Creator subscriptions like Twitch/Patreon on iOS & Android

Hey ​@nahid-faraji-1f32be,

Matt from RevenueCat here. This is a great question! Let's dive into it together.

This is a really common challenge for creator platforms, and you're right that the "one product per creator" approach doesn't really scale once you start talking about 100k+ creators.

For true independent auto-renewing memberships (where a user can subscribe to Creator A and Creator B separately), each subscription ultimately needs its own billable product at the store level, or a store API that can generate those products dynamically. A single shared "$9.99/month" subscription product generally won't work, as users can't normally hold multiple concurrent subscriptions to the same product and have them attributed to different creators.

Because of that, apps solving this kind of problem generally end up using some combination of:

• Dynamic or very large product catalogs (Apple's Advanced Commerce API is designed for this on iOS)

• Programmatic catalog management

• Alternative commerce models where permitted by the relevant store policies

• Backend-managed purchase models (such as prepaid purchases or consumables) where the app manages creator access rather than relying entirely on store-managed auto-renewing subscriptions

iOS

Advanced Commerce API is definitely the feature I'd be looking at. Apple specifically calls out creator experiences and exceptionally large subscription catalogs as supported use cases. It lets you host and manage your own catalog of products while still using the App Store for billing, taxes, refunds, and StoreKit. Access requires applying to Apple and receiving approval.

One thing worth mentioning is that RevenueCat doesn't currently support Advanced Commerce API out of the box. If you went down this route today, you'd typically integrate StoreKit 2 alongside the App Store Server API and App Store Server Notifications yourself. This has been discussed internally, but there isn't currently an ETA for support.

Some useful resources:

• Apple Advanced Commerce API: https://developer.apple.com/in-app-purchase/advanced-commerce-api/

• RevenueCat’s overview: https://www.revenuecat.com/blog/growth/what-you-need-to-know-apples-advanced-commerce-api/

Android

There isn't currently a publicly available equivalent to Apple's Advanced Commerce API.

What Google Play does support is managing subscription catalogs programmatically through the Play Developer and Monetization APIs. Users can also hold multiple different subscription products simultaneously, so subscribing to Creator A and Creator B works perfectly fine if each creator has its own Play subscription product.

The challenge is scale. Google documents a default limit of 1,000 products per app, so a 1:1 "subscription product per creator" model doesn't scale cleanly to 100k+ creators. While Google's APIs make managing large catalogs much easier, they don't provide the same dynamic backend-hosted catalog model that ACA provides on iOS.

If I were designing this today, I'd generally be looking at one of two approaches:

• Use individual Play subscription products while the catalog remains within Play's documented limits.

• Adopt a backend-managed commerce model (for example, using prepaid purchases or consumables), where your backend maps purchases to a creator_id and manages creator access. The trade-off is that Play is no longer providing independent store-managed auto-renewing subscriptions for every creator.

Architecture

Regardless of the platform, I'd recommend treating creator memberships as your own backend domain model rather than relying on store products as the source of truth. Store purchases should simply map to a creator_id, with your backend granting creator-specific entitlements while App Store Server Notifications or Google Play RTDN keep renewals, cancellations, refunds, and revocations in sync.

One thing I'd avoid is drawing too many conclusions from platforms like Twitch, YouTube, Patreon, or X. Their implementations aren't publicly documented, and some may rely on infrastructure or commercial agreements that aren't available to most developers.

Overall, if true store-managed auto-renewing subscriptions per creator are a hard requirement, Apple's Advanced Commerce API is the clearest long-term solution on iOS. On Android, there isn't currently an equivalent offering, so the trade-off is generally between maintaining a large subscription catalog (within Play's documented limits) or adopting a different commerce model.

I hope this helps point you in the right direction! Let me know if you have any additional questions!