Pricing, sales and bundles

Set everything in Developer → your app → Pricing and licensing, and bundles in Developer → Bundles. Prices are in US dollars. AppsXi's fee is 5% of what the buyer pays before tax, on every option below.

Pricing models

Each app uses one model. It shows on your listing, and buyers can filter the store by it (Free, Freemium, Free trial, Paid).

Trials never take a card. A buyer starts one with their AppsXi account (not a throwaway email address), and it never charges them, so there is nothing to cancel. When it ends, the app locks, goes read only or switches to a limited mode (your choice under Licensing) until they buy. A trial can sit on top of a fixed price, pay what you want or freemium (a free trial of the upgrade).

A trial needs your app to check a license. Nothing outside an installed app can stop it when a trial ends, so the trial setting only turns on when your app checks: an AppsXi trial at Level 1 or 2 (after we see your app check a test license once), or a trial your app or your server runs against your own keys. See Using your own license server.

Freemium needs your app to check the license. Anyone can download a freemium app and get its updates, so the app itself decides what to unlock: with Level 1 it checks the buyer's key, with Level 2 it reads the signed entitlement. Apps with their own license server can do the same with their own keys. An app that checks nothing cannot tell free users from buyers, so AppsXi does not let it turn on freemium. Buyers see your two lists on the listing before they download, so keep each line short and specific: "Up to 3 projects", "Batch export".

AppsXi does not offer subscriptions or trials that charge a card when they end. Every purchase is paid once.

Fixed price

Free, or $2.99 to $1,000. A new price applies to new purchases right away; buyers keep what they bought. Changing the price ends any running sale, so a sale can never show a "was" price that is not real.

License types

Everyone can buy the personal license at your price. Under License types on the Pricing page you can add up to three more, each with its own price. Buyers choose one on your listing and can change it at checkout.

• Education is for school email addresses. Only buyers whose confirmed sign-in email ends in .edu, .edu.<country> (for example .edu.au), .ac.<country> (for example .ac.uk) or .k12.<state>.us can buy it; AppsXi checks this when it prices the order, not just on the page. Schools whose addresses end differently cannot use it yet; send those buyers a coupon code instead.
• Sales and codes take the same share off every license. A sale that takes 25% off your personal price takes 25% off the team license too, and a code for $5 off a $20 app takes 25% off any license. A 100% off code (free grant) is the exception: it gives the personal license only, so a giveaway never hands out a free team or commercial license.
• Pay what you want and bundles sell the personal license only. Free apps have no license types. Your other licenses stay saved and come back when you set a fixed price.
• The license records its type and computers. A team license for 10 computers has seats_max: 10 in the license API and in Sign in with AppsXi, so your app counts seats for you. At Level 0 nothing in the app counts computers: the number is what the license allows.
• Team licenses need AppsXi keys or the license bridge. If buyers get your own uploaded keys, each purchase gets one code, so a team could not get its seats; AppsXi hides the team license while your own keys are on. The license bridge sends license.seats with each purchase, so your server can issue a key for the right number of computers.
• A trial becomes the license bought. Someone on a trial who buys the team license keeps the same key, now with the team's computers. The exception is a purchase whose key is held for a day (a brand-new account with a risk signal): it gets a new key, and the trial key stops working, so a key seen during the trial cannot be resold as a paid one.
• Switching a license off hides it from buyers and keeps its price for later. Licenses already bought keep their type.
• Changes to license prices are kept in your app's price history.

To open checkout with a license chosen, add license to the link: /checkout/your-app?license=team.

Pay what you want

Set a minimum ($0.99 or more) and a suggested price. Buyers see "Pay what you want, from $3" on your listing and type their amount at checkout, starting at the suggested price. Anything from the minimum to $1,000 is accepted.

• Coupon codes and sales do not apply to pay what you want prices.
• The app ranks on the paid charts. Each purchase counts as one sale at the amount paid.
• To go back to a fixed price, save a price again.

Sales and launch discounts

A sale shows your list price struck through with a real end time. Because the struck-through price is a claim about your regular price, AppsXi only allows it after the app has sold at that list price for 30 of the last 90 days. A launch discount is the exception: it runs in your first 7 days (or around a scheduled Launch Day) and shows as "launch price" without a struck-through price. Sales run for up to 31 days and cannot overlap.

AppsXi sales events

AppsXi runs store-wide sales a few times a year, each with its own page at /sales/<event>, a banner on the home page and a minimum discount (for example 20%). Open events are listed under Sales on your app's Pricing page:

1. Enter your sale price (it must be at least the event's minimum off your list price) and click Join before the join date.
2. The price drops for everyone when the event starts and goes back when it ends. The dates never move once apps have joined.
3. You can leave before the event starts. After it starts, you can end your sale early like any other sale.

The 30 of 90 days rule applies to event sales too.

Coupon codes

Percent off, amount off, or a free grant (100% off, capped at 500 a month per app and never counted on the charts). Share links like /checkout/your-app?code=LAUNCH25. A code applies to the list price and is used only when it beats a running sale. On a commercial, team or education license it takes the same share off as it would from the personal price; a free grant code works on the personal license only.

Bundles

Combine 2 to 20 of your apps with fixed paid prices at one price lower than buying them separately. Developer → Bundles creates a draft; publish it when it looks right. The bundle gets a page at /bundles/<name> and shows on each included app's listing.

• Buyers who already own some of the apps pay only for the rest, at the bundle's discount rate. For example, a $24 bundle of a $10 app and a $20 app (20% off) costs $16 for someone who owns the $10 app.
• One payment, and one license per app, each with that app's own seats, terms and license key or Sign in with AppsXi entitlement.
• Each app's share of the payment is in proportion to its list price. On the charts, the sale counts for every app in the bundle with its share; a share below half the app's list price counts as half a sale, like any deep discount.
• A refund of a bundle refunds the whole order and revokes all of its licenses.
• Every app must be live. If one is paused, the bundle cannot be bought until it is back.

Bundles mix only your own apps. Multi developer bundles need a separate design for splitting payments and come later.

Cart

Buyers can add paid apps from different developers to a cart and pay for them with one card entry. Square sends each payment to one seller, so the cart does not make one combined charge:

• Each app in a cart is a normal single-app order on your Square account: your price, the same 5% AppsXi fee, its own receipt and license, and the same refund rules as Buy now. The buyer's card statement shows one line per app.
• The cart sells the personal license at today's price, with any running sale. Commercial, team and education licenses, coupon codes, bundles and pay what you want prices stay on your app's own checkout, which the cart links to.
• Pay what you want apps, apps that are sold out of your own keys, and apps whose developer cannot take payments right now cannot be bought through the cart. If your app stops selling after a buyer added it, it stays in their cart with a note and is skipped at checkout.
• One payment covers up to 5 apps; the rest wait in the buyer's cart. When one app's charge fails, the others still go through, and an app is never charged twice.
• Cart orders show as Cart under Where sales come from. An affiliate link the buyer clicked for your app still counts.

Receipts

Every order has a printable receipt in the buyer's library (Receipt under the app): the order number and date, you as the seller, the app with its license type and computers, the price, any discount, refunds and the total, with AppsXi named as the marketplace. Buyers can add a company name, tax ID and address for their own records; they appear only on that receipt.

Business accounts appear under their registered business name; individual developers appear under their store name, so their personal legal name stays private. Square also emails its own card receipt.

Taxes

You are the seller, so the taxes on your sales are yours: income tax, and sales tax wherever you owe it. AppsXi does not add sales tax at checkout, collect it or withhold anything from your sales. Square, which pays you, may report your sales to the IRS on Form 1099-K as the law requires. If a state's law ever requires AppsXi itself to collect sales tax on marketplace sales, we will tell you at least 30 days before it starts.

Where a purchase came from

Checkout links can carry a source: ?src=app&from=export_paywall. The SDKs add src=app to checkoutUrl() and the from you pass to openCheckout(). AppsXi records both on the order so you can see which paywall moments convert.