Creator platform Patreon challenges Apple’s new order forcing all creators to switch to a subscription fee model, which now has a new transition deadline of November 1, 2026.
While the following changes will only affect the 4% of creators that still use Patreon’s legacy billing models, the company’s announcement highlighted that Apple’s lack of consistency regarding its changing terms has made it difficult for creators to build healthy, long-term businesses.
What Patreon is referring to is the order Apple announced in 2024 regarding subscription fee changes. He said Patreon must move all its creators to subscription fees using Apple’s in-app purchase system by November 2025, or Patreon would risk being removed from the App Store. Apple made this decision because Patreon managed to charge a percentage of creators’ subscriptions, and the tech giant felt that this violated its App Store commission structure.
To Apple’s credit, Patreon has had plenty of time to transition its customers to Apple’s in-app purchases.
The company said it would switch creators to the subscription fee in November 2024, and creators could choose whether to raise their subscription prices to cover Apple’s fees. Additionally, creators could choose to delay the changes until November 2025 if they needed more time. However, they would not be able to offer in-app subscriptions until they adopt Apple’s in-app purchases.
Last May, Patreon took advantage of newly relaxed App Store guidelines resulting from the US court ruling in Epic v. Apple to offer creators the ability to process web payments from links in the Patreon app. At the time, Patreon told creators that the November 2025 deadline no longer applied. This gave creators even more time to decide what to do with their subscription businesses.
The company now says its decision to halt the transition for its creators may have added to the confusion given that Apple is now reimposing a transition deadline of November 2026.
While Patreon complies with Apple’s decision, it’s clearly uncomfortable with the idea that the tech giant should have a say in how creators run their businesses.
“We strongly disagree with this decision,” his blog post reads.
“Creators need consistency and clarity to build healthy, long-term businesses. Instead, creators using legacy billing will now have to bear the brunt of another policy reversal — the third such change from Apple in the past 18 months. Over the years, we’ve proposed many tools and features to Apple that we could build to allow their own support creators to use more time. Unfortunately, Apple has consistently denied them,” he says.
Creators can read more about the transition plan at Patreon website. It has also created many tools to support these changes, such as a benefit eligibility tool to see who has paid or is about to pay, tier repricing toolsand gift and discount tools that offer payment flexibility. An option for annual subscriptions will also be introduced before November 2026.
