The App Store Small Business Program.
Apple's reduced 15% commission for indie developers, and how to set up the subscriptions and pricing that make the most of it.
The App Store Small Business Program lowers Apple's commission from 30% to 15% on paid apps and in-app purchases, including subscriptions, for developers earning up to one million US dollars in proceeds per year. For almost every indie developer that is free money left on the table until you enroll, and enrolling is not automatic.
Who qualifies for the 15% commission
Two groups: existing developers whose proceeds across all their apps and associated accounts were up to one million dollars in the prior calendar year, and developers new to the App Store. That covers the overwhelming majority of indie developers and small studios. Proceeds means your share after commission, so the ceiling is generous. If you cross a million in a year, the standard rate applies for the rest of it, and you can re-qualify the year after if you drop back below.
How the program interacts with your subscriptions
The reduced rate matters most where indie revenue actually lives: subscriptions. Under Apple's standard terms a subscription is charged 30% for a subscriber's first year and 15% after. The Small Business Program gives you 15% from day one, so its biggest effect lands on first-year subscribers, which for a growing app is most of them. To benefit, your subscription products have to exist and be priced correctly in App Store Connect in the first place, which is exactly the setup most starter kits leave you to do by hand.
Where Spaceport comes in
Spaceport generates a production-ready SwiftUI Xcode project with RevenueCat subscriptions and a paywall already wired up, and it creates your subscription products and prices them across 25 App Store markets through the App Store Connect and RevenueCat APIs. So once you enroll in the Small Business Program, the 15% rate applies to subscriptions that are already set up and priced sensibly in every market, not just your home one. The commission is the easy 50% of your take; the pricing is the other half, and Spaceport handles both sides of it.
For the full walkthrough, eligibility details, the exact 15% versus 30% math, how to enroll, the associated-accounts rule, and the EU terms, read the complete App Store Small Business Program guide. For how the pricing side works, see App Store subscription pricing across 25 countries.