Apple’s Decreased 15% Commission Rate on the App Store for Small Businesses Now Rolling Out

In November, Apple announced that it would be reducing the total commission it takes from small businesses making up to $1 million USD per year. Down from its standard 30% commission rate, small businesses eligible for Apple’s App Store Small Business Program will only be charged 15%. It now appears as though it is taking effect for some developers early.

Apple’s Small Business Program was set to take effect on January 1st, 2021. However, a few developers and app owners have noticed that the 15% commission rate is already being applied to their respective apps. The program invites all app developers to participate as it is open enrollment. For David Hodge, who works on Nikola, a third-party Tesla app, he has noticed the reduced rate has been implemented.

As reported by MacRumors, Hodge took to Twitter to show the decreased commission rate using the ChartMogul data dashboard.

The evidence in @Nikola_App data as seen in my @ChartMogul dashboard. $9.99/mo users are now providing proceeds of $8.50/mo (from $7/mo ) pic.twitter.com/pL8rbcLu0u

— David Hodge Coding (@HodgeCoding) December 24, 2020

Jacob Gorban of ImageFramer, a photo editing app, posted a similar reaction on Twitter. Showing the decreased rate, it appears as though for ImageFramer, Apple’s lower rate hit during the afternoon on December 24th.

Looks like the reduced Small Business App Store fee is now in effect. This is for our Mac app, ImageFramer. Time in UTC. 42.5/50 = 0.85. @mjtsai @OliverJHaslam @9to5mac @MacObserver pic.twitter.com/7LkaAQMhAR

— Jacob Gorban (@jacobgorban) December 24, 2020

Other smaller business developers have been vocal on social media including indie game developer for iOS BovioSoft Games. The studio posted an elated reaction to Apple cutting its commission rate in half.

Nice gift from Apple:15% comission now in effect! 🙂 #Apple #AppStore

— BovioSoft Games (@boviosoft) December 25, 2020

Apple has been facing criticism over its high commission rate for quite some time. It’s been the point of contention between Apple and Epic Games, who have formed a lawsuit against the iPhone maker over antitrust policies.

It still stands to reason that not all small businesses who’ve applied for the program will be enrolled early. It seems as though enrollment may trickle out to odd developers before hitting a more wide scale in the new year.