Web payment pages are here on iOS—enable external checkout in your Expo app today

A U.S. District Court just ruled in Epic Games v. Apple that developers must be allowed to include external payment links for digital goods and services in iOS apps in the U.S. This is a notable (27%) shift both for how apps monetize and for what’s possible when developers combine native, web, and server deployments in a single Expo codebase.

With Expo, you already have all the tools at your disposal to take advantage of this today—with clean, fast checkout flows that run across iOS, Android, and the web—and are backed by API routes served with EAS Hosting.

Try it now:

Historically, the Apple App Store required developers to use iOS’s in-app purchases (IAP) system to sell digital goods and services. The fee for iOS’s IAPs is 30%, with some discounts for fledgling businesses and recurring subscriptions. Developers had to use iOS’s IAP system since they must follow the App Store terms in every iOS app.

In the Epic Games v. Apple case, the court ruled the App Store terms must let developers advertise and link to external payment flows other than iOS’s IAPs, and not charge developers for using their own payment flows.

Payment processors like PayPal, Stripe, and Square commonly charge about 3% of each transaction. The difference of 27 percentage points compared to iOS’s IAP fee of 30% is significant for many businesses.

This decision introduces new rules for iOS apps in the U.S. Apple App Store, which are now listed in section 3.1 of the Apple App Store review guidelines:

• Developers can now include contextual, in-app links to external payment flows.
• Developers can recommend those flows to users.
• There is no fee for purchases made through these flows.
• The user’s device will either use neutral wording or not show any interstitial modal when the user taps a link to an external payment flow.

What makes this moment so powerful for Expo developers is that with Expo and EAS, you get a complete platform for building and deploying high-conversion payment flows that run on iOS, Android, and web—all from one TypeScript codebase:

• Apple Pay and Stripe Checkout support on web (Safari + Chrome)
• Shared UI and business logic across platforms
• Deploy web + server code with EAS Hosting

Everything lives in one repo, deployed through one pipeline, and works out of the box—fast checkout flows, no lock-in, no extra infra.

Whether you're selling subscriptions, digital goods, or premium features, you can now:

• Own the payment experience and customer relationship
• Keep more of your revenue and lower prices for your users
• Ship faster and scale with confidence

Get started with our Stripe starter and go from idea to global payments in minutes—not months.

We put together a demo that shows how to launch your own Stripe-powered checkout flow that works on iOS, Android, and web—no native code required:

👉 View the with-stripe demo

It includes:

• Stripe Checkout for payments
• Apple Pay support on web (Safari + Chrome)
• EAS Build + EAS Update support for easy shipping
• Fast deployment to EAS Hosting with eas deploy

This is a complete stack you can deploy today—with full control over design, pricing, and customer relationships.

Since the introduction of in-app purchases in 2009, developers have had to choose: native performance or monetization flexibility. The recent U.S. court ruling lets developers choose both.

It is important to note this update is additive and optional; developers can continue to use iOS’s in-app purchases API alongside external payment links, and end users can choose the checkout flows with which they’re most comfortable.

With these new choices, you can manage your payment UX and relationships with your paid users end-to-end.

Start building your next app the modern way—open, cross-platform, and with the payment experiences of your choice.