# Web checkout only vs in-app purchase: 18.1% vs 27.0% conversion

- Outcome: Lost
- Page type: Paywall (App)
- Date shared: 2025-05
- Test run by: [RevenueCat](https://liftarchive.com/practitioners/revenuecat/)
- Commentary by: LiftArchive (our analysis, not theirs)
- Original source: https://www.revenuecat.com/blog/growth/iap-vs-web-purchases-conversion-test/
- Page: https://liftarchive.com/test/dipsea-web-only-vs-iap-paywall/

Sending every paywall button to a web checkout cut initial conversion (trial or subscription start) from 27.0% to 18.1% compared with Apple in-app purchase. RevenueCat ran the test on Dipsea, the audio stories app it owns, and published it on the RevenueCat blog. Even after the 30% store fee, proceeds per user were lower on web: about $1.96 vs $2.09.

## Result

**27.0% → 18.1% initial conversion**

- Initial conversion: 27.0% to 18.1%, about one-third fewer trial or subscription starts.
- Most of the loss came after the tap: about 71% of IAP taps became purchases vs 44% of web taps.
- Trial-to-paid: slightly higher on web, 26.3% vs 25.0%. Not enough to close the gap.
- Conversion to paying: 6.3% to 5.3% (198 vs 166 paid customers).
- Proceeds per user: about $2.09 vs $1.96 at a 30% store fee, and $2.53 vs $1.96 at 15%.

## Control

A pixel-for-pixel clone of Dipsea's native paywall, with Apple in-app purchase only.

## Variant

The same paywall, but every subscribe button opened a web checkout in the browser. There was no in-app purchase option, which Dipsea could do under Apple's reader app exemption.

## Why it likely lost (our reading)

- Leaving the app for a browser and a payment form adds steps where users give up.
- One-tap in-app purchase is familiar and trusted; a sudden browser hand-off may surprise users.
- Extra friction may filter out less committed users, which fits the slightly better trial-to-paid on web.
- Avoiding the store fee only pays off if web keeps most of the conversions, and here it did not.

## Caveats

About 3,100 new US iOS users per variant over about three weeks, in a single app. RevenueCat sells the web billing product tested, though here the result went against web.

## How to run this test

- Hypothesis: If we send paywall buttons to a web checkout instead of in-app purchase, then proceeds per user will rise, because we avoid the store fee, as long as conversion does not drop too far.
- Primary metric: Net proceeds per new user after store and payment fees
- Guardrail: Initial conversion rate
- Guardrail: Trial-to-paid conversion
- Guardrail: Renewal and refund rates
- Who should test it: Large US apps paying Apple the full 30% fee and allowed to link out. Apps in the Small Business Program (15% fee) will likely lose money, as the 15% math here shows.

---

Credit: RevenueCat ran this test and owns the result. Summary and commentary by LiftArchive (https://liftarchive.com/test/dipsea-web-only-vs-iap-paywall/).
Usage: Free to use, quote and build on, with credit and a link: name the practitioner or organization that ran the test and link to its LiftArchive page. The results belong to the practitioners who ran and shared them; the summaries and commentary are LiftArchive's.