Following a court ruling in May 2025, Apple changed its guidelines, allowing developers to link out of their apps to collect payments on external websites. This means that for the first time, you can use a web-based checkout for digital goods or services, saving up to 90% in purchasing fees and converting those fees into additional revenue for your business. A web-based checkout also offers more flexibility over pricing and promotions, closer relationships with your customers, better insights into your data, and the ability to meet customer expectations by providing additional ways to pay—such as buy now, pay later options—that are not supported with Apple’s In-App Purchase (IAP) system.

To capitalize on this opportunity, app developers tell us that they are exploring how to quickly move to a web-based checkout for iOS apps. However, they want to ensure they maintain customer conversion, even if they redirect customers outside of their app.

If you decide to pursue this route, Stripe can help. Stripe is a fully integrated suite of financial and payments products that allows you to manage the entire revenue lifecycle in one place. You can process payments, create customizable web-based checkout flows, launch new pricing models, automate global tax compliance, and access unified reporting.

Stripe has helped dozens of apps start processing external payments over the last few months, with many reporting double-digit savings on payment processing fees. In this guide, we’ve distilled our lessons learned along the way to help you create your own seamless payments experience in-app and on the web. These best practices will help you:

• Redirect purchases from in-app to the web in a compliant way
  
• Create a consistent user experience when redirecting between your app and the web
  
• Build a high-converting checkout
  
• Test which strategies work best for your customers
  
• Manage post-purchase activities such as taxes, refunds, and disputes
  

We’ll also cover how Stripe can help, and highlight how Stripe Checkout for app-to-web payments incorporates the best practices highlighted in this guide. Let’s dive in.

Best practices for creating an optimized web-based checkout

When creating a web-based checkout experience for your app payments, we recommend considering these best practices.

Redirect checkout from in-app to the web in a compliant way

• Link to an external browser: Developers who try to use a WebView in their app are unlikely to pass the iOS App Store’s review. Instead, make sure to redirect to an external browser to maintain compliance.
  
• Check your distribution country: Apple’s updated guidelines currently only apply to apps downloaded from the “United States storefront.” Use StoreKit’s “Storefront” property to detect which storefront your app was downloaded from. If your app is not in the US storefront, these guidelines may not apply.
  
• Use a prebuilt solution to ensure compliance with regulations: In addition to following Apple’s guidelines, it’s important to comply with applicable government, banking, and network regulations. These include security standards such as PCI, privacy rules such as the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), and disclosures required by banks and credit card companies. Your third-party payment processor should be able to provide guidance on all of these.
  

Create a consistent user experience when redirecting between your app and the web

• Keep product selection within your app: Let customers choose their products within your app, and only redirect to the web for payment. This preserves the familiar in-app experience and avoids sending customers through a traditional web cart, which can hurt conversion.
  
• Redirect to the web only at the time of payment: Only redirect customers to the web when it’s time to pay. This keeps your checkout flow consistent and simplifies any testing you might want to run on your checkout page, since you would be changing only one part of the flow.
  
• Preserve authentication during redirects: If a customer is signed in on your app, they should remain signed in on the web. For a smooth experience, implement a third-party authentication service—such as Sign in with Apple or Firebase Authentication—that generates short-lived tokens your app can pass via URL parameters. Without this, asking customers to log in again on the web creates unnecessary friction.
  
• Redirect customers back to your app automatically: Use universal links to bring customers back to your app after web checkout. Universal links work best on Safari; on Chrome, they open in the browser instead of redirecting to the app. If you want to use universal links on Chrome, make sure the first page after the redirect includes a button deep linking customers back to your app. In addition, always include the payment outcome in the link so your app can show the right screen. This dual approach with universal links supported and deep linking as a fallback ensures a reliable redirect.
  
• Ensure continuity when redirecting to the web: Customers might be surprised when your app redirects to a browser instead of opening Apple Pay in the app. To help them understand that the redirect is intentional, consider adding a redirect icon or message in your app, and prominently place your app logo, name, and a product image on your web checkout page.
  

Build a high-converting checkout

• Design your web checkout for a cohesive look: Rather than designing a responsive web page with generic web forms, build a web page that feels cohesive with your app experience. You can match the background color, fonts, and CTA colors of your apps.
  
• Lead with Apple Pay on the web-based checkout: Customers are used to paying with Apple Pay in your app, so prominently highlight that same payment method on the web to help increase conversion.
  
• Surface saved and popular payment methods on the web-based checkout: One advantage of a web-based checkout is the ability to offer more payment options. If a customer doesn’t use Apple Pay, displaying saved payment methods, such as cards on file, and other popular options—such as Cash App Pay, Link (Stripe’s digital wallet), or buy now, pay later—can help improve conversion rates.
  
• Consider building for landscape on the web: If your app supports landscape orientation, help maintain a consistent customer experience by also ensuring your web-based checkout can support landscape.
  
• Include promotional codes and upsells on the web: Even if customers select their products in your app, the web checkout is a great place to offer additional value. By redirecting to the web, you can now allow customers to enter promotional codes or upgrade to a higher subscription tier during checkout. These small enhancements can increase conversion and average order value.
  

Test which strategies work best for your customers

• Test with new customers first: Start by A/B testing your web-based checkout with new customers, redirecting a portion of them to an external web page while you monitor key business metrics. Once you’re happy with performance, consider prompting existing customers to purchase on the web.
  
• Choose the right payment strategy: With Apple’s updated guidelines, you’re no longer required to offer Apple’s IAP system. Developers have seen success with different strategies:
  
  • Offer both IAP and web checkout: Some developers offer both options, sometimes offering a discount for choosing the web to encourage cost-effective transactions.
    
  • Web-only checkout: Other developers remove IAP entirely and only accept payments through the web for maximum savings on fees.
    
• Plan for existing subscriptions: Apple does not allow exporting of IAP payment data, so you can’t automatically migrate active subscriptions to third-party providers such as Stripe. To transition customers, consider prompting them to resubscribe via your web checkout after their current in-app subscription ends, rather than offering a renewal option in-app.
  

Manage your customer journey post-purchase

• Offer subscription management on the web: If you’re selling subscriptions, it’s important to provide customers with a way to manage them outside the app. A common pattern is to show the subscription tier in the app and include a button that links to a web-based subscription management portal. Ideally, the web portal you build allows customers to change their payment method, as well as cancel or upgrade their subscription. This not only improves the customer experience, but it also reduces support requests.
  
• Prepare for taxes, disputes, and refunds: When using Apple’s IAP system, Apple is the merchant of record, handling taxes, refunds, and disputes. When you transition to web-based payments, your business becomes the merchant of record and assumes these responsibilities, or you can use a payments provider that also operates as the merchant of record for your business. Look for a payments provider that can manage the following on your behalf:
  
  • Global tax compliance: Calculating, collecting, and remitting the correct taxes across multiple jurisdictions
    
  • Fraud management: Implementing systems to detect and prevent fraudulent transactions
    
  • Dispute resolution: Responding to and managing customer disputes and chargebacks
    
  • Financial liabilities: Taking on legal and financial responsibilities for every transaction
    
  • Customer support: Handling payment-related inquiries and refund requests
    

If your company already manages web payments, you might have these systems in place. If not, consider a solution such as Stripe Managed Payments, which acts as your merchant of record.

How Stripe can help you take advantage of this opportunity

Implementing all these best practices can be daunting, especially if you need to replace the comprehensive infrastructure Apple previously provided. Stripe offers a holistic solution that helps you make the transition to web-based payments quickly and with confidence:

• Stripe Checkout for app-to-web payments: A prebuilt, highly customizable payment page designed for accepting app-to-web payments.
  
• Stripe Managed Payments: Our merchant of record solution uses Link to manage all of the complexity involved in operating as the merchant of record. Stripe handles the behind-the-scenes intricacies, such as global tax compliance, dispute management, fraud prevention, and customer support, for you—maintaining the operational simplicity you’re accustomed to.
  
• Stripe Billing: Manage and bill customers however you want. Stripe supports recurring, usage-based billing and negotiated contracts to automate your revenue management workflows. Stripe also supports online subscription management with a dedicated customer portal.
  

Here’s more detail on each of these solutions:

Stripe Checkout for app-to-web payments

With Checkout, you can create a seamless and trusted checkout experience that feels native to your app while unlocking greater flexibility, control, and payment method coverage on the web. Stripe Checkout for app-to-web payments is a prebuilt, highly customizable payment page designed specifically for mobile apps. It helps you implement best practices right away and handles many of the best practices covered in this guide.

It features a mobile-optimized UI tailored for app users, along with secure authentication and redirect handling to ensure a smooth flow from your app to the web. Stripe Checkout also includes built-in support for promo codes and subscription upgrades, enabling more flexible and conversion-friendly purchasing options.

With support for more than 75 global payment methods—including Apple Pay, Link, and Cash App Pay—Checkout allows you to meet customer preferences across geographies. Returning customers benefit from saved payment methods, which speed up the checkout process and boost repeat conversions.

Stripe Checkout also enables global privacy, security, and network compliance, and automatically manages cart state, authentication, and redirects. It supports both one-time and subscription billing models, and it comes with a prebuilt billing portal, allowing customers to manage their subscriptions on the web.

All of this is backed by Stripe’s powerful billing and tax engines, giving you global tax compliance and reliable recurring billing that are ready to use. With Checkout, you can start accepting web payments in just a few days—without having to build everything from scratch.

Stripe Managed Payments

Selling digital products such as SaaS, software, content, or downloads through web payments offers more flexibility and control. But it also introduces new responsibilities that were previously handled by Apple, such as tax compliance and customer support.

Stripe Managed Payments is a merchant of record solution that handles these complexities for you, so you can simplify your operations while expanding your reach.

A merchant of record is the legal entity responsible for selling products to customers. When you use Managed Payments, Stripe becomes the merchant of record on your behalf—taking on the key responsibilities associated with digital sales. This includes:

• Global tax compliance (VAT, GST, sales tax), including calculation, collection, and remittance
  
• Fraud prevention and risk management
  
• Dispute and chargeback handling
  
• Customer support and subscription management
  

Stripe Managed Payments supports your customers with a Link-branded customer portal. If your customers use Link, they can view their purchase history, manage payment methods, and update or cancel subscriptions. Additionally, Managed Payments includes transaction-level customer support through Link. By handling these complex tasks, Stripe allows you to retain the operational simplicity provided through in-app purchases, while giving you the flexibility and control of web-based payments.

For businesses that want to offload the operational burden of selling digital products globally, Managed Payments is the fastest path forward. It enables you to go to market quickly without building intricate backend systems, while offering a seamless app-to-web checkout experience. With built-in compliance for global tax regulations, you can focus on growing your business without needing to become your own merchant of record.

Stripe Billing

Now that you can collect payments through an external website, you have the ability to fully control pricing. Stripe Billing allows you to easily customize pricing models such as subscriptions, usage-based, pay-as-you-go, or one-time charges to match your business needs.

If you do not use Stripe’s Managed Payments but are using Billing, your customers can easily manage their subscriptions on the web using Stripe’s customer portal. This portal lets customers self-manage their payment details, view invoices, and update subscriptions—all in one convenient place. If you use Managed Payments, a comprehensive subscription management experience is automatically included as part of the service.

You can also give customers a discounted introductory rate, so they can try your product without paying full price, or you can give subscribers a 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 $3.4 billion in revenue in 2023.

Other benefits of using Stripe

Offer a fast checkout with Link

With Link, a wallet built by Stripe, you can maintain a fast, frictionless payments experience by autofilling customers’ payment information—enabling them to check out in seconds. In fact, customers using Link check out three times faster than non-Link customers.

Reduce processing cost with Instant Bank Payments

In addition to a faster checkout, you can also save on payment processing with Instant Bank Payments through Link. With Instant Bank Payments, your customers can check out with Link and pay with their US bank account in just a few clicks. Payments are then confirmed instantly, and they settle in two business days—just like card payments—with Stripe guaranteeing the risk of bank-initiated returns.

Instantly transfer funds to your bank account or debit card

Access to cash is a challenge for all businesses, but it can be particularly hard for app developers who have to wait at least 30 days to access their earnings. This lack of cash flow can limit your ability to scale your app, making it harder to invest in new marketing campaigns or features. Stripe’s Instant Payouts solves this challenge by allowing you to transfer funds to an eligible debit card or bank account within minutes of a transaction. You can request an Instant Payout any day or time, including weekends and holidays, and funds typically arrive in the associated bank account within 30 minutes.

For more information about how Stripe can help you create a web-based checkout, read our guide or contact our sales team. To start accepting payments right away, sign up for an account.