The Financial Times (much smaller) blatantly gets away with a message in their app saying “You can join the Financial Times by going to our website” and prevents users who aren’t logged in from reading articles. There’s no way to pay for an FT subscription in the iOS app.
Is there a way for independent developers to do the same?
Could I have a login splash page with my app’s logo and no other information that subtly encourages people to Google for the app’s site where they can then sign up? Or could I charge a separate “iOS usage fee” that’s in addition to my app’s main subscriber fee?
For context, users of my app also have access to a web client with many additional features. In fact, the app is an ancillary product with a subset of features that are useful in a mobile context.
Any advice appreciated.
In your case, maybe as you mentioned just redirecting your users to your website? Unless your marketing strategy relies strongly on users first finding you through the app store. In that case, not being able to experience what your app does before creating an account will cause drop off - I would give some kind of free roaming around until they need to sign up, similar to what Down Dog does.
All said, no idea about if that is actually allowed in the stores ToS / not enforced, but as you said, it seems that large apps do it, but also smaller ones.