RevenueCat vs Adapty vs Qonversion: Best iOS Subscription SDK in 2026

Why This Comparison Matters

If you are building a subscription iOS app in 2026, you need more than just StoreKit 2. You need server-side receipt validation, a dashboard to track MRR and churn, a way to A/B test paywalls, and ideally a remote paywall builder so you can iterate without App Store reviews. Three platforms do all of this: RevenueCat, Adapty, and Qonversion.

I have used all three across different projects. RevenueCat powered my first two apps. I migrated one project to Adapty to test their paywall builder. And I recently evaluated Qonversion for a client spending heavily on Apple Search Ads who needed attribution baked in. Each SDK has genuine strengths, and picking the wrong one can cost you months of migration later.

If you are still deciding between going fully native with StoreKit 2 or using a third-party SDK at all, read our StoreKit 2 vs RevenueCat comparison first. This post assumes you have already decided that a subscription SDK makes sense.

The Pricing Breakdown (April 2026)

Pricing is the first thing most indie developers care about, and it is where these three diverge the most. All three use a percentage-of-revenue model, but the free tier limits and percentages are very different.

A few things jump out. Qonversion gives you the most runway before you pay anything: $10K MTR is enough for many indie apps to run indefinitely on the free plan. Their paid percentages (0.6% and 0.8%) also undercut RevenueCat and Adapty, both of which charge 1%. The catch is Qonversion's $99/month minimum on paid plans, which means very small apps just crossing the free threshold would pay more per dollar than with RevenueCat or Adapty.

Adapty doubled their free tier to $5K MTR in early 2026, up from the old $99/month flat fee. That is a significant shift that makes them much more accessible for pre-revenue and early-stage apps.

RevenueCat's $2,500 free tier is the smallest of the three, but their documentation, community support, and integration ecosystem are unmatched. Sometimes the cheapest option is the one that saves you the most debugging time.

Feature Comparison: What Actually Ships in Each SDK

Pricing aside, the features are what determine whether an SDK fits your workflow. Here is a detailed look at what you get.

RevenueCat: The Industry Standard

RevenueCat is the default choice for a reason. It powers over 35,000 apps, has the most comprehensive documentation of any subscription SDK, and its community is large enough that virtually any question you have has already been answered on their forums or Stack Overflow.

The big 2026 story for RevenueCat is Paywalls v2. Their paywall builder now renders with 100% native code (SwiftUI on iOS, Jetpack Compose on Android) instead of web views. You get a component-based editor in the dashboard where you drag in text, images, buttons, and stacks to build your paywall. Changes go live without an app update. As of early 2026, they added keyboard shortcuts, copy-paste between paywalls, a media gallery, exit offers, and auto-save for drafts.

RevenueCat also has the strongest integration ecosystem. It connects natively to Stripe for web subscriptions, plus dozens of analytics and marketing tools like Amplitude, Mixpanel, Adjust, AppsFlyer, and Braze. If you are building a cross-platform subscription business that spans iOS, Android, and web, RevenueCat is hard to beat.

The weakness? That $2,500 free tier is the lowest of the three. Once you are earning $5K-$10K/month, you are paying 1% while Adapty and Qonversion users in that range might still be on their free plans.

Adapty: The Paywall Optimization Specialist

Adapty has repositioned itself in 2026 as the subscription SDK for teams that care deeply about paywall conversion. Their visual paywall builder has matured significantly. You can start from pre-made, industry-tested templates or build from a blank canvas. Everything renders natively, not in a web view. Changes deploy instantly with no app review needed.

The standout feature is Growth Autopilot. It benchmarks your paywall performance against competitors in your category, identifies where you are underperforming, and builds a sequenced plan of A/B tests. Instead of guessing what to test next, Adapty tells you. For solo developers without a growth team, this is genuinely useful.

Adapty's A/B testing is also more flexible than RevenueCat's. You can run multi-variant tests (not just A/B), test any element of the paywall (products, titles, CTAs, images, videos), and view 20+ metrics in real time. Statistical significance is calculated automatically.

The $5K free tier is generous. If you are earning between $2,500 and $5,000/month, Adapty is literally free while RevenueCat would be charging you 1%. That difference matters when you are reinvesting every dollar into growth.

Where Adapty falls short: its integration ecosystem is smaller than RevenueCat's, and it does not have native Stripe/web subscription support. If your business spans web and mobile, you will need to handle web subscriptions separately.

Qonversion: The Attribution-First Platform

Qonversion takes a fundamentally different approach. While RevenueCat and Adapty focus on subscription management with optional attribution integrations, Qonversion builds attribution directly into the subscription platform. If you are spending money on Apple Search Ads, Facebook Ads, or other paid acquisition channels, Qonversion connects subscription revenue back to the specific campaigns that drove those users.

That matters more than you might think. Knowing that Campaign A generates subscribers with a 60% trial-to-paid rate while Campaign B only converts at 25% lets you reallocate ad spend with confidence. With RevenueCat or Adapty, you would need a separate attribution tool like Adjust or AppsFlyer (which come with their own costs and complexity).

The $10K MTR free tier is by far the most generous. Most indie apps earning under $10K/month can use Qonversion without ever paying a cent. And when you do cross that threshold, the 0.6% rate on the Starter plan undercuts both competitors.

The tradeoff is maturity. Qonversion's community is smaller. Their documentation, while solid, does not have the depth of RevenueCat's hundreds of guides. The no-code paywall builder is newer and less polished than Adapty's visual editor or RevenueCat's Paywalls v2. And the $99/month minimum on paid plans means a small app at $11K MTR pays $99 (effectively 0.9%) rather than the advertised 0.6%.

Platform Support and SDK Details

All three support the platforms that matter most. Here is a quick summary:

• RevenueCat: iOS, macOS, watchOS, tvOS, visionOS, Android, Flutter, React Native, Unity, Cordova, Web (via Stripe). The broadest coverage.
• Adapty: iOS, macOS, Android, Flutter, React Native, Unity. No native web/Stripe integration.
• Qonversion: iOS, Android, Flutter, React Native, Unity, Cordova, Web SDK. Stripe integration available.

For an iOS-only indie app, platform support is a non-issue. All three have polished Swift SDKs that integrate via Swift Package Manager. The difference only matters when you need cross-platform or web billing.

Integration and Setup Time

I have integrated all three from scratch, and the setup experience is remarkably similar. You add the SDK via SPM, call a configure method with your API key at app launch, set up products in the respective dashboard, and implement your paywall. Realistically, each one takes 1-3 hours for a basic integration.

RevenueCat has the edge in developer experience. Their documentation is extensive, error messages are clear, and the Sandbox/debug tooling in the dashboard is excellent. Adapty claims a 30-minute integration time, which is optimistic but not unreasonable if you use their pre-built paywall templates. Qonversion's docs are good but require more self-guided exploration.

If you are using The Swift Kit, RevenueCat comes pre-integrated with a working paywall, so your setup time drops to roughly five minutes of configuration. For Adapty or Qonversion, you would swap out the RevenueCat calls with the equivalent SDK methods. The architecture in The Swift Kit is designed to make this straightforward.

Which SDK Should You Pick?

After using all three, here is my honest recommendation based on where you are right now:

Choose RevenueCat if...

• You want the largest community and most documentation
• You need cross-platform support including web/Stripe billing
• You value a mature, battle-tested paywall builder with native rendering
• You are building your first subscription app and want the smoothest learning curve
• You are already in the RevenueCat ecosystem (read our RevenueCat SwiftUI tutorial)

Choose Adapty if...

• Paywall conversion optimization is your top priority
• You want Growth Autopilot to tell you what to A/B test next
• You are earning between $2.5K and $5K/month and want to stay on a free plan
• You want a visual paywall builder with more design flexibility
• You are a solo developer without a growth team

Choose Qonversion if...

• You spend heavily on paid user acquisition (Apple Search Ads, Facebook, etc.)
• You need built-in attribution to tie revenue back to campaigns
• You are earning under $10K/month and want the most generous free tier
• Cost efficiency matters and you want the lowest percentage (0.6%) at scale
• You do not mind a smaller community and newer tooling

Can You Switch Later?

Yes, but it is not trivial. All three SDKs store subscriber data on their servers. Migrating means re-importing historical data, re-mapping product IDs, and testing edge cases like grace periods and billing retry. RevenueCat and Adapty both offer import tools, and Qonversion has migration guides. Plan for 1-2 weeks of testing when switching.

The best strategy is to abstract your subscription logic behind a protocol in your app. That way, swapping the underlying SDK requires changing one implementation file, not every view that checks entitlements. Good MVVM architecture makes this natural.

Final Thoughts

The subscription SDK market has genuinely matured in 2026. All three of these platforms are production-ready and well-maintained. The differences are real but not dramatic. RevenueCat is the Toyota Camry: reliable, well-supported, works everywhere. Adapty is the Mazda 3: a bit sportier on the paywall optimization side with a lower entry cost. Qonversion is the Hyundai Ioniq: great value, a unique feature (attribution), and a generous warranty (free tier).

For most developers reading this post, RevenueCat remains the right starting point. It integrates in minutes, the free tier covers your first $2,500/month, and the documentation will save you hours of troubleshooting. If you are ready to set it up, our step-by-step RevenueCat SwiftUI guide walks through the entire process. And if you want the whole subscription stack pre-wired, including paywall templates, onboarding, auth, and analytics, The Swift Kit has you covered for a one-time $99.