I made a paid MacOS app called RestEyes. It helps users follow the 20-20-20 rule to help reduce eye strain when working on a screen for long hours, and provides a gentle reminder to look away instead of blocking the whole screen.
I have reached the top 10 in paid health and fitness apps a couple times. Revenue is probably in the low hundreds of dollars for lifetime, and the first year it was out it made very little. Second year it started getting some traction. (apple also takes 100 bucks a year to post an app, so first year basically lost money)
It's hard since I don't really use paid advertising. I made it in SwiftUI and used a channel called SwiftfulThinking to learn how to code it, besides that just other yt tutorials as needed :)
I think it is possible for sure to build a business around a MacOS app. It just has to be unique enough for people to want to pay for it, and you have to know how to get it out there (marketing). Kinda like the iOS marketplace, just smaller, but thats not really an issue if you're solving a relevant problem for Mac users.
Lmk if u have other questions!
Almost exactly 1 year ago, I built a simple macOS app to run randomized photo slideshows (turns out - it's not an easy thing to do on macOS!). I got some nice initial traction (no paid ads), received user feedback, added more features, did a few releases, and after 6 months introduced a one-time fee (needed only if you want to run a slideshow with more than 150 photos; otherwise the app is free to use). And it turned out - people find it valuable and buy the license :)
I have not published it via the App Store though. It's a direct distribution (via .dmg, but it's checked & notarized by Apple so I needed to pay $99/year fee to be able to do that). I'm using Sparkle to handle the updates.
I’m the sole developer behind Nottawa, a free open-source live audioreactive visuals app for VJs and creatives. My vision is a simpler version of TouchDesigner or Resolume which can be picked up by non-technical folks who just want some cool, groovy displays at their next live event.
Still lots of work to be done, but we’re getting there. In the middle of a full redesign for the landing page and the app itself, so don’t mind the mess :)
Looked into building an FTP GUI for MacOS, but I found that there aren't any easy options for programmatically doing SFTP in Swift. Best option looks like it's SwiftNIO which is fairly low level.
I made a paid MacOS app called RestEyes. It helps users follow the 20-20-20 rule to help reduce eye strain when working on a screen for long hours, and provides a gentle reminder to look away instead of blocking the whole screen.
I have reached the top 10 in paid health and fitness apps a couple times. Revenue is probably in the low hundreds of dollars for lifetime, and the first year it was out it made very little. Second year it started getting some traction. (apple also takes 100 bucks a year to post an app, so first year basically lost money)
It's hard since I don't really use paid advertising. I made it in SwiftUI and used a channel called SwiftfulThinking to learn how to code it, besides that just other yt tutorials as needed :)
Link to SwiftfulThinking channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/swiftfulthinking Link to app for reference: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/20-20-20-rule-resteyes/id64493...
I think it is possible for sure to build a business around a MacOS app. It just has to be unique enough for people to want to pay for it, and you have to know how to get it out there (marketing). Kinda like the iOS marketplace, just smaller, but thats not really an issue if you're solving a relevant problem for Mac users. Lmk if u have other questions!
Almost exactly 1 year ago, I built a simple macOS app to run randomized photo slideshows (turns out - it's not an easy thing to do on macOS!). I got some nice initial traction (no paid ads), received user feedback, added more features, did a few releases, and after 6 months introduced a one-time fee (needed only if you want to run a slideshow with more than 150 photos; otherwise the app is free to use). And it turned out - people find it valuable and buy the license :)
I have not published it via the App Store though. It's a direct distribution (via .dmg, but it's checked & notarized by Apple so I needed to pay $99/year fee to be able to do that). I'm using Sparkle to handle the updates.
What if you ignore Apple notarization?
I’m the sole developer behind Nottawa, a free open-source live audioreactive visuals app for VJs and creatives. My vision is a simpler version of TouchDesigner or Resolume which can be picked up by non-technical folks who just want some cool, groovy displays at their next live event.
Still lots of work to be done, but we’re getting there. In the middle of a full redesign for the landing page and the app itself, so don’t mind the mess :)
https://nottawa.app
Looked into building an FTP GUI for MacOS, but I found that there aren't any easy options for programmatically doing SFTP in Swift. Best option looks like it's SwiftNIO which is fairly low level.
Why does it have to be macOS but not a Windows app?