Transform app monetization with external billing on Google Play
Industry
28 Nov 2025
9 min
Kostas Tashakov
Account Manager, Solidgate
Lower fees, more control, and new revenue streams – that’s the promise of Google Play's external billing update. Learn how to navigate the transition and maximize your revenue.
Last month, that Android apps selling digital goods to U.S. customers can now process in-app payments using third-party payment providers, bypassing Google Play Billing fees. This update follows to allow iOS apps to link to external websites for payments.
This is a clear sign that the dynamics of app monetization are shifting. Marketplaces like Google Play and the App Store are giving developers more control over payments, checkout, and customer data.
But along with that control comes more operational challenges. App developers are now responsible for what was previously handled by app stores – payment processing, tax compliance, subscription management, fraud prevention, and more.
At Solidgate, we've helped merchants navigate the transition to external billing on the App Store. Now, we're ready to support you in doing the same on Google Play. Let's see what's changed and how our solutions can help you with the transition.
What just changed on Android – and what it means for app monetization
The new update to Google Play Billing allows developers to:
- Integrate alternative payment methods and providers, such as Solidgate, PayPal, Adyen, Braintree, or others, directly into their apps.
- Pay lower fees for transactions that use alternative billing – about 20% or 9% instead of up to 30%. Which service-fee cap applies depends on the transaction path and on where/how the user installed your app.
- Communicate about these alternative payment options within the app – no "scare screens" or restrictive link language.
- Provide links to payment methods or app downloads outside the Play Store. You can now safely host and promote your app on multiple Android stores, not just Google Play.
- Set different pricing depending on whether Google Play Billing is used. You are free to experiment with different pricing structures, discounts, and promotions.
More control over billing and distribution enables developers to increase revenue, test new pricing models, and capture more users.
If done right, this update allows app developers to:
✔️Gain ~10-20 points of margin before payment processing and fraud costs;
✔️Expand app distribution to third-party app stores;
✔️Gain complete control over the user acquisition funnel, payment flows, and monetization strategies
✔️Increase LTV with a more tailored user funnel
Android vs. iOS rulings: What's different?
Both platforms now offer developers more freedom, though with a few differences.
On iOS: Apple now allows external payment links and checkout buttons, letting developers bypass Apple's in-app payment system for U.S. users, with no commission taken. However, you can distribute iOS apps only via the Apple App Store; third-party stores are not allowed.
On Android: The Epic vs. Google settlement opens up both billing and distribution. Developers can now use alternative payment methods or external checkouts with service fees capped at 9% or 20%. They can also distribute apps via third-party stores like the Samsung Galaxy Store and the Amazon Appstore, subject to safety criteria.
Launch external billing on Play Store and App Store with Solidgate
Moving your in-app payments to external billing doesn't have to be complicated. Solidgate helps app developers simplify the entire process and avoid common pitfalls while taking full advantage of the new opportunities Google Play offers.
Here's how Solidgate's payment orchestration suite helps developers effectively launch and manage external payments on app stores:
Embed payments directly in your Android app
You now have the flexibility to integrate third-party payment providers directly into your app, bypassing Google Play Billing for U.S. users. Solidgate makes it easy to support the payment methods your customers trust, including cards, PayPal, Cash App, and other methods.
Offering a wide range of payment options helps you increase conversion rates and cater to the preferences of different users in your market, all within a single, integrated app.
Full control over pricing strategies
External billing lets you regain complete control over your pricing models. You can:
- Adjust pricing for different customer segments
- Offer targeted promotions, discounts, and seasonal deals
- Test and iterate on subscription packages to see what works best
This level of customization ensures that you can align the pricing strategy with your business goals, resulting in better user engagement and higher lifetime value (LTV).
Easily design a native checkout flow
Building a native checkout flow is a complex task, especially when you're aiming to maintain high conversion rates. Solidgate helps you design a smooth, on-brand payment experience that app users expect with minimal engineering effort.
Here's how we simplify this process:
- Keep conversion rates high: We help you design a branded checkout flow optimized for mobile and web payments.
- Minimal development effort: Solidgate's tools let you integrate custom checkout flows quickly; you don't have to build from scratch or rely on complex APIs.
- User trust and security: We ensure all payment flows are secure and PCI-compliant, using trusted payment methods that increase user confidence.
- Tailor your experience: Whether it's for subscriptions or one-time payments, we give you full control over your checkout process, letting you optimize for performance and user experience across different scenarios.
Optimize approvals with multi-acquirer routing
One of the biggest challenges in payment processing is ensuring that transactions are successfully approved, especially when you're dealing with high volumes or cross-border transactions. With Solidgate's , you can:
- Increase payment acceptance by up to 15% by routing payments to the most suitable acquirers based on transaction type, region, and other factors.
- Use multi-acquirer routing to optimize approval rates and reduce costs associated with declined transactions.
- Implement cascading on initial payments to reduce false declines, ensuring a seamless checkout experience for users.
By optimizing payment routing, Solidgate helps you maximize your transaction approval rates while simultaneously minimizing costs.
Manage subscriptions end-to-end
Managing recurring billing and subscriptions becomes complex when dealing with failed payments, cancellations, and changes in subscription plans. Solidgate's streamlines this process:
- that recover revenue from failed payments and help drastically reduce churn.
- Dunning flows that manage customer communications around missed payments.
- and technology that increases user LTV by up to 42,5%.
- Flexible billing cycles to accommodate monthly, quarterly, or annual subscriptions.
- Coupons, trials, and proration to experiment with offers and optimize conversions.
- Detailed subscription analytics in our .
With Solidgate, you have complete control over your subscription model, making it easier to keep customers engaged and reduce churn.
Automated U.S. sales tax management
If you're accepting payments from U.S. users, you need to ensure that you are complying with the country's complex state-based sales tax laws. Solidgate's integrated helps you handle this challenge by:
- Automatically applying the correct sales tax rate based on the customer's location (including state and county tax).
- Providing audit-ready reports for easy filing and reconciliation.
- Simplifying the tax compliance process, so you can focus on growing your business.
Solidgate handles tax calculations and reporting, reducing the risk of compliance errors while saving developers time and resources.
Built-in chargeback and fraud protection
Once you move to external billing, you assume responsibility for fraud prevention, chargebacks, and refunds. Solidgate offers real-time chargeback prevention tools and fraud management features that help you reduce these risks:
- Real-time notify you of potential chargebacks, enabling you to take action before they escalate.
- Automated allows you to quickly dispute invalid chargebacks, saving you time and effort.
- An advanced engine that automatically detects and blocks fraudulent transactions, while allowing legitimate ones to proceed without delay.
By proactively managing fraud and chargebacks, Solidgate helps you maintain revenue and customer trust.
Unified reconciliation across PSPs, acquirers, processors, and APMs
As you begin to use multiple payment methods, acquirers, and processors, you quickly recognize the need for a unified view of your financial data.
Solidgate provides that simplifies the process of tracking settlements and payouts:
- Consolidates data from multiple payment service providers (PSPs), acquirers, and alternative payment methods (APMs).
- Cuts operational load by offering a centralized dashboard for monitoring financial transactions.
- Provides real-time data exports for reporting and compliance.
Your team won't need to spend dozens of hours juggling disparate payment systems and can instead focus on growing your product.
Transition playbook from in-app to external billing
- Run a controlled pilot: Start by selecting a high‑intent, high‑value cohort. This way, it's easier to track all key metrics like conversion, ARPU, and churn to payment success rate, decline rates, refund/chargeback ratio, etc.
- Build in-house or partner for compliant checkout & payment infrastructure: Take care of PCI‑compliance and tokenization, risk handling, U.S. sales‑tax compliance, refund/chargeback workflow, and invoicing/tax reporting.
- Implement smart payment routing and payment method mix: Route payments by region/acquirer to optimize approval rates and lower processing costs. Support popular payment methods to maximize acceptance across user segments.
- Build a minimal‑friction, familiar checkout UX: Test native vs. web checkout flows, ensure the UX is mobile‑optimized, and minimize redirects/friction.
- Monitor unit economics and payment health weekly/bi-weekly: Compare net revenue per user after fees and failed payments with the incremental ops cost to define go/no‑go criteria before scaling.
- Gradually scale and iterate: Once your pilot meets your success thresholds, you can expand rollout. Keep monitoring conversion, retention, and payment success in parallel to identify regressions.
- Prepare ops: As volume grows, automate reporting, reconciliation, compliance & support processes.
Helping developers reduce costs and increase conversion
Moving to external billing on Android and iOS gives app developers full control over payment flows and customer funnels.
Solidgate is already helping developers across various industries streamline this process, reduce costs, and increase revenue with external billing on iOS. Now we're doing the same for Android apps.
Thinking about testing external billing in the U.S.? Let's do it together. Сontact your Solidgate account manager today, and we'll help you design, test, and optimize your payment flow from start to finish.
Not with Solidgate yet? Just with our experts to discuss how our solutions can help your business.
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