Last week, Google announced that Android apps selling digital goods to US customers can now process in-app payments using third-party payment providers. This follows a related change for iOS purchases: in May 2025, Apple updated its guidelines to allow apps to collect payments by linking out to external websites—enabling app developers to save up to 90% in processing fees. 

However, app stores have traditionally managed three key tasks: serving as merchant of record, delivering a high-converting in-app payments experience, and managing ongoing recurring charges and customer interactions. While some developers might be prepared to manage these activities on their own, others will need to find an alternative solution.

Since the iOS changes earlier this year, many customers have turned to Stripe to handle in-app purchases and meet each of the above needs by using multiple products: Managed Payments allows Stripe to act as your merchant of record instead of relying on an app store; Stripe's Optimized Checkout Suite supports in-app payments, with or without a web redirect; and Stripe Billing enables you to customize your app’s pricing models via subscriptions, usage-based billing, pay-as-you-go, or one-time charges. Together, these products help you create an on-brand, high-converting, in-app payments flow—without adding operational complexity. 

Here’s a closer look at our solutions for app developers.

Sell globally with Stripe as your merchant of record

Selling digital products such as SaaS, software, content, or downloads through third-party payment providers offers more flexibility and control. However, it also introduces new responsibilities that were previously handled by app stores.

Stripe’s Managed Payments is a merchant of record service that takes on the following for iOS and Android developers:

• Global tax compliance (VAT, GST, sales tax), including calculation, collection, and remittance 
• Fraud prevention and risk management 
• Disputes and chargebacks 
• Customer support and subscription management
• Faster payouts (five to seven days, compared to typical monthly schedules)

Managed Payments also lets your customers view purchase history and update or cancel subscriptions in a hosted portal. With Stripe handling these tasks on your behalf, you can focus on building apps—and keep more of your revenue.

Accept in-app payments on Android and iOS

The ability to accept payments in the UI of your choice means you can now fully control your in-app payments experience. But building secure, optimized payment flows from scratch requires significant engineering resources. Creating a mobile-optimized checkout that offers diverse payment methods and maintains your brand identity means navigating PCI compliance standards, implementing secure authentication, and continuously optimizing for different devices and customer preferences.

For Android developers, we've solved this with Payment Sheet—a prebuilt, native in-app solution you can present anywhere in your app. The sheet displays payment methods, express pay buttons, and confirmation options, while giving you access to more than 125 global payment methods. You can dynamically order and display these payment methods with built-in AI models, run A/B tests for new options, and customize the UI to match your app's design by modifying colors and fonts while maintaining a consistent layout. 

For iOS developers, there are even more considerations when processing payments. Since you can now redirect customers to the web, many developers worry about reduced conversion rates. We’ve been working to increase conversion rates with Stripe Checkout for app-to-web payments. This prebuilt, customizable payment page allows you to:

• Integrate a low-code, mobile-optimized UI that loads quickly on a mobile network
• Match the checkout page to your brand 
• Access built-in promotional capabilities and flexible subscription management
• Offer popular one-click payment methods 
• Maintain login state as customers move from app to web 
• Keep customers on track by saving cart items across redirects

You can enable app-to-web payments by adding one line of code to your Checkout integration.

Gain full control over pricing

Historically, developers have had to rely on an app store’s built-in system for managing pricing—selecting from predefined pricing tiers and lacking the ability to offer temporary discounts. Now that they can collect payments through Stripe, iOS and Android developers have the ability to fully control pricing. 

Stripe Billing allows you to easily support subscriptions, usage-based pricing, pay-as-you-go models, and one-time charges to match your business’s needs. You can also give customers a discounted introductory trial or subscriber discount if they upgrade from a monthly plan to an annual one. 

Stripe Billing also helps you maximize revenue and reduce churn with AI-powered Smart Retries and recovery workflow automations. Stripe recovery tools helped users recover over $6.5 billion in revenue in 2024

Helping developers reduce costs and increase conversion

We're already supporting app developers across a range of industries, including gaming, media and entertainment, and AI. We’re partnering with Unity, the world's leading platform for creating games and interactive experiences, to offer its developers a lower-cost alternative to app stores by using Stripe for payments and as their merchant of record. And Superwall, a paywall provider, has already seen its users’ trial conversion rates increase by 2x after switching to Stripe.

Learn more about how you can reduce fees and create an optimized checkout, or contact our team.