Paddle Billing
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Turkey-based company Stoikk creates apps and digital products that solve real-world problems across wellness, AI, and consumer tech.
Today, Stoikk offers a broad range of mobile-first products which have already reached over 25 million users worldwide.
Whether it is building from scratch, accelerating an existing product, or funding high-potential ideas, Stoikk’s goal is always the same: to craft thoughtful, sustainable solutions that scale.
Our first app was Kompanion, which focused on intermittent fasting. Over time, it evolved into a more holistic nutrition app. Eventually, we pivoted the company into an app portfolio model.”
Erkmen Erakkus, Co-Founder and CEO, Stoikk
The challenge
Continuously building, launching, and optimizing a portfolio of consumer apps is no easy feat. It requires a high level of agility and a growth mindset.
Optimizing profitability is crucial, so, when a landmark US court ruling changed the game for mobile app businesses by allowing apps to link out to web checkouts and take payments outside of the App Store without extra fees, Stoikk saw a huge opportunity to keep more of its revenues.
I have a legal background, so I dug into the court ruling right away. And it was actually very clear: alternative payment methods are allowed, and Apple can’t prohibit or dissuade app developers from using them.”
Erkmen Erakkus, Co-Founder and CEO, Stoikk
Erkmen knew they needed to act fast in case rules were changed again.
Appeal processes in the US can take six to eight months, so we saw this as a short window of opportunity. It made strategic sense to be among the first movers.”
Erkmen Erakkus, Co-Founder and CEO, Stoikk
Stoikk needed to find a way to quickly implement a web checkout and link to it from its apps. By moving early, it could:
- Bypass platform fees and boost margins.
- Benefit from the higher lifetime value (LTV) that web-based payments can help deliver.
- Scale quickly and ahead of the competition.
The solution
Stoikk was already using Paddle for web payments, and enjoying the benefits of the Merchant of Record model, which operates in a similar way to the App Store but for web purchases.
When the Apple court ruling was announced, Stoikk already had a solid foundation on which it could build its web checkout functionality; it just needed to move quickly.
Stoikk started with just one of its apps, Kompanion, an intermittent fasting app.
It got to work by embedding Paddle’s checkout flow into an external browser inside the app. The company wanted to ensure a frictionless user experience, which is especially important for retaining conversion rates during a major flow change.
To keep things smooth and simple, it focused primarily on showing Apple Pay as the main payment method and disabled credit card payments.
We needed the most trustworthy-looking checkout page for users. And I think we achieved that (With Paddle).”
Erkmen Erakkus, Co-Founder and CEO, Stoikk
The new checkout flow works as follows:
- The customer completes the onboarding process and quiz.
- They arrive at the paywall, which includes two call-to-action buttons:
- One says ‘Pay on web to save 25%’, which launches Paddle’s checkout through an external browser.
- The other says ‘Continue’, which defaults to the App Store purchase flow.
3. When users choose to pay on the web, they’re directed to a Paddle checkout page within the app. Users only need to enter their email, country, and ZIP code before checking out. Paddle calculates tax, and then they can complete the purchase using Apple Pay with Touch ID or Face ID.
The results
Stoikk has realized remarkable success with its new web checkout, seeing multiple benefits, including:
No drop in conversions
The web-based checkout flow feels almost identical to an in-app purchase, and so far, we’ve seen no conversion drop at all—in fact, there's been a slight uplift. The test has only been running for a few days, but initial results are very encouraging.”
Erkmen Erakkus, Co-Founder and CEO, Stoikk
Higher lifetime value
Web subscriptions typically yield higher LTVs than mobile with greater retention opportunities and lower customer acquisition costs. By launching web checkouts fast, Stoikk has created a significant growth opportunity.
No need to worry about managing chargebacks and disputes
When apps start selling on the web, they are immediately responsible for everything the App Store took care of, with one of those being disputes. With other payment solutions, this responsibility falls on the app developers, but as Paddle operates as the Merchant of Record, it takes on the liability for these.
If you're not dealing with Paddle, watch out for disputes. One day, you might wake up and your PayPal or Stripe account could be frozen. This happened to us before because the dispute rates can get high, very quickly.”
Erkmen Erakkus, Co-Founder and CEO, Stoikk
Confidence to scale
Stoikk’s initial success has delivered what Erkmen describes as “a huge boost and motivation,” giving the company the confidence to roll out web payments across its entire app portfolio.
The future
Stoikk has now begun testing different paywall types, funnels, and experiences across its app portfolio.
For future experiments, we’ll test removing the discount entirely to see if Apple Pay’s convenience alone can sustain conversion.
We believe it will work because, ultimately, users don't know about in-app purchases and they don't know about web payments, they just care about a convenient checkout process. That’s what we get with Paddle: Apple Pay through Paddle is frictionless.”
Erkmen Erakkus, Co-Founder and CEO, Stoikk
Want to know more about how Paddle can help your app implement a web checkout with ease? Check out our tools for app developers here or Speak to our team
