Do I need to offer in-app purchases in my app?

We offer a VPN service which requires users to have a valid membership in order to use our VPN apps. With membership, you have access to all apps on all devices we support (including iOS, macOS, Android, Linux, Windows, routers...)


So far we allowed users to sign up using apple and use in-app purchases for membership so that they could get iOS-only plan. Such accounts would be allowed to only log in on iOS devices.


We now want to remove this option and only allow users who signed up on our website to use our app.


I highlight that the membership is not exclusive for iOS content, iOS app is just one of the features our clients can use when they have valid membership.


We are ok with removing altogether sign-up procedure from the app, and only allow log in (so new clients who download app from app store will have to figure out they need an account).


We are ok with NOT redirecting users from iOS app to our website to make a payment.


We just need to be sure that this is not breaking any apple tos, as we will require users to pay, but we want to avoid them using apple pay services through in-app purchases.


Thanks for the opinions

Replies

Edit: I have read in detail https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/#payments , mainly sections 3.1.3:


3.1.3(b) Multiplatform Services: Apps that operate across multiple platforms may allow users to access content, subscriptions, or features they have acquired elsewhere, including consumable items in multi-platform games, provided those items are also available as in-app purchases within the app. You must not directly or indirectly target iOS users to use a purchasing method other than in-app purchase, and your general communications about other purchasing methods must not discourage use of in-app purchase.


The main issue for me is the sentence "provided those items are also available as in-app purchases within the app". Does this refer to the multi-platform game consumable items only? If yes, to my understanding I do not need to offer the services as in-app purchase, provided the service is multi-platform.

Because of the ","s surrounding the phrase "including consumable items in multi-platform games" the word "items" in the phrase that follows it, namely "provided those items...", refers to the broad list of items, specifically "content, subscriptions, or features, including consumable items", not the phrase within the commas.


So the answer is - you must include in the app an option to make the purchase via IAP.