There is a new subscription-only app store for iOS coming soon from Setapp

In the European Union, one of the first third-party app shops for iOS is about to launch. The Setapp store will be open for beta on Thursday, according to a statement from MacPaw Software. An official launch is scheduled for April.

Setapp, which is exclusively available on macOS at the moment, costs $9.99 a month and gives users access to over 240 third-party applications. The productivity program Session, the project planner MindNode, and the music software n-Track Studio are a few of the carefully chosen apps that Setapp offers.

A “carefully selected assortment of apps, including fan favorites from the Setapp catalog” will be available in the new iOS app store. Setapp on iOS will provide design software, utility apps, productivity services, and more in addition to productivity and business solutions.

Unknown about the price of the subscription, Setapp’s new iOS app store will also be accessible. The Verge is informed by Yaroslav Stepanenko, product marketing manager at MacPaw, that “the pricing will be tailored to standard subscription pricing models, but it hasn’t been defined yet.” You can join the waitlist on Setapp’s website if you’d want to test out the new iOS store.

Before Apple’s anti-sideloading policies, third-party app stores were unable to function on the iPhone. Specifically, Setapp offers an unique approach to the app store business by allowing consumers to purchase individual apps at a time rather than having to pay a monthly subscription price for all of its products.

Oleksandr Kosovan, CEO of MacPaw, stated in a statement, “We are setting a new path for the software industry towards a better and more diverse app ecosystem.” “Every app, feature, and update is carefully chosen to ensure that it fits to our philosophy of meaningful efficiency.”

With the release of iOS 17.4, which takes effect in March, Apple declared in January that it will let third-party app stores on iPhones as part of its efforts to comply with the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA). Users of iPhones will be able to find applications that might not be accessible on Apple’s App Store by downloading alternate app stores from the marketplace’s website. Any app supplied through an alternate store will require Apple to “notarize” it, much like third-party apps on macOS.

Although Apple is easing some of its regulations, there are still doubts about the viability of third-party app stores. Some claim that because developers would have to accept different conditions of business when putting their apps on a third-party store, Apple prevents them from doing so. Once an app hits one million downloads in the EU annually, the new regulations impose a “Core Technology Fee” that costs 50 euro cents each install. This might be especially harmful to well-known freemium apps.