🅿️Patreon Integration

Use AltStore's built-in Patreon integration to easily distribute apps to your Patrons.

Overview

Apps in AltStore are all free by default, but by creating a Patreon campaign you can choose to offer your apps exclusively to Patrons.

Members of your Patreon can connect their accounts to download any apps they have access to. Once a user installs your app, they'll be able to refresh it and receive updates through AltStore as long as they remain a Patron.

You can assign as many apps as you like to a single Patreon campaign. In other words, you don't need individual campaigns for each app in your source.

How it Works

By default, apps marked as Patreon-only will show "Join Patreon" above the download button and be visible to everyone. When an app is downloaded, AltStore will first authenticate with Patreon to verify they are a patron. If they are not a patron, AltStore will direct them to your Patreon page instead.

You can optionally limit app downloads to certain tiers by specifying the minimum pledge required in your source JSON. Additionally, you can choose to hide an app from non-Patrons completely. Learn more

If provided, the minimum pledge amount will be shown as the app's monthly price. For this reason, we recommend always providing a minimum pledge amount, even if you only have one tier.

For more fine-grain control, you can specify the exact tiers required for each app in your source's JSON. Learn more

Expired Pledges

Once a user's pledge expires, they'll no longer receive updates for your app(s) or be able to refresh them. This will cause these apps to expire after 7 days, after which they will no longer be able to be opened.

If they become a Patron again in the future, they will be able to use your apps like normal.

Instructions

Upload the IPA

AltStore uses the Patreon API to ensure only Patrons can download your app. This requires attaching your .ipa file to a Patreon post, which has a limit of 200MB.

1. Create a new Patreon Post

2. Attach your .ipa file

3. Configure post visibility to limit which tiers can download it

4. Publish Patreon Post

5. Right-click the attachment and copy the URL

Update Your Source

1. Create a new App entry in your source JSON

2. Use the copied attachment URL for your app's downloadURL

3. Add a Patreon object to your app's entry with the conditions required to download it (this should match the visibility of your Patreon post).

4. If not yet added, add the patreonURL key to your source JSON with your Patreon page's URL (e.g https://www.patreon.com/rileyshane)

5. Upload your source JSON to your server