Sell Themes or One-Off Content

This recipe sells individual content items — themes, chapters, packs — as one-off purchases using the per-item unlock model. It's the fastest path to shipping: native restore, no backend required. When your catalogue outgrows it, jump to Scaling up.

New here? Compare the options first in Choosing a monetization model.

How per-item unlock works

Each content item is one nonconsumable store product. The user buys it, the store remembers it forever, and getOwnedProducts() brings it back on a new device. You don't store anything.

You don't release the app per product

The fear that prompts most people here: "do we really create a product in Apple for every theme — and release the app each time?"

You create a product per item, yes. But you do not release the app each time. After your first in-app purchase ships attached to an app version, every additional product is created in App Store Connect / Google Play Console and submitted for review on its own — no new binary, no app update. Adding a theme is a store-console task, not an app release.

Build it

const productId = "theme.aurora";

const product = await startiapp.InAppPurchase.getProduct(productId, "nonconsumable");

if (product.success) {
  document.getElementById("theme-name").textContent = product.value.name;
  document.getElementById("theme-price").textContent = product.value.localizedPrice;
} else {
  console.error("Couldn't load product:", product.errorMessage);
}

document.getElementById("buy-btn").addEventListener("click", async () => {
  const result = await startiapp.InAppPurchase.purchaseProduct(
    productId,
    "nonconsumable"
  );

  if (!result.success) {
    console.error("Purchase failed:", result.errorMessage);
    return;
  }

  // Validate on your backend before unlocking — see the warning below.
  await fetch("/api/validate-purchase", {
    method: "POST",
    headers: { "Content-Type": "application/json" },
    body: JSON.stringify({
      transactionId: result.value.transactionIdentifier,
      productId,
    }),
  });

  unlockTheme(productId);
});

document.getElementById("restore-btn").addEventListener("click", async () => {
  const result = await startiapp.InAppPurchase.getOwnedProducts({ sync: true });
  if (result.success) {
    for (const product of result.value) {
      unlockTheme(product.productId);
    }
  }
});

Scaling up: content tokens

Per-item unlock starts to hurt when you publish items constantly — every drop means a new store product and a review wait. At that point, switch to the content token model:

• Sell one consumable "token" product (or a few price tiers).
• The user buys a token and redeems it for any item — adding new items never touches the store consoles again.

The catch: consumables are never restored by the store, so you must keep your own record of what each user owns, tied to a user account. No accounts, no token — a reinstall would wipe purchases you can't bring back. See Content token for the trade-offs before committing.

See also

• Choosing a monetization model
• Set Up In-App Purchases
• In-App Purchase API Reference