Apple now requires in-app purchases in the WordPress app

In its voracious and frantic quest to snatch maximum commissions on in-app purchases, Apple has targeted a new victim: the app WordPress. The application, which allows you to manage a website using the WordPress editing platform, may not experience a significant update for a while, at least not until it is updated. s’engage not to integrate the Apple payment system – the one that allows the manufacturer to scratch 30% on the slightest purchase.

Creating a WordPress site is free, including from the iOS app. But if we want to go further, for example to benefit from a domain name and other more advanced functions, there are monthly formulas : from € 4 for a personal site to € 45 for an online store. Subscriptions that are not offered in the iOS application … Apple now requires that they appear.

The status of this application is complex. It is developed and maintained by Automattic, a company that owns WordPress.com, but also Tumblr, Simplenote, Akismet and other web services. The WordPress app is open-source and anyone can compile it (sur GitHub), but it is a private company that is responsible for its distribution on online app stores.

WordPress.org, the structure behind the platform and responsible for its development, does not have a developer account for GPL license reasons. In essence, the App Store Terms of Service violate this license, forcing WordPress.org to go through a third party, in this case Automattic, for the distribution of the app.

This demand – clearly supported – from Apple to integrate the paid formulas of WordPress.com into the application, via the payment system of the App Store, is a surprise. The app exists for over ten years and she didn’t ask anything of anyone. But no one now escapes the builder’s appetite.

– .