Custom apps & billing

Grant9
Shopify Partner
7 0 0

Any reason why the Billing API is disabled for custom apps? Or has there just not been a use-case where it was considered a viable requirement?

I built an [custom] application for a customer and the app utilises S3, AWS CloudFront among other things which cost me money to host. I thought I could pass the costs via the Billing API; to my chagrin I couldn't get the app to work for billing, until I figured out finally that the Billing API was specifically disabled for custom apps.

Would the solution be to copy the app out into a public app, lodge it for approval as an unlisted public app & then have the customer install the app?
Seems convoluted. Also seems like I'd hit a hurdle where reviewers would point out that a better alternative would be a custom app.

Is there an alternative method to level an arbitrary billing event?

Replies 2 (2)

davlucmac
Visitor
1 0 0

Hi Grant! 

What was your solution here?

We're running into exactly the same issue. It seems like we're supposed to use custom apps for something unique to a merchant store (including pricing terms), but we are not given access to the Billing API. Similarly, Shopify makes it very clear that all transactions should flow through their Billing API. 

Is the only solution a public app that's unlisted?? 

 

ski_power
Shopify Partner
9 2 1

It is practically the end of 2022, and I am facing the same issue. Trying to run a mutation appCreateSubscription returns a confirmationUrl value of NULL. I am fairly certain this means that we don't have Billing API for custom apps yet - only public apps.