How come Recharge App is doing billing outside shopify's billing API ?

[anujtenani]

Hello

Can anyone from shopify staff explain why Recharge Payments app is asking for my card information for activating trial. Aren't apps, only permitted to use shopify billing for charging monthly subscription fees ?

Link to the said app - https://apps.shopify.com/subscription-payments

[Nick]

Hi @anujtenani,

Nick here from Shopify. Great question!

I looked into this for you and with this particular app, it is a billing related app which has % fee's on top of each order made as it's a subscription app. Because of the % fee, it needs to be billed externally from Shopify.

 

This is also explained a little more below the app description which you can also see below:

I hope this helps and answers your question. 

All the best, Nick

[RahulRzp]

Hi, The application we are developing also has recurring % fee model with no monthly flat charges. We are going to keep the billing external but how should we implement the billing API for this application?

[Nick]

Hi @RahulRzp,

Good question. I'm not completely familiar with how API and billing with apps work exactly. Shopify does have a Billing API help document which you might find useful though. You can find it here. 

There is another helpful guide for charging for your app here as well as a more general App charges guide here. 

Hopefully, this helps answer some of your questions. 

[RahulRzp]

Hi Nick,

I looked through the documentation, the requirement is not covered here.
Would you be able to connect me with the right person in Shopify who can
answer this question. I found other apps as well which are free and have
external charge implemented.

https://apps.shopify.com/klaviyo-email-marketing
https://apps.shopify.com/printify

It seems like these apps have got some sort of permission from Shopify. If
that's the case then how do I go about getting the permission?

Regards,
Rahul

[Nick]

Hi @RahulRzp,

If for some reason it’s a charge that can’t be on the billing API (for example the products' the merchant's order through a drop shipping app, or when merchants purchase ads through an app) then Shopify initiates a rev share agreement. Something to remember is it can't be offered for free and hoard the money. Your best bet to ask someone about your eligibility for this is through partner support located in your partner dashboard. Those tickets would directly to the correct team you are looking to talk to about this. 

[apurbajnu]

You may apply through this form after being logged in to your partner account. 

https://partners.shopify.com/current/support/form?shpxid=26ed519a-209C-4460-6A35-037DB2A9BEF9

[sunandasharma22]

Looks like that link does not lead to anything.