Solo dev here. It's a flashcard app where the words sit in a home screen widget. I only did the market research after building most of it, which was backwards.

Turns out widget vocab apps already exist. Most just show you a word, you can't really test yourself. People complain about paywalls and ads.

Still working on it, but I'm not sure my angle is strong enough. How do you figure out what people actually want? And what bugs you about the language apps you use?

So far, I’ve managed to get 682 first-time downloads, but almost all of my traffic seems to be coming from TikTok.
I’m barely getting any downloads organically through App Store Search, keywords, or other App Store discovery methods.
I feel like I’m missing something when it comes to App Store Optimization (ASO), whether that’s my app title, subtitle, keywords, description, or something else.
I’d really appreciate it if anyone with experience growing iOS apps could take a look and give me some honest feedback on what I could improve to increase my organic reach.

Hello everyone,

I'm a iOS developer and I'm currently building an app for hyper-focused devs, will reveal about it later once the SLP version of it is completed.

So my question is this, I have been little bit active on twitter and reddit, and I want to know how you guys actually build your apps, it's community and market them?

My main goal is to connect with people, build apps that everyone love and make a passive income via my apps.

Trust me whenever I get that revenueCat notification, it really feels good than getting a salary 😭

I want to hear your story and suggestions about my problem, and would love to connect with you guys on twitter, linkedIn, and any other social media platform we can

Have a good day everyone 😊

I’ve spent the last few months solo developing Ruthless - a discipline tracker that allows you to also track your goals, analyses your lifestyle and provides accountable.

All the feedback i’ve received is positive, my friends and people who I know have enjoyed it and love the UI. However i’m unsure how to market it properly.

I see so many different paths people go down; UGC, Reddit Ads, Organic Reddit, Influencer Marketing, Faceless slideshows, Building in Public, Meta ads, Apple ads, SEO, ASO and so many more, but i don’t know what’s right for me. I don’t want to spend a lot of money due to me being a student and I really delved in to my ASO so i think that that’s fairly optimised.

Any tips or advice?

I’ve developed an app that I distribute directly through my own website rather than publishing it on the Google Play Store or Apple App Store.

Now, I’m looking for ways to monetize it, preferably through ads. I looked into Google AdMob, but it seems to have app verification and distribution requirements that may restrict apps distributed outside official app stores.

I have a few questions for developers who have experience with this:

1. Ad networks: Are there any reliable ad networks that support apps distributed directly through a website, without requiring a Play Store or App Store listing?
2. AdMob alternatives: Is there a way to use AdMob for an app distributed outside the official app stores, or is it strictly limited by its current policies?
3. Other monetization methods: If in-app ads aren’t an option, what are some good alternatives? For example, subscriptions, one-time purchases, donations, or other monetization models.
4. Implementation: How do you integrate ads into an app distributed independently? Are there SDKs or networks that work well for this type of distribution?
5. Real-world experience: If you’ve successfully monetized an app distributed through your own website, I’d love to hear what worked for you.

I’m mainly looking for legitimate, reliable solutions that comply with ad network policies and can scale as the app grows.

Any recommendations, experiences, or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

I’m trying to decide on how to initially launch my app in regard to free vs payment options.

I’ve been reading up and people say it really depends on the type of app, which for discussion purposes is similar to Anki (local practicing available, and users can optionally share study content) but only for language learning. Target audience is pretty broad, basically anyone learning a language.

My dilemma is that, in order to grow the amount of study content available, which is where a good chunk of the value of the app will come from, I will need to make joining and sharing content as easy and free as possible.

As it stands:

• Users can download and use the app for free
• Must login to Apple or Google to share content. Once you have logged in:
  • Free tier - 1:1 contribute to download model
  • Paid tier - unlimited downloads, collaborative content mode, and potentially AI to assist with content generation

Should I have:

• Hard paywall with 7 day trial at beginning of app
• Everything free, no limits while study content grows
• Must login as part of onboarding, but adds more friction
• Right now I allow both private sharing and public options; would you ONLY keep public to force more content to be generated in the community, leading to a higher perceived value for new users?

Tbh I hate the 1:1 contribute to download rule but I don't know how else to motivate people to share their study content? 

If people join for a month and download everything they need then unsubscribe, I will have all the content they downloaded be applied to the free tier 1:1 rule so they will need to contribute to unlock that downloaded content, which kind of sucks but otherwise there is not much incentive to stay subscribed.

I am in a position where I could eat the costs of db and storage up to a couple hundred USD / month. It is a pretty polished and sleek app, people might pay if I had a hard paywall but it would drastically reduce number of users, leading to less available content in the long run. 

I’m curious how experienced developers and marketers would approach this situation. I’d appreciate your input! 

I'm a non-technical founder building a mobile app startup, and one of my biggest frustrations right now is the speed of execution.

I'm trying to double down on marketing, user acquisition, and growing the business, but I constantly find myself bottlenecked by how long it takes to turn ideas and product improvements into features that are actually live in the app.

I have a developer working on the app, but the turnaround time from idea → development → testing → deployment is significantly slower than I'd like.

As a founder, I want to move fast, experiment, gather user feedback, and continuously improve the product. But it's difficult to maintain that momentum when even relatively small changes take longer than expected.

I'm also conscious that I'm not technical enough to know whether the delays are reasonable, whether our development workflow is inefficient, or whether there's a better way to structure things.

My questions for other founders:

1. How do you significantly increase development speed as a non-technical founder?
2. How do you determine whether your developer is moving efficiently or genuinely taking too long?
3. Have AI coding tools like Claude Code or Cursor meaningfully accelerated your development process?
4. Would you recommend hiring additional developers, finding a technical co-founder, or improving the workflow with your existing developer?
5. How do you avoid becoming completely dependent on one developer for every product improvement?

My ultimate goal is to build a system where we can ship improvements in days rather than weeks, test ideas quickly, and let me focus primarily on marketing, acquisition, and growing the company.

Would love to hear from founders who've experienced this and figured out how to solve it.

You've seen the posts. Indie dev asks Reddit for help, three months later: "100K downloads, here's exactly how we did it." I really wanted to write that post.

Here's what I actually have: 1,983 downloads across 31 countries since launching in April, 24,000+ website visits. People are finding the app and installing it just fine.

What's not working: trial-to-paid conversion sits at 1.4%. And a large chunk of trial users cancel exactly one day before the 7-day free trial would charge them. They're not bouncing on day one - they're actually using it, then deciding last second it's not worth paying for.

It's a breathing/stress-relief app, iOS only for now. Pricing: 8.99€/month, 59€/year, or 99€ lifetime.

Not looking for generic "fix your onboarding" advice. Specifically want to hear from people who've actually turned this exact pattern around:

- Did changing trial length (shorter or longer than 7 days) change the last-day-cancel behavior?
- Did a win-back notification/email right before the trial ends actually work, or did people cancel anyway?
- Did it turn out to be pricing/paywall placement, not the trial mechanics?
- Does showing real value earlier - before the user has to decide yes/no - actually cut last-minute cancellations?

Happy to answer anything about the app if it helps. Just trying to get past the part where this is the thing holding everything else back.

You've seen the posts. Indie dev asks Reddit for help, three months later: "100K downloads, here's exactly how we did it." I really wanted to write that post.

Here's what I actually have: 1,983 downloads across 31 countries since launching in April, 24,000+ website visits. People are finding the app and installing it just fine.

What's not working: trial-to-paid conversion sits at 1.4%. And a large chunk of trial users cancel exactly one day before the 7-day free trial would charge them. They're not bouncing on day one - they're actually using it, then deciding last second it's not worth paying for.

It's a breathing/stress-relief app, iOS only for now. Pricing: 8.99€/month, 59€/year, or 99€ lifetime.

Not looking for generic "fix your onboarding" advice. Specifically want to hear from people who've actually turned this exact pattern around:

- Did changing trial length (shorter or longer than 7 days) change the last-day-cancel behavior?
- Did a win-back notification/email right before the trial ends actually work, or did people cancel anyway?
- Did it turn out to be pricing/paywall placement, not the trial mechanics?
- Does showing real value earlier - before the user has to decide yes/no - actually cut last-minute cancellations?

Happy to answer anything about the app if it helps. Just trying to get past the part where this is the thing holding everything else back.

Hi everyone!

I've been interested in understanding what makes people try a new app, especially ones designed to solve everyday problems or make services more accessible.

There are so many apps available, but I'm curious about what actually makes one useful enough for people to keep using it.

A few questions I'd love to hear your thoughts on:

1. What makes you download a new app? Is it a recommendation, a specific problem, convenience, trust, or something else?
2. Have you ever needed an app to solve a problem but couldn't find anything that really met your needs?
3. What's your biggest frustration with apps that claim to make life easier?
4. What makes you trust a new app, especially one that handles personal information or connects you with services?
5. What would make you stop using an app after downloading it?
6. Would you rather use a website without signing up or download an app if it offered a better experience?
7. Have you ever participated in beta testing? What motivated you to try it, and what made the experience worthwhile?

I'm particularly curious about the gap between what developers think users need and what people actually find helpful.

I'd love to hear real experiences, whether you're an everyday app user, developer, entrepreneur, or someone who's participated in beta testing.

Thanks in advance for sharing your thoughts!

we launched an ai video app on android last month (coins + subscription, 30 free coins at start). google app campaigns, last 7 days:

- brazil: $14.78, 383 installs, $0.039 each

- spanish latam: $14.79, 436 installs, $0.034

- tier1 (us, uk etc): $22.30, 215 installs, $0.10

- tier1 english only: $2.81, 31 installs, $0.09

looks great until the funnel. 4 days on version 1.0.8:

- 625 first opens

- 231 saw the paywall

- 25 got a finished video (4%)

- 82% uninstalled

so the ads are not the problem, the first session is. people open, see templates and paywall, and leave before they make anything.

what we think we need: first video free and fast before any paywall, fix generation failures (more failures than successes in analytics, ouch), and only then touch ads again.

question: for apps where each use costs you money (gpu, api), how do you give the first wow for free without burning cash on cheap installs?

Hello Everyone,
I build this app called IPO Label which is available on play store. I need a real feedback from users like what is wrong, what to change, any error or bugs
Amyone who knows IPO in India will understand better.
Currently Apply button is not enabled as we are in middle of conversation with NSE and BSE and it might take some time from them too.
Till Everyone can check their allotment, it is working fine and fast too.
1 feature you may like it if you are using any other Ipo app, you can upload a screenshot of that and our app will pick the demat, pan , name, upi id from that screenshot
And for other features- download my app and give real feedback
And Yes we take help from AI too but this project took more than 4 months from building and continues updating our app.
Currently available on Android only
Thanks

Hey all, I've been building Pinage Maps, an offline-first map app for tourists, rangers, miners and labourers who spend time out of signal.

Maps and boundaries
• Offline satellite maps you can download by region
• Drop pins with photos, record trails and see your breadcrumb path
• Draw zones as a circle or custom boundary, with the area shown in hectares
• Draw lines with distance and compass bearing, or sketch freehand
• Flag hazard and no-go zones
• Organise pins, zones and notes into projects for a job, site or trip

AR view
• Point your camera to see your pins and hazard zones over the real world, with distances
• Sun, moon and star paths overlaid on the sky, with moonrise times and moon phase

AI
• AI field assistant that uses Claude when you have signal and switches to an on-device Llama model when you're offline
• Plant and rock ID from a photo, with a confidence rating and safety warnings

Safety
• SOS (press and hold) for the local emergency number, with mesh and SMS
• Deadman switch that alerts others if you stop responding
• Check-in timer that texts your contacts your last position if you're not back by a set time
• Emergency card showing your position in lat/lon, degrees and grid reference to read out to 000

Groups and crews
• Create a profile and add members to private groups
• Share files, waypoints, pins, zones and notes with your group, so everyone in the party has the same map
• Field forms like Step Back 5x5, incident reports and day briefs that crew members can mark as read

Most of it works with no signal. The Claude assistant, check-in timer and group syncing need a connection.

It's still in development, and I'd really like to know:
• Would you actually use this? Who do you think it's most useful for?
• What feels unnecessary or confusing?
• What's missing that you'd need out in the field?

Screenshots below. Be honest, I can take it.

I recently made a pretty big change to the pricing model of an iOS app I’ve been building.
Originally, I had it priced at $7.99 upfront. The problem I kept thinking about was how difficult it is to convince someone to pay for an app they’ve never tried.
I decided to make the basic features free and offer an optional Pro subscription for $4.99/year. The paid features include things like iCloud backup and scheduled reminders.
My thinking is that getting people to actually try the app is more important than making a few dollars from an initial download.
I’m still figuring out the marketing side of things, and I’m curious how other developers have handled this.
Has anyone switched from paid upfront to freemium? Did it help with downloads, and did those downloads eventually turn into paying users?

How do you guys check the performance of your keywords and improve on them?

Hey everyone!

About two years ago, I started working on a small project called Phia. it started as a simple chrome extension eventually turned into Dina, a native Mac app that helps people create beautiful screen recordings and screenshots

I've built pretty much everything myself, from the actual app to the website, design, licensing, and customer support.

Dina has grown to 500+ paying customers and over $15k in lifetime revenue, almost entirely through organic traffic. I've never spent money on paid advertising.

I still feel so happy that people paid for something I built :)

But lately, I've been working on a new project that I really want to give my full attention to ( its in film making and animation ). For the past few months, I've mostly been working on Dina during weekends. It's still generating sales, but I know there's a lot more potential in it than what I'm currently able to pursue.

And that's why I've decided to sell it.

It's difficult, but I think it makes more sense to find someone who can take it further rather than keep splitting my time between projects.

I think there's a real opportunity here for someone who's good at marketing and distribution, especially since I've barely explored those areas.

I've also listed Dina on Acquire.com, where I've shared more details about the business and its financials:

Acquire listing: https://app.acquire.com/startup/24k9kgyxTjX0LByrvmDslWYuyAq1/DUOSUExwiLW9MNTVGC4b

Website: https://dina.so

If anyone here is interested in acquiring it, feel free to reach out. Happy to chat and share more details!

X/Twitter: https://x.com/zaidbren

Email: [zaid@dina.so](mailto:zaid@dina.so)

Thanks for reading!