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Introducing RevenueDot, an open-source backend for in-app purchases

RevenueDot is an open-source (AGPL-3.0) backend for in-app purchases and subscriptions, free to start on RevenueDot Cloud. It speaks the same API as RevenueCat's backend, so an app that already uses the RevenueCat SDK can talk to RevenueDot by changing one setting: the SDK's proxy URL. Your purchase code, your offerings and your customers stay where they are.

Update, 2026-10-02: the RevenueDot SDK is published for every platform. New apps install it and pass their app's key. On RevenueDot Cloud nothing else is needed. Which SDKs does RevenueDot have? lists the install line for each platform. The rest of this post describes RevenueDot on launch day.

This post says what we built, why, and exactly what it does today.

Why we built it#

Subscription apps need a backend that checks store receipts, tracks who has access, follows renewals and refunds, and tells the app's own server what happened. RevenueCat made that easy, and its SDKs are some of the best-maintained open-source code in mobile. We wanted three things that a hosted service cannot give.

No share of revenue. RevenueCat's Pro plan is free up to $2,500 in monthly tracked revenue, then charges 1% of tracked revenue (RevenueCat pricing). At $50,000 a month that is roughly $500 a month. At $500,000 a month it is roughly $5,000 a month, or $60,000 a year. RevenueDot Cloud Pro costs $0 until your apps make $10,000 a month, then 0.5% of revenue above $10,000, never more than $999 a month.

Your own data, in your own region. Purchases, customers, receipts and events live in your Postgres database. You choose where it runs, who can read it and how long it keeps things. Nothing leaves your infrastructure unless you send it.

Code you can read. The server decides who gets access to your paid features. With RevenueDot you can read that code, test it and change it.

How it works#

One server process serves four things on one port:

  • the SDK API under /v1, the endpoints the RevenueCat SDKs call;
  • the REST API under /v2, for your backend and scripts;
  • store notifications from Apple and Google, under /v1/notifications/...;
  • the dashboard, at /login.

The app changes one line. On iOS:

Swift
// Point the SDK at your RevenueDot server; nothing else in the app changes.
Purchases.proxyURL = URL(string: "https://revenuedot.example.com")!
Purchases.configure(withAPIKey: "appl_...")

Every other RevenueCat SDK has the same setting, from React Native's setProxyURL to the httpConfig.proxyURL option in purchases-js. When the SDK posts a purchase, RevenueDot verifies it with Apple or Google, stores it, answers with the customer's entitlements, and sends a webhook to your backend. The webhook has the same JSON shape and the same kind of signature header as RevenueCat's, so an existing handler keeps working.

A real answer from a local server, after a Test Store purchase, starts like this:

JSON
{
  "request_date": "2026-09-30T20:41:54Z",
  "subscriber": {
    "entitlements": {
      "pro": { "expires_date": "2026-10-30T20:41:54Z", "product_identifier": "pro_monthly", "purchase_date": "2026-09-30T20:41:54Z", "grace_period_expires_date": null }
    },
    "original_app_user_id": "user_1"
  },
  "purchased_products": { "pro_monthly": { "should_consume": false } }
}

What works today#

  • The SDK endpoints: customer info, offerings, receipts, logIn, attributes, the product-to-entitlement mapping for offline entitlements, and the configuration and event endpoints the SDKs call on start.
  • Four stores for receipts: App Store, Mac App Store, Google Play and our own Test Store. StoreKit 2 signed transactions are verified against Apple's certificate chain. Google purchases are read from the Play Developer API and acknowledged.
  • Store notifications: App Store Server Notifications v2 and Google Play real-time notifications, with a setup-health check that tells you whether they arrive.
  • Identity: anonymous IDs, logIn, aliases, and the four restore rules (transfer, transfer_if_no_active, keep, share).
  • Webhooks: fifteen event types, HMAC signatures, an Authorization header you choose, and retries after 5, 10, 20, 40 and 80 minutes.
  • REST API v1 and the core of v2: customers, subscriptions, purchases, entitlements, offerings, packages, products, apps and projects.
  • A dashboard with overview metrics, customers, catalog, webhooks, API keys and setup health.
  • Response signing in the same format the SDKs verify.
  • An importer that copies a RevenueCat project's catalog, customers and public app keys. It runs from source today.
  • MIT forks of all ten RevenueCat SDKs, patched and checked. They were published on 2026-10-02 as the RevenueDot SDK.

What does not work yet#

We would rather you hear this from us than find out in production.

  • No real App Store or Google Play sandbox purchase has run end to end. The store code is tested against mocked Apple and Google APIs only.
  • Paywalls, experiments, targeting, Customer Center and virtual currencies are not built. The SDK hides them instead of crashing.
  • Amazon, Stripe, Web Billing, Paddle and Roku receipts are refused.
  • With the stock SDK, response signatures read as FAILED, because we cannot sign with RevenueCat's key. You turn the check off, or build our forks with your own key.
  • The SDK forks ran from source on launch day. They were published on 2026-10-02 on CocoaPods, Swift Package Manager, Maven Central, npm, OpenUPM and git tags (SDK guides). The importer CLI (npx revenuedot) and the local MCP server (npx -y @revenuedot/mcp) are on npm, and the hosted MCP server at https://mcp.revenuedot.app/mcp works.

The full list, with a workaround for each item, is in Known issues.

How to try it#

The fastest way is RevenueDot Cloud: start for free (Pro costs $0 until your apps make $10,000 a month), then install the RevenueDot SDK for your platform and pass your app's key (SDK guides). An app that already ships the RevenueCat SDK can instead point its proxy URL at https://api.revenuedot.app.

The quickstart walks through each step.

If you already use RevenueCat, read Migrate from RevenueCat before you touch production. The order of steps matters.

What comes next#

Our next milestones, in order:

  1. Real App Store and Google Play sandbox purchases, end to end.
  2. Published SDK forks, a published importer and a published MCP package. The SDK forks were published on 2026-10-02.

RevenueDot Cloud is already live, with open sign-up, and the native iOS and Android SDKs load and buy Test Store products.

The build plan is public in the repository. RevenueDot is not affiliated with RevenueCat. "RevenueCat" is a trademark of RevenueCat, Inc., and we use it only to describe compatibility.

About RevenueDot. RevenueDot is an open-source (AGPL-3.0) backend for in-app purchases and subscriptions on the App Store, Google Play and the web. Start for free on RevenueDot Cloud: Pro costs $0 until your apps make $10,000 a month, then 0.5% of revenue above $10,000, never more than $999 a month. New apps install the RevenueDot SDK and pass their key. Apps that ship the RevenueCat SDK point its proxy URL at RevenueDot and keep their code, offerings and customers. Read the quickstart or the code on GitHub.

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