Monetization
Overview
Jest.com allows you to monetize your games through both one-off purchases and recurring subscriptions for your players.
The platform looks after your available products and subscriptions, which you can configure in our developer console, and handles checkout (with support for Apple Pay, Google Wallet and other common payment methods).
Integration is easy via the payments namespace in the SDK.
Products (one-off purchases)
Products are configured in the developer console under game > manage > products.
Each product has
- sku - a friendly ID for developer use, unique per product.
- name - the display name, which will be shown to players during checkout
- description - a short display description, which will be shown to players during checkout
- price - the USD price the player will pay for the product.
The SDK offers purchases in three steps, beginPurchase -> user checkout via the platform UI -> completePurchase.
There's a getIncompletePurchases function to ensure dropped checkouts are handled.
Subscriptions (recurring payments)
Subscriptions are configured in the developer console under game > manage > subscriptions.
Subscriptions are currently all billed monthly
Each subscription has
- sku - a friendly ID for developer use, unique per subscription.
- name - the display name, which will be shown to players during checkout
- description - a short display description, which will be shown to players during checkout
- price - the USD price the player will pay for the subscription every billing period
- free trial (optional) - a trial length of up to 30 days, offered to first-time subscribers; see Free trials
The SDK offers subscription checkout in two steps, beginSubscription -> user checkout via the platform UI.
There's a getSubscriptions function to get available and active subscriptions in order to check a player's entitlements, or offer available subscriptions to them.
Products vs Subscriptions
| Products | Subscriptions | |
|---|---|---|
| Billing | One-off | Recurring (monthly) |
| Lifecycle | beginPurchase → checkout → completePurchase | beginSubscription → checkout (auto-managed) |
| Recovery | getIncompletePurchases() for dropped checkouts | getSubscriptions() returns active/inactive status |
| Use case | Currency packs, consumables, permanent unlocks | Ad removal, premium tiers, recurring content access |
Revenue sharing
Jest's economic model keeps only 10% of net revenue for the platform (after payment fees and taxes). Developers keep the other 90%, which is split between the developer of the monetizing app and the app that acquired the user.
Developer payouts are processed monthly.
Revenue splits are tracked by the platform for every transaction and shown per-game in your developer console. Aggregated earnings, statements and payouts are available in your team dashboard > earnings.
Server-side verification
Purchase and subscription data is returned with signed JWTs that can be verified server-side.
These use a game's 'shared secret' (available in the developer console) to sign data about the purchase that game servers can verify with standard JWT/JWS libraries. We recommend games verify these to confirm the authenticity of the data before granting benefits to the player.
Testing and development
Use sandbox users (configured in the developer console) to test the full purchase and subscription flow end-to-end — sandbox users see the real checkout UI but are charged $0.
Use mock mode (enabled via the SDK debug menu) during early development to simulate success, cancel, or error outcomes without any payment infrastructure.
See the testing section for details.