach the default for creators who wanted to maintain their earnings.
OPTION 2
The creator could keep the same price.
For example:
Web: $10
iPhone: $10
But then the creator absorbs Apple's fee.
The fan sees a simpler price.
The creator receives less from that particular transaction.
So the decision became a business calculation:
Higher price → protect creator revenue
or
Same price → protect price consistency
THEN THE APP STARTED HAVING DIFFERENT ECONOMICS
This created something unusual.
The same Patreon membership could effectively have different economics depending on where the customer purchased it.
A creator could have:
Desktop
$10
↓
Android
$10
↓
iPhone
$14.29
if the creator chose to offset Apple's fee.
Patreon explicitly says prices may differ across platforms when creators choose to maintain their earnings.
BUT THERE WAS ANOTHER COMPLICATION
The rules aren't identical everywhere.
For U.S. iPhone users, Patreon says fans can use Patreon’s mobile web checkout instead of Apple's in-app purchase flow.
That avoids Apple's App Store fee.
For international fans, purchases made through the Patreon iOS app generally have to use Apple's in-app purchasing system.
That means the economics can depend on:
Creator → fan → country → device → payment method
not simply:
Creator → Patreon
EXISTING MEMBERS WEREN'T SIMPLY MOVED TO THE NEW FEE
There was another important distinction.
Apple's fee applied to new memberships purchased through the Patreon iOS app after November 4, 2024.
Existing memberships were not retroactively subjected to the new App Store fee.
So Patreon didn't suddenly take an existing creator's entire membership base and change every payment.
The change primarily affected new iOS purchases.
APPLE'S CUT CAN ALSO FALL LATER
The economics aren't necessarily 30% forever.
Patreon says Apple reduces its App Store fee from 30% to 15% after a member completes one year of continuous billing on an eligible subscription.
Patreon says it passes that lower fee saving through to creators after the subscription passes one year.
So a subscription can effectively have different economics at:
Month 1
↓
Month 12+
The longer the customer stays, the different the payment economics can become.
WHY PATREON COULDN'T JUST IGNORE IT
This wasn't simply Patreon choosing a new payment provider.
Apple's requirement was tied to remaining available in the App Store.
Patreon said it had to adopt Apple's in-app purchasing system for purchases made through the iOS app.
So the decision wasn't:
"Which payment processor do we prefer?"
It was closer to:
"How do we keep the iPhone app while preserving as much of the creator economy as possible?"
A $10 SUBSCRIPTION BECAME A PLATFORM ECONOMICS PROBLEM
This is the part most users never see.
A customer might think:
"I'm paying $10 for a Patreon."
But behind that $10 are several different businesses:
Fan
↓
Apple
↓
Patreon
↓
Creator
And each platform can have its own fee, cost or economic incentive.
The creator isn't necessarily receiving the amount the customer sees on the screen.
THIS IS WHY DISTRIBUTION MATTERS
Patreon owns the membership platform.
But Apple controls the rules for distributing apps through the iPhone App Store.
That creates an important business relationship:
Patreon needs Apple for access to iPhone users.
Apple controls the payment rules inside its ecosystem.
Creators depend on Patreon for their membership infrastructure.
Fans ultimately pay the bill.
A change in one layer can therefore change the economics of the entire chain.
PATREON ALSO HAD TO CHANGE BILLING FOR SOME CREATORS
Apple's system doesn't support every Patreon billing model.
Patreon says creators still using legacy billing models must move to subscription billing by November 1, 2026 to continue being purchasable through the iOS app for international fans.
That means Apple's rules can influence not only how much creators earn, but also how their memberships are structured.
THE BIGGER BUSINESS LESSON
This is bigger than Patreon.
Whenever a business depends on another company's platform, the platform owner can influence the economics.
A creator can own:
But the transaction can still pass through another company's infrastructure.
And when that infrastructure changes its rules, the creator's business model may have to change too.
That's why platforms aren't just distribution channels.
They are economic infrastructure.
MAACAT PERSPECTIVE
Patreon's problem wasn't simply that Apple charged 30%.
The interesting part was what happened after the fee entered the system.
A subscription that looked identical to the customer could suddenly have different economics depending on whether it was purchased on the web or through an iPhone.
That is a powerful business lesson:
The price of a product isn't the whole business model.
You also have to ask:
Who processes the payment?
Who controls the platform?
Who takes a percentage?
Who can change the rules?
Because sometimes the company making the product isn't the company controlling the transaction.
