It feels weird to include Substack’s involvement at all. It’s entirely on Apple. Even if you completely self hosted your own pay walled blog, you’d still have to follow iOS’s rules, including...
The risk that I’ve long warned about — getting locked into Substack — now unfolds into being locked into two platforms: Substack and Apple. (As Isabelle put it, Substack has effectively delivered its users onto Apple.
It feels weird to include Substack’s involvement at all. It’s entirely on Apple. Even if you completely self hosted your own pay walled blog, you’d still have to follow iOS’s rules, including using Apple’s payment systems and the cut.
They signed for this mess the moment they decided to release an iOS app, which is totally avoidable for a newsletter service. (Also, an app made mainly to lock-in readers and publishers into...
They signed for this mess the moment they decided to release an iOS app, which is totally avoidable for a newsletter service. (Also, an app made mainly to lock-in readers and publishers into Substack social media, non-newsletter extras.)
Apple requires it for any app selling digital content. We previously offered IAP as an opt-in feature, but Apple is now enforcing full compliance, so we must make IAP available for all paid publications.
The Epic Games v. Apple case changed this. There's a lot to this case (and it's still going through appeals), but here's where the ruling sits for now:
Even if you completely self hosted your own pay walled blog, you’d still have to follow iOS’s rules, including using Apple’s payment systems and the cut.
The Epic Games v. Apple case changed this. There's a lot to this case (and it's still going through appeals), but here's where the ruling sits for now:
While Apple implemented App Store policies to allow developers to link to alternative payment options, the policies still required the developer to provide a 27% revenue share back to Apple, and heavily restricted how they could be shown in apps. Epic filed complaints that these changes violated the ruling, and in April 2025 Rogers found for Epic that Apple had willfully violated her injunction, placing further restrictions on Apple including banning them from collecting revenue shares from non-Apple payment methods or imposing any restrictions on links to such alternative payment options.
Did you read the article? The author already mentions this. With the context of said article, I'm talking about jurisdictions outside of the US.
Did you read the article? The author already mentions this.
Substack relied on a loophole created by the recent Epic Games ruling in the US to make its iOS app compliant with App Store rules, giving iOS users the (default) option to subscribe via the web and avoid Apple’s fee.
The problem is that this exception applies only to the United States.
With the context of said article, I'm talking about jurisdictions outside of the US.
I am not in this world (monetized thoughts, blogs, newsletters) but for those who are there seems to be a bigger emphasis on no longer being able to export your subscribers' billing if they...
I am not in this world (monetized thoughts, blogs, newsletters) but for those who are there seems to be a bigger emphasis on no longer being able to export your subscribers' billing if they subscribe with Apple. You do still get their email which means you have a chance to reach out to invite them to a new platform but that feels precarious: do they see the email, are they willing to enter payment information somewhere else (better support Apple Pay!), do they even remember your name?
Any friction in managing a subscription means increased risk of loss of that subscription so I understand the value of a smooth process to take your customers' billing info with you if you decide to publish somewhere other than Substack. Although it may be locked into Stripe which is a different issue but I suspect Stripe is harder to escape than a specific publishing platform.
Anyone here publishing and have experience moving platforms and how bad this could be for those wanting to leave Substack? And whether it might be worth it compared to the low-friction in-app subscription path for Apple users?
I was wondering how this worked previously. It seems that when authors set up billing, they create a Stripe account. They can migrate away from Substack while still using the same Stripe account,...
I was wondering how this worked previously. It seems that when authors set up billing, they create a Stripe account. They can migrate away from Substack while still using the same Stripe account, so they can still charge people.
It looks like you’re not locked into Substack, but you’re still locked into using Stripe for collecting the money from subscribers?
From the first link, apparently each paid subscriber has a Stripe ID and copying that over is what allows them to continue to charge that subscriber. It looks like the migration is a real mess if...
From the first link, apparently each paid subscriber has a Stripe ID and copying that over is what allows them to continue to charge that subscriber.
It looks like the migration is a real mess if you have multiple subscription tiers and subscribers who pay in different currencies. But at least it’s possible.
It feels weird to include Substack’s involvement at all. It’s entirely on Apple. Even if you completely self hosted your own pay walled blog, you’d still have to follow iOS’s rules, including using Apple’s payment systems and the cut.
They signed for this mess the moment they decided to release an iOS app, which is totally avoidable for a newsletter service. (Also, an app made mainly to lock-in readers and publishers into Substack social media, non-newsletter extras.)
They could have continued as they did before, with an iOS app that doesn’t support Apple payments. But I guess the money was too good to pass it up.
Yeah… from Substack's FAQ:
The Epic Games v. Apple case changed this. There's a lot to this case (and it's still going through appeals), but here's where the ruling sits for now:
Did you read the article? The author already mentions this.
With the context of said article, I'm talking about jurisdictions outside of the US.
I am not in this world (monetized thoughts, blogs, newsletters) but for those who are there seems to be a bigger emphasis on no longer being able to export your subscribers' billing if they subscribe with Apple. You do still get their email which means you have a chance to reach out to invite them to a new platform but that feels precarious: do they see the email, are they willing to enter payment information somewhere else (better support Apple Pay!), do they even remember your name?
Any friction in managing a subscription means increased risk of loss of that subscription so I understand the value of a smooth process to take your customers' billing info with you if you decide to publish somewhere other than Substack. Although it may be locked into Stripe which is a different issue but I suspect Stripe is harder to escape than a specific publishing platform.
Anyone here publishing and have experience moving platforms and how bad this could be for those wanting to leave Substack? And whether it might be worth it compared to the low-friction in-app subscription path for Apple users?
I was wondering how this worked previously. It seems that when authors set up billing, they create a Stripe account. They can migrate away from Substack while still using the same Stripe account, so they can still charge people.
It looks like you’re not locked into Substack, but you’re still locked into using Stripe for collecting the money from subscribers?
Yeap! You can move paid subscriptions other than Apple's in-app system. They are based on Stripe. Molly White has a good write-up about it: https://www.citationneeded.news/substack-to-self-hosted-ghost/
Related: https://leavesubstack.com/
From the first link, apparently each paid subscriber has a Stripe ID and copying that over is what allows them to continue to charge that subscriber.
It looks like the migration is a real mess if you have multiple subscription tiers and subscribers who pay in different currencies. But at least it’s possible.