Apple In-App Purchase - clarification?

Question

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.

Answer 1

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

Answer 2

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.