7 Best In-App purchases & app subscriptions Alternatives in 2026
In-App purchases & app subscriptions is sell upgrades, consumables and subscriptions inside an iOS or Android app through the store's billing, at a 15-30% store cut., typically $100-500 (developer accounts, tools). If it is too expensive, too slow or simply not a fit, these are the strongest alternatives we have reviewed.
1
8.7/10
A digital product is a file or a licence sold and delivered automatically: an ebook or guide, a Notion or spreadsheet template, a Lightroom preset pack, a font, a set of icons, a printable planner, a swipe file of proven emails, a code snippet library, a checklist bundle. The customer pays, the platform sends the download, and the sale costs… Read more →
Pros
- Made once, sold forever, delivered automatically
- Merchant-of-record platforms (Gumroad, Lemon Squeezy, Payhip) handle VAT and sales tax worldwide
- Works at small scale: a niche template can sell to 1% of a modest audience for years
Cons
- You have to make something people will pay for, then sell it, then support it
- Platform fees of 5-10% plus card fees; refunds and piracy
- Discovery is on you: no platform brings buyers except the asset marketplaces
Earns: 1-3% of readers buy at $10-100; $20-150 RPM · First payout: 1-2 months · Cost to start: $0-50/mo · ebook templates gumroad lemon squeezy digital downloads
2
Charge a monthly or annual fee for software: the highest-margin, highest-multiple revenue on the web, and the most work.
Mobile appSaaSFree tool
8.6/10
Software as a service is the subscription business model applied to a tool: users pay monthly or yearly for continued access, and you keep improving it. Micro-SaaS is the one-person version: a narrow tool solving one problem for one audience, often born from a free utility or a spreadsheet you built for yourself. Pricing is per seat, per usage or… Read more →
Pros
- Recurring revenue that compounds; churn under 3% makes every customer worth 30+ months
- Sells at 3-8x annual revenue when you exit, far above content sites
- Billing (Stripe, Paddle, Lemon Squeezy) and hosting are commodities now
Cons
- Building, supporting and securing software is a full-time job before the first customer
- Churn, support load and competitors who copy features
- Free tools that become paid lose most of their users at the moment of the switch
Earns: $40-400 per 1,000 visitors; $10-100 MRR per customer · First payout: 3-9 months · Cost to start: $50-500/mo (hosting, tools) · saas mrr churn stripe freemium
3
8.4/10
An online course packages what you know into lessons, exercises and outcomes and sells it at a price only expertise can command: $50-300 self-paced, $300-2,000 for a live cohort with feedback. It runs on a course platform (Teachable, Thinkific, Kajabi, Podia, LearnWorlds, Maven for cohorts, Circle or Skool with courses inside a community) or a WordPress LMS plugin (LearnDash, LifterLMS)… Read more →
Pros
- The highest price point most creators can sell without a sales team
- Course platforms handle video, drip, quizzes, checkout, affiliates and certificates
- Cohorts command 3-10x self-paced prices and build a community that renews
Cons
- Months of production before the first sale, and courses need updating
- Launch-driven revenue is lumpy unless you run evergreen funnels
- Completion rates of 10-30% make refunds and reputation a constant concern
Earns: 1-2% of readers at $100-500; $30-300 RPM · First payout: 2-4 months · Cost to start: $0-200/mo · course cohort teachable kajabi masterclass
4
7.9/10
Services monetize the expertise the content demonstrates: coaching calls, consulting engagements, audits and reviews, done-for-you implementation, speaking, and productised services with a fixed scope and price ("I will review your landing page and send a video in 48 hours, $300"). For a large share of blogs, newsletters and channels in professional fields, this is the biggest revenue line by far,… Read more →
Pros
- The fastest money any expert audience produces: one client covers a month of ad revenue
- No product to build; the content is the marketing
- Productised services (fixed scope, fixed price) scale further than hourly
Cons
- Trades time for money; the ceiling is your calendar
- Sales calls, proposals, scope creep and late invoices
- Distracts from the property that generates the leads
Earns: $100-500/hour; $50-400 per 1,000 visitors on service pages · First payout: Days to weeks · Cost to start: $0 · coaching consulting productised service freelance audit
5
7.1/10
Every property on this site is also an asset that can be sold: a content site, a newsletter, a SaaS, an app, a directory, a domain. Buyers pay a multiple of profit or revenue for the future income, and brokers, marketplaces and auction sites exist to connect the two sides. Domain sales are the simplest version: a name with demand… Read more →
Pros
- Converts years of future income into cash now, tax-efficiently in many countries
- Brokers (Empire Flippers, FE International, Quiet Light) handle valuation, buyers, escrow and transfer
- A buyer will pay for what you built even if you no longer want to run it
Cons
- You lose the asset and its future; sellers often regret selling at the bottom of a cycle
- Brokers take 5-15%; marketplaces attract low offers and time-wasters
- Diligence exposes everything: traffic sources, link sales, undisclosed risks
Earns: 30-45x monthly net profit for content sites; 3-8x ARR for SaaS · First payout: 2-6 months · Cost to start: $0 · website flipping exit multiple broker domain sale
6
6.9/10
Physical products for your audience: a merch line of shirts, mugs and stickers made and shipped by a print-on-demand supplier when someone orders; curated products you source and sell; or your own designed line. The store runs on Shopify, WooCommerce, Etsy, Big Cartel or a creator merch platform (Spring, Fourthwall, Spreadshop) that integrates with YouTube and Twitch merch shelves. The… Read more →
Pros
- Print on demand (Printful, Printify, Gelato) needs no inventory, no shipping and no upfront cost
- Merch turns fans into walking advertisements and fandom into revenue
- A store platform (Shopify, WooCommerce, Etsy) is a weekend to set up
Cons
- Margins are thin: a $25 print-on-demand shirt nets $5-10
- Customer service, returns, sizing and shipping problems land on you
- Physical products convert far below digital ones unless the audience is devoted
Earns: $5-60 per 1,000 visitors; 20-40% margin on print on demand · First payout: 1-2 months · Cost to start: $0-100/mo · merch print on demand shopify printful dropshipping
7
Sell programmatic access to what your site knows: an API with usage tiers, datasets, feeds and reports.
BlogSaaSDirectoryFree tool
6.8/10
If your property collects, computes or curates something, other businesses may pay to get it programmatically: an API for your directory's listings, your price history, your rankings, your calculator's logic, your dataset of whatever you cover. Data licensing is the same thing delivered as files, feeds or reports. It is how price-comparison sites, directories, weather services, sports data companies and… Read more →
Pros
- Turns data you already collect (listings, prices, rankings, calculations) into a product with SaaS margins
- Developers and companies pay for reliability and coverage, not for content
- Usage-based billing grows with the customer
Cons
- Needs engineering: authentication, rate limits, uptime, documentation, versioning
- Data must be yours to license, fresh and accurate
- Small market unless the data is genuinely hard to get
Earns: $10-200 per 1,000 visitors on developer-facing pages; $50-5,000/mo per API customer · First payout: 2-6 months · Cost to start: $0-200/mo · api data licensing usage-based developer plan datasets