Hi All,
We’ve got an app in the submission process. The reviewer informed us that:
For your app’s setup, using the Billing API is the required path forward. We understand you have questions about how to distinguish pass-through funds from your app’s revenue.
That being said, after doing a bunch of reading and trying to find a way to do this, we have not had any success. Even ChatGPT supports our findings:
You cannot exclude revenue from revshare if it’s billed through Shopify’s Billing API. Shopify enforces the share automatically.
If you have revenue that should not be subject to Shopify’s revenue share (e.g., off-platform services, agency fees, or products not governed by Shopify’s Partner Program), you must bill those merchants outside of the Shopify Billing API — for example, directly via Stripe, PayPal, or another payment provider.
Examples:
-
Subject to revshare: app subscription fees, usage fees, features billed inside Shopify.
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Not subject to revshare: off-platform consulting services, physical goods your business sells, separate SaaS tools not integrated as a Shopify App (if not billed through Shopify).
Shopify states in their Partner Program Agreement that any billing done via the Billing API falls under revshare. There’s no API-level way to “flag” or “exclude” charges.
All this being said, here’s what we’re trying to do, maybe someone has solved this:
- When a merchant installs our app, they get a $0/mo plan.
- When a merchant interacts with our app, they incur a one-time charge (let’s say $1000 for the sake of the use case). Based on what they do, they could incur other 1 time charges.
- The one-time charge X% of the amount is passed on to an affiliate. Y% is a service fee.
What we can’t seem to figure out is how to tell Shopify that X% cannot be subject to the revshare as it is not revenue we are making, we immediately turn around and hand it to the affiliate, so the only amount they could revshare with us is the Y%.
Does anyone have a similar use case or solution for this scenario?
Thanks,
Matt
Hi Matt,
I’ve look into this request further with our Partner Team internally, and they have confirmed that this is not possible with the way that Partner Revenue share currently works.
As you are receiving the revenue share based on the actual revenue generated by your partner app, this is included in your Partner Revenue Share calculations. If you wish to share the revenue generated from the app with a third party through affiliate fees, this would not be considered in the calculation of the revenue created by the app itself.
This is also touched on in our Shopify Help Center Partner Documentation:
This [85% of earnings] percentage applies to the one-time sale price or recurring subscription fees and all app purchases or upgrades made through the Shopify App Store.
Only the Partner who manages the app is eligible for earnings from app sales.
Thanks Kaalo -
If I understand correctly, you’re confirming what we understand as well, there is no way to separate or designate revenue that can be revshared on.
That being said, it sounds like we need to have an exclusion added to our partner agreement that allows us to simply use our own existing billing?
From our initial app review, the reviewer said:
Apps that use off-platform billing cannot be distributed through the Shopify App store, unless you’ve been notified otherwise by Shopify.
It seems like this is the path forward for us? Who can I contact about this?
Thanks,
Matt
This is correct, as the revenue share is specifically for all revenue created via App Billing subscriptions and charges, regardless if part of the revenue is ultimately destined for your Partner Organization or forwarded to an external platform you may be affiliated with.
As for potential exemptions for the use of our Billing API, we can take a look at it on a case by case basis to see if an exemption is eligible, but you will need to reach out to our Shopify Support team via the Shopify Help Center for further help with that.