Shopify's Billing API for Free to install Apps

[Snx]

I have an app published in https://apps.shopify.com/

My app is: Free to install

I received an email from a partner manager for the Shopify App Store and he tells me that the company to which the app belongs has not been using Shopify's Billing API and this is actually a violation of the Partner Agreement.

My question is:
What kind of billing do I have to use, if my app is: Free to install

One option that I can use is:

https://help.shopify.com/en/api/reference/billing/applicationcharge

But The price of the application charge is:

minimum price is 0.50, and maximum price is 10,000.

We do not want to charge the minimum that is 0.50, because our app is free and we have 2,249 installs

Another option is try setting the "test" flag to true in the application charge payload

But none of these options convinces us

Does anyone know another option to solve this?

[KarlOffenberger]

Hi Snx

That is weird - in their FAQ they state you must implement Shopify's Billing API if your app is not free and that you cannot use alternative payment methods for your app.

Sorry, can't be of more help but would be very curious what @Shopify have to say to this.

[KarlOffenberger]

Just had a look at the Billing API docs. Try to switch to RecurringApplicationCharge which does allow 0.00 price according to documentation.

To charge only usage-based fees, without a recurring monthly fee, first create a recurring application charge with a price of $0.00

See Charging for usage only though in your case you wouldn't charge for usage either.

If that doesn't work out, try the trial_days and trial_ends_on properties and set them real high, fiddle around to see what values Shopify lets you put in there.

Haven't tried these myself so here's hoping it works out for you and you report back with a solution 😉