Free to Install app questions

[hthakkar1]

I'm planning on building a Shopify app that connects to our webapp.  The webapp charges a monthly fee, but the Shopify app would be free to install for any Shopify customers.  The Shopify app will be used as an integration point to pass data back and forth between our webapp and Shopify.

Based on the documentation I've read, I still have a couple questions that I haven't seen explicitly answered anywhere:

• Are free to install apps still subject to a revenue share?  In other words, does Shopify look to take a portion of my webapps monthly fee even if the Shopify app is being provided free of charge?
• If the app is always going to be free, do we need to do anything with the Billing API?  I would assume no given there are no charges to send, but the documentation still references getting an exception from Shopify for this setup.

[Visely-Team]

You might find this useful - https://community.shopify.com/c/Shopify-Apps/How-come-Recharge-App-is-doing-billing-outside-shopify-.... I'd suggest you reach out to Shopify team directly.

[hthakkar1]

Great, thank you - I assumed something like a rev share agreement would be required.  I will try and contact Shopify support about this, but so far all of my interactions with a Shopify agent have just resulted in them pointing me back to the documentation I've already read (which doesn't answer these questions).  

I will try again and report back.

[Josh]

Hey @hthakkar1 , 

I checked with our app store team about this to get a solid answer for you. 

In this case you would be expected to use our Billing API. Because you would essentially be using our app store to send yourself users, financial compensation would be expected. 

[hthakkar1]

Thanks for the follow up @Josh!  I appreciate the response because I contacted support again and they just told me to post to the forum.

We don't have any concerns with a revenue share, but I do have some specific questions on how we would go about implementing this given the app is free to install.  Is there anyone I'd be able to speak with via email or phone?

Some questions to start off:

 - If we use the Billing API, what are you expecting that we would pass to Shopify?  Is the expectation that we would move all of our billing into Shopify for anyone that uses the app?  Or is there some sort of other reconciliation process that happens offline?

 - I'd be curious to learn how Yotpo (https://apps.shopify.com/yotpo-social-reviews) is setup, as I would envision our pricing looking similar to what they have on their app profile page.

[Josh]

Hey again @hthakkar1 !

Definitely not a conversation I'm qualified to have, I'm afraid. 

If you've signed up for a partner account already, I would recommend using the 'Email support' option under the 'Support' tab in the sidebar. There's a topic available on the form that'll load that refers to rev share and payouts, that should get you in touch with the right people.

[hthakkar1]

Thanks, will try that and report back before closing out this thread.

[hthakkar1 · Accepted solution]

Wanted to circle back to this thread in case anyone has these questions in the future.  See below for the response I got back from the Partner support team.  Unfortunate on the need for billing API integration, but this does answer my questions.

All apps unless expressly permitted are currently using the Shopify billingAPI. As well as apps that _used_ to be API exempt have since been migrated onto the billingAPI. Occasionally some apps who migrated still have the listing showing `external charges apply`, these are simply out of date. For the most part the only apps that are exempt now a days are dropshipping/label printing etc. type apps. In your case you would need to use the billingAPI and any charges for the service would need to go through our API.

Essentially how you would be charging for your service now, you could continue to charge the same amounts but, any Shopify merchants who would be using the app, would need to be charged via the API.

All revenue sharing, regardless of the service an app provides is subject to a 20-80 split. We bill the merchants directly via their monthly invoice, collect the 20% and remit the remaining 80% to an app developer on a bi-weekly schedule, usually around the 15th and 30th of every month. For more details check out Shopify Partner revenue share .

If optional services are not provided via the app, no need to bill them through it. We do however discourage sending merchants to multiple websites for a service provided by one entity as it provides a disjointed experience for them.