AppStore direct purchase of Pro Version

Moritz's Avatar

Moritz

19 Sep, 2017 08:10 AM

I like the Mac App Store mainly because licensing is handled in a very convenient manner for the customer. However I prefer direct puchases of paid software instead of In-App-Purchases for various reasons:

- If the developer chooses to offer it, Family Sharing is available which is not the case for in-App-Purchases
- through the use of homebrew, casks and mas etc. I have created an install script for myself which downloads all required applications on a new machine enabling me to quickly get going on a clean install. I would imagine that this kind of deployment could be used by enterprises as well though. While I can start working with all paid apps (wo in-app-purchases) without any further steps, in-app-purchases often require to search for some kind of "restore in-app-purchases button" which is ok for one single application but annoying when you have to do it for a lot of them.

Do you think it would be an option to offer an direct purchase in the MAS?

  1. Support Staff 1 Posted by fletcher on 19 Sep, 2017 02:19 PM

    fletcher's Avatar

    My original plan was direct purchases, but there are a couple of issues:

    1. There is no way to offer a discount to Standard owners who decide to
    "Go Pro". With IAP, it is not more expensive to go
    "Free->Standard->Pro" in multiple steps.

    2. Apple actively pushes developers towards IAP rather than having
    multiple versions of the App. The smaller app I released a few months
    ago (MMD Converter) was originally going to have three versions (HTML
    only, EPUB only, and PRO that offers any export format supported by
    MMD). Apple rejected them for "Spam" since there were "three similar
    apps".

    3. Having three separate versions of the app "waters-down" the ratings,
    which, unfortunately, is a major way that new customers make a buying
    decision. I might be able to get away with 2 versions (e.g. current and
    Pro-Only) but probably won't do 3 (e.g. current, standard-only, and
    Pro-only).

    My thoughts:

    1. Once things settle down with the App, I can try to submit a separate
    "Pro from the Start" version to the App Store and hope it gets approved.
      They may be more likely to approve a successful app than a brand new
    app. Especially if I mention your reasoning

    2. I am considering selling outside of the MAS in the future, but that
    will bring a whole different set of headaches (mostly for me, but
    potentially some for customers).

    I do not have a timeline on this.

    F-

  2. fletcher closed this discussion on 31 Oct, 2017 08:25 PM.

Comments are currently closed for this discussion. You can start a new one.

Keyboard shortcuts

Generic

? Show this help
ESC Blurs the current field

Comment Form

r Focus the comment reply box
^ + ↩ Submit the comment

You can use Command ⌘ instead of Control ^ on Mac

Recent Discussions

11 Dec, 2022 09:57 PM
11 Dec, 2022 07:57 PM
26 Sep, 2022 02:40 AM
21 Jul, 2022 10:22 AM
11 Jan, 2022 02:33 PM

Recent Articles