RevenueCat

Overview

RevenueCat is a powerful backend-as-a-service platform that simplifies the implementation of in-app purchases and subscriptions for mobile apps. It provides a unified SDK that handles the complex logic of Apple's App Store and Google's Play Store billing systems, offering developers a single source of truth for user entitlement, receipt validation, and cross-platform subscription data.

What it does

• Provides a cross-platform SDK to handle in-app purchases and subscriptions.
• Automates receipt validation and server-side entitlement checks.
• Offers a no-code 'Paywall' builder to design and ship UI updates instantly.
• Syncs subscription status across iOS, Android, and Web.
• Provides real-time subscription analytics (MRR, Churn, LTV) in a single dashboard.

Who it's for

• Mobile App Developers
• Product Managers
• SaaS Founders
• Growth Marketers

Why it works

• Speed: Reduces weeks of billing infrastructure work to a few hours of SDK integration.
• Reliability: Handles edge cases like 'expired' receipts and 'grace periods' that are notoriously hard to code manually.
• Unified Data: Aggregates fragmented revenue data from multiple app stores into one clean interface.
• Agility: Allows marketing teams to run A/B tests on pricing and paywalls without needing an app store update.

Founder story

Founded in 2017 by Jacob Eiting and Miguel Guisado in San Francisco. Jacob, an early engineer at Elevate, was tired of rebuilding the same billing infrastructure for every app project. He and Miguel built RevenueCat to turn 'in-app billing' into a solved problem for every developer on the planet.

Alternatives

• Adapty
• Qonversion
• Glassfy
• Apphud

Comparison overview

• Adapty: Stronger on no-code paywall UI; RevenueCat is the more established 'infrastructure-first' choice for large scale apps.
• Qonversion: More focus on marketing automation hooks; RevenueCat is the industry standard for stable, cross-platform billing logic.
• RevenueCat is the 'Stripe' of mobile in-app subscriptions.