Insights and strategies for indie app developers.
Most release notes are either empty or a copy-pasted changelog. Neither helps. Here's how to write update notes that reduce bad reviews, re-engage lapsed users, and make your app look actively maintained.
Most indie app landing pages either say nothing or say everything. Here's what actually needs to be on the page, what order it should go in, and why a two-hour page outperforms a two-week one.
The average top-100 app has a 4.7 rating. Users scroll past 4.5-star apps without a second look. Here's how the floor moved, why it matters for conversion, and what you can actually do about it as an indie developer.
Both Apple and Google give you tools to test your store listing. The problem is that most indie apps don't have enough traffic to get statistically meaningful results. Here's how to use PPO and Store Listing Experiments when you get hundreds of impressions, not millions.
The average app loses 77% of daily active users within three days. Most of them don't leave because the app is bad. They leave because something went wrong in the first few minutes and nobody noticed.
Most indie app paywalls convert at 2-3%. The ones that hit 8-12% aren't using dark patterns. They're better at timing, context, and earning the ask before they make it.
Subscription churn is two different problems wearing the same name. One is a technical issue you can fix in an afternoon. The other is a product question that takes months. Here's how to tell them apart and what to do about each.
We ran six scanners across five App Store markets and looked at over 1,000 listings. Individual app recommendations are less interesting than the patterns that kept showing up regardless of which scanner we used or which market we looked at.
Apple features apps every week. Most indie developers assume they need connections or luck. The actual process is more systematic than people think, and it starts with a form most developers don't know exists.
You translated your app strings, uploaded localized metadata, maybe even paid for screenshots in three languages. Downloads in new markets are still flat. The problem is almost never the translation quality. It's everything around it.
When you submit your app to the App Store, Apple asks you to pick a category. Most developers spend ten seconds on this. That's usually a mistake, because category selection affects your ranking, your competition, and which users discover you.
Most people decide whether to download your app in about three seconds. They glance at your icon, read half the subtitle, and scroll through maybe two screenshots. If those screenshots don't answer 'what does this app do for me?' they're gone.
Your analytics dashboard has 200 metrics. You have time to look at maybe five. The problem isn't getting data. The problem is knowing which numbers actually change your decisions and which ones just generate anxiety.
Your competitors' App Store listings are full of useful information if you know where to look. Subtitles reveal keyword strategy. Screenshots show positioning. Reviews expose weaknesses. Here's a systematic approach to extracting all of it.
Most marketing advice assumes you have money. When your entire company is one person and your revenue is $0, none of that applies. Here's what actually works when the only thing you can spend is time.
Tech stack decisions are weirdly high-stakes when you're working alone. A bad choice at a company means a migration project. For a solo dev, it means you run out of time. Here's what actually works.
At some point, every indie developer with a growing app starts running the same calculation. The app is making money. The day job is getting in the way. Here's a practical framework for the decision.
Every year the App Store shifts a little. Some categories get crowded, others thin out. Here's a data-informed look at which categories are gaining traction and which are losing ground.
Reviews are the one place where people tell you exactly what they want, unprompted, for free. Most developers either ignore them or get defensive. Both are wrong. Here's how to actually use them.
Most MVPs fail because they're built from imagination. The App Store already contains everything you need to know about what to build, what to skip, and what people will pay for.
Pricing is the highest-leverage decision most indie developers spend the least time on. A look at what works, what doesn't, and how to think about your first price point.
Dozens of successful web apps still have no native mobile version. Here's how to find them, evaluate whether they're worth building, and avoid the traps.
Most ASO advice is written for companies with six-figure marketing budgets. Here's what actually works when you're one person with one app and zero ad spend.
Most localization advice boils down to "translate your strings." That gets you about 20% of the way. The other 80% is payment methods, design density, review culture, and things nobody tells you until you've launched to silence.
Some of the best app opportunities are already proven — just in a different country. Here's how to find apps that work in one market and bring them to yours.
"Just add a subscription" is the laziest advice in indie dev. Here's what the data actually says about which revenue models work — and in which categories.
App Store reviews are the largest free user research database on earth. Here's a systematic framework to extract actionable product insights from reviews.
90% of apps fail because founders skip validation. Here's a step-by-step framework to validate your app idea using real App Store data before writing a single line of code.
We scanned 50,000+ apps across 5 countries to find categories where demand is high but quality is low. Here are 7 niches ripe for indie developers.
We analyzed 938 apps that haven't been updated in over 2 years but still have thousands of daily users. Here are the 10 biggest opportunities.
Stop guessing what to build. Here's our exact framework for finding app ideas backed by real App Store data across 5 countries.
The best app ideas aren't original — they're better versions of something that already exists. Here are 5 proof points.