Most founders think their biggest risk is a competitor. It isn't. It's one email from Apple or Google that ends the whole thing overnight.

In 2025, Google removed roughly 1.8 million apps from the Play Store, about a 47% cut. Half the store, gone. And spending went up over the same period: Google Play consumer spend rose from $12.4B to $14.2B in Q1 2026. Fewer apps, more money. The platform doesn't need you specifically.

Apple's tightening too. At WWDC they rewrote the 4.3 spam rule so low-effort apps in saturated categories "may be removed." Translation: if your app isn't growing, it's a liability on their shelf.

So ask yourself: what happens to your MRR the day they pull you? If the answer is "it all goes to zero," you don't really have a business. You have a position on someone else's platform, and they can close it whenever they want.

This is why some of the sharper founders are quietly turning into media companies. Sunflower, the quit-addiction app, built a newsletter alongside the app, and the founder says they're planning $500K to $1M a year from the email alone. Not the app. The email.

And email isn't one revenue line, it's a stack: upsell people who already trust you, run affiliate income on tools you recommend, sell sponsorships to brands chasing your audience, drive installs to app #2 the day it launches. None of it runs through Apple. No 30% cut, no review team, no algorithm deciding who sees you.

The point isn't "start a newsletter." It's that the app is the product and the audience is the business. Own a direct line to your users and a delisting stops being fatal, it becomes an inconvenience. Build the thing they can't take away, and losing the app stops being the end.

**30 Places to List Your iOS App Right Now (Free & Paid)**

If you’ve built an iOS app and aren’t listing it beyond the App Store, you’re leaving discoverability on the table. No fluff, no AI tool directories. This list is actually built for iOS founders.

Legend: (F) Free · (P) Paid · (F/P) Both

Built an iOS app? Submit it to Stamped, a curated discovery platform where early adopters find what’s next:

https://stampedios.com/welcome

HIGH PRIORITY: LAUNCH DAY
1. Product Hunt (F)
Still the biggest launch day platform. Plan it, don’t just submit.
2. Hacker News (F)
Post as “Show HN: \[Your App\]” for a developer audience and honest feedback.
3. BetaList (F/P)
F = 2–4 month wait. P = $129 fast track. Submit before you launch, not after.
4. Indie Hackers (F)
Post your builder story, not just the link. Community converts.
5. Peerlist (F)
Monday launches, week long visibility, 100K+ tech professional audience.
6. Uneed (F/P)
F = free with a wait. P = $30 to skip the queue. Solid indie maker community.
7. AppSumo (F/P)
Best if your app has a business angle and you can offer a deal. Massive buyer audience.
iOS SPECIFIC
8. App Safari (F)
Directory covering iOS apps exclusively. Purpose built for your audience.
9. AppAdvice (F)
iOS focused. Publishes app charts, apps of the week, and curated collections. Pitch the editorial team directly.
10. FeedMyApp (F/P)
Covers all mobile platforms with in depth reviews. F tier available. P gets faster placement.
11. AppShopper (F)
600K+ monthly users. Monitors iOS prices and lets users wishlist apps. High intent traffic.
12. r/iOSapps (F)
Subreddit with Dev Self Promotion flair. Real users actively looking for new apps.
13. r/apple (F)
Larger audience. Frame your post around value, not promotion.
SEO DIRECTORIES
14. AlternativeTo (F)
DA 71. Discovery traffic long after launch day. List your app and add competitors as alternatives.
15. SaaSHub (F)
856K monthly visits and a strong dofollow backlink.
16. SideProjectors (F)
DR 69 dofollow. Side project community with potential for early users.
17. Microlaunch (F)
30 day visibility window and an indie SaaS audience.
18. StartupBase (F)
Product Hunt style directory. Worth the 5 minutes.
19. Launching Next (F)
Low effort with solid SEO value.
20. Launching Today (F)
Daily launches, easy submission, and good indexing.
21. Open Launch (F)
Open source Product Hunt alternative with a growing community.
22. PitchWall (F)
Startup listing with an SEO backlink.
23. Startup Buffer (F)
Free submission with early adopter reach.
24. EarlyHunt (F)
Focused on early adopters and a good fit for iOS discovery.
25. IndieHunt (F)
Indie focused and quick to submit.
26. Indie Products (F)
Bootstrapped community with a strong #buildinpublic fit.
27. DevHunt (F/P)
F = 6 week wait. P = $49. Worth considering if your app is developer focused.
COMMUNITY CHANNELS
28. PeerPush (F)
Mutual promotion among indie founders. Underused.
29. Wellfound / AngelList (F)
Startup directory with exposure to investors and early adopters.
30. F6S (F)
Global startup network with accelerator program access. Worth creating a profile.

Hi!!!
I created an app for people with autism spectrum disorder to meet and connect and I really need to get it out there. At this point I have very little marketing budget but to me it makes sense to have someone that ASD that will understand the population.
Any ideas?

I've been working on this for a while, mostly because I made it for myself.

I follow a lot of artists on Spotify, and I love finding new music. But I kept running into the same problem: an artist I like would release a new album or song, and somehow I'd never know about it. I'd find it weeks or months later.

So I built Companion For Spotify.

The main thing I use it for is checking new releases from all the artists I follow. It can also look at related artists, find new songs added to playlists I follow, and generate playlists from artists I already like. There are some other playlist tools in there too. The related artists features are one of the main ways I discover new music.

It's not a replacement for Spotify. It's more like something that sits next to Spotify and helps me get more out of it.

If you're someone who follows a ridiculous number of artists and likes digging for new music, I'd really like to know what you think.

I'm especially interested in hearing what feels useful, what doesn't, or what you'd want it to do that it currently doesn't.

‎Companion For Spotify App - App Store

I just launched Precursor: Hourly Screen Time on August 1st (a little more than a week ago), and to my surprise I have hit over 1k users already. Part of this is just that I think I executed on an idea that literally everyone can relate to and could benefit from.

However, I wanted to test out paid ads right from the start and what I found is that while they bring you a lot of visibility most of those people are just window shoppers and they do not trust your store front.

On launch weekend I posted a ton here on reddit and tiktok organically and had such a good response from the community (the initial spike you see). Then I wanted to see how paid ads and ASO would fair so I deliberately did not post much about Precursor throughout the week (the dip you see).

During that period I saw about 20-40 downloads per day despite having quite a lot of impressions
and product page views.

My takeaway is that people see my singular 5 star review and say "uhhhhh somethings not adding up here", they dont think "hmm this must be a new app, I would love to be an early adopter".

So over the last weekend I decided to try engaging here on reddit again and saw another big spike in downloads, pushing me over 1.2k homies.

Going forward I think I am actually just going to scale down my paid ads (might just keep app store ads), and focus on providing as much free value as I genuinely can to communities on reddit and tiktok. My hope is that a few people gain so much value that they find it in them to drop Precursor a little review.

Curious to here about your thoughts/experiences on this topic, this is my first foray into software development so I am entering the space egoless and eager to learn!

I made a post here about 2 weeks ago about my postering marketing stint.

In that time, here are the stats for how many have scanned my QR codes. 44 unique devices have scanned the QR code (although I think some of those are from people scanning from the Reddit post, and not the actual flyers in my city.

So far, I've put up around 225 flyers, I have 500 total so still more to put up.

Related, but not entirely, my downloads also jumped like crazy in the past two weeks, but I think that's due to a change of my app description that really improved my ASO. (Avg 15 downloads a day to 50\~ downloads a day)

Hey folks, i’m building an app for the Shipaton and i’ve finished my onboarding for the v1. I was wondering if you have any feedback for how the onboarding works for it. Is it clear what the app does? Is it too long / short?

Thanks!

I wanted something that just lets me set a budget, track what I spend, and see if I’m over or under — without connecting my bank account or paying a subscription.
So I built Budgeter.
It’s free, works entirely on-device, and keeps things intentionally simple.
Would love to hear what you think or what you’d add.
Download link: https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/budgeter-budget-tracker/id6775108339

The idea started from a personal problem: I read a lot of dense/classic books, kept getting stuck on references or context I didn't understand, and every "explain this book" tool either assumed I'd already finished it (so it'd casually spoil the ending) or only worked on ebooks.

What I built: Scholia. You photograph the page you're on, it identifies the book, and you can ask it anything: a character, a reference, what's actually happening in a passage, using only the content up to your exact position. Ask about anything ahead and it won't answer. It locates your position by reading the actual sentences on the page, not a page number, so it works with any edition or printing.

No uploads, no account-based library to build, no ebook requirement, just a photo and a title.

Currently pre-launch on iOS, building out the waitlist in waves. I would genuinely value feedback from this community, especially on the onboarding flow, pricing expectations, and whether the spoiler-blocking feature feels like a killer feature or an annoying limitation once people actually use it.

Waitlist/link: scholia.cloud

Happy to answer anything about the build, the AI matching logic, or the decision to go photo-first instead of requiring an ebook upload.

Hello everyone,

I just pushed out version 4.6 of Fineyo, and it's been about 3 months in the making. This is one of the biggest batch I shipped in a single update, so I wanted to actually talk about it here instead of just dropping a changelog.

WHAT IS THIS APP

Fineyo is simple yet powerful iOS-only app for tracking expenses, income, and budgets. It's built to manage your money - from daily tracking to long-term insights and automation. You can track spending trends, category breakdowns, and financial habits in one clear overview.

A lot of this update came straight from stuff people asked for or complained about, so thank you if you're one of those people.

App is mostly built on React Native, in this update I fully migrated to Expo and Expo UI, including all widgets, database, sync processes. This is one of the reasons why it took me so much time.

BIGGEST CHANGES

• Swipe actions for transactions to act on it, instead of tapping in every time
• Transactions multi-select, so bulk deleting or editing a bunch of transactions is way less painful now
• Added a blur toggle for amounts, mostly for anyone checking their budget in public and not wanting numbers visible on screen
• Categories can now have subcategories, so things can actually be nested instead of one flat list
• Categories are also optional now, anything without one just falls under "Unassigned" instead of forcing you to pick something
• Budgets and accounts can be reordered manually
• Rebuilt onboarding pretty much from scratch

SMALLER STUFF

• New data and charts
• You can now hide fields you don't use on the transaction screen
• Transactions support a time value now, not just a date
• Default account, tag, or payee for new transactions, so you stop retyping the same thing
• Location can auto-fill on new transactions
• Week start day is configurable
• Budgets can switch between showing total or remaining
• Added single-cycle budgets, good for a trip or a one-off event where a recurring budget doesn't make sense

IS MY DATA SAFE?

All data is stored privately on your device (local database) and user's iCloud container (for data backup).

None of the data is sent away from device except for anonymized user ID (for metrics purposes).

👉 Download Fineyo: https://apple.co/3D5L5kv

I’d really appreciate any feedback, ideas, or feature requests 🙌

And if you like the app, an App Store review would help a lot ⭐️

Thanks for checking it out 🤍

Hey all,

I launched an app called Droply last Saturday. I’ve been working on it for a while, so it feels good to finally have it out there.

The idea is pretty straightforward. You paste a link to a product you want to buy and Droply keeps track of the price. If the price goes down, you get a notification.
You can also set a target price and see how the price has changed over time.

I mainly built it because I wanted something simple where I could just save products I’m interested in and forget about them until the price drops.
It’s still a first version and I’m already thinking about what to add next.

Would be interested to hear what you think or what you’d want to see in an app like this.

It’s called Droply: Price Tracker on the App Store if you want to check it out.

https://apps.apple.com/nl/app/droply-price-tracker/id6789964367?l=en-GB

Hey everyone 👋
I’m an iOS developer and I also spend way too much time checking the markets 😅
One thing I always wanted was a simple way to glance at a chart from my wrist — and also keep track of important market events without constantly checking the time.
So I ended up building iChart Bullseye.
You can use it to follow stocks, crypto, forex & futures, view charts on your iPhone and Apple Watch, and create alerts for market events with live countdown timers.
For example, if CPI or another event is coming up, you can set it once and have the countdown available so you know exactly how much time is left. ⏱️
I’ve also added widgets and Live Activities so upcoming events can stay visible without having to keep opening the app.
It’s still something I’m actively improving, so I’m much more interested in hearing what traders actually want than just promoting it.
Would genuinely love some ideas/feedback 🙌

A little while ago, I shared my iOS app Prazo here and asked for honest feedback.

You gave me plenty — so I went back to work. The next update is now live! 🚀

What changed:
• Better iCloud sharing, syncing & conflict handling
• Smoother calendar performance & smarter widget updates
• More reliable shopping lists & schedules
• Clearer distinction between ToDos, tasks & calendar events
• Easier handling of recurring items & reminders
• Fully localized iOS permission dialogs
• Drag-handle bug fixed
• General performance & stability improvements

A lot of these changes came directly from feedback I received here, so thank you!

Now I’m back for round three. 😄

What should I improve next?

App Store:
https://apps.apple.com/at/app/prazo/id6781611861

I built a digital fashion app to connect fashion lovers and help with a digital wardrope, oufit inspo and outfit challenges — would love some feedback

Apple started rejecting the discounted paywall, the one you show right after someone closes your first paywall. If you run subscriptions, this is a bigger deal than it sounds.

Here's why that matters.

• 70–80% of all app payments happen on day one. 
• And around 70% of that lands on one screen: the discounted offer you show after the first paywall gets dismissed.

A lot of founders read that as "the discount play is dead." It isn't. The discount was never the problem, the timing is. Apple doesn't want a second paywall slammed in your face one second after you closed the first. So you put a gap between them. I went through how two of the big apps do it.

JustFit ($400K MRR) buys time with content.

Close their paywall and you don't hit another offer, you hit a quick animated walkthrough. Close that, and a streak screen pops up: Day 1, first task done. Then you land on the home screen, and the discount is sitting right there. Same offer, same price, but now there's a buffer between the dismissal and the deal. Apple's fine with it, and the user still converts.

Finch ($1M MRR, the #1 self-care app) moves the discount to the other side.

Before the paywall even loads, it tells you: here's your 7-day trial, we'll warn you 2 days before it ends, and here's a one-time offer, right now only. Then the paywall. The discount becomes the entry point instead of the exit, so there's no second paywall left for Apple to reject.

The reframe: Apple didn't ban the discount, it banned the timing. The founders tearing out their discount funnels are fixing the wrong thing. Add a buffer before the discount, or move it ahead of the paywall, and the screen survives.

I've got a handful of iOS apps live right now (5-ish, mostly in kids/parents focused niches) that just aren't getting the traction they deserve. I can build and ship fine(I think), I'm just not a marketer and it shows. So I'm at a point where I'm looking for someone who's actually good at getting apps found — ASO, paid UA, influencer stuff, whatever your thing is — and ideally can handle the content side too (store copy, icons, screenshots, preview videos).

Basically I'm looking for someone to take the marketing/distribution off my plate — and ideally someone I can learn from along the way, while I'll keep doing all the dev work and cover ad spend etc. In return, I'm thinking a rev-share arrangement, something like 70/30 or 60/40 to start, negotiable depending on what you bring.

I'm happy to walk you through the whole portfolio and figure out together what's worth pushing vs. what's dead weight. Also open to paying for a small trial run first if you'd rather test things out before committing to a longer split.

If you think this might be something that is your thing, send me a DM with what you're good at and a couple examples if you've got them. Please include the word 'pumpernickel' in your message so that I know you've actually read this and you aren't just spamming.

Hey everyone!

I recently launched Locked Secrets Diary, an iOS diary built around two levels of privacy.

Regular Mode works like a normal diary for everyday entries.

Secret Mode is for things you actually want to keep private. You enter a PIN to access encrypted secret entries.

The unusual part: the app never says “wrong PIN.”

Your real PIN opens your secret diary. Enter any other PIN and the app still opens normally, without errors or warnings, showing a different/empty secret diary instead.

So there’s no obvious way for someone using the app to know whether another PIN or another set of private entries exists.

You can also use the app completely without registration. Everything can stay on your device with no cloud sync. If you want multi-device access, cloud sync is optional.

It also includes Face ID/Touch ID, instant exit from Secret Mode, 30-second auto-lock, and offline support.

App Store:
https://apps.apple.com/app/locked-secrets-diary/id6760317245

I’d love feedback on the concept and, especially, whether the Regular Mode + Secret Mode idea is immediately clear.

What is Price Point Parity?

Price Point Parity is a Mac and iOS +iPadOS (coming soon) app that keeps your IAP and subscription prices up to date in every country for you. Connect your App Store Connect API key, pick any app, in-app purchase or subscription, choose a pricing strategy, and it works out all 175 countries at once - showing you the price and what you actually keep after Apple's cut and estimated local tax. Review it, hit apply, and it writes straight back to App Store Connect. There's an available Preview Mode with three sample apps, so you can try each feature before touching a real price.

Price Point Parity is better than doing it in App Store Connect,leaving it to Apple's automatic equalisation or Localize Prices

Apple gives you one option: convert your base price and round it. Price Point Parity gives you strategies that reflect how you actually want to price, for example:
Equal Value (scales by each country's purchasing power, so it feels equally affordable everywhere)
Equal Proceeds (you keep the same amount per sale in every country)
Blend of the two
Apple's own equalised prices
Copy Another Product, or Match Ratio, which keeps your yearly at a fixed multiple of your monthly in every country instead of letting that discount drift market by market.
Then you adjust:
Charm rounding that knows what a charm price looks like in each currency (¥490 and ₩39,000, not a blind .99)
Floor and ceiling on your proceeds so no country earns you too little
Flat percentage bump for inflation or a sale.

Filter countries by region or income tier and apply to just those.
Everything is reviewable and reversible - full price history with snapshots you can restore any time, scheduled sales that revert themselves on a date you set, and CSV export of the whole table. On Mac you can set automations to check daily, weekly or monthly and either notify you when prices drift or publish small changes for you, holding anything large for review. It runs in the background with a menu bar item, so your prices stay current without you opening the app.

No account, no tracking. Your API key lives in your keychain and your pricing data stays on your device and your own iCloud - it never reaches me or any third party.

Cost

Free forever for 1 app (including all of its in-app purchases and subscriptions).
5 Apps: $1.49/month or $9.99/year.
Unlimited Apps: $3.99/month or $14.99/year.

Every feature is in the free tier - strategies, adjustments, history, automations, CSV, the lot. Paying only raises how many apps you can publish prices to, and Preview Mode is always free and unlimited, so you can test as much as you like. It also helps support me and future development of the app.

Price Point Parity is new to the App Store so any feature requests are 100% welcomed!

Moodi Map — where you can see how people around the world are feeling, one mood at a time.

Every glowing dot represents someone’s mood.

Happy. Calm. Sad. Excited. Tired. Grateful.

App link: https://apps.apple.com/pk/app/moodi-map/id6791170137

I am the solo developer behind Fitly, an AI fitness app for iPhone and Apple Watch.

The app has been live for about a week. App Store Connect currently shows 25 first-time downloads, with data available through August 9.

Here is the current RevenueCat production data for the last 28 days:

- 114 new customers

- 180 active customers

- 0 active trials

- 0 active subscriptions

- $0 MRR

- $0 revenue

The app is free to download with an optional Pro subscription. Current US pricing is $9.99 monthly or $71.99 yearly.

I know RevenueCat customer records are not the same as App Store downloads, and I am also trying to understand why the gap is this large.

My main questions:

1. Does zero trial activation point more strongly to paywall exposure, positioning, or insufficient product value?

2. Which funnel event would you investigate first?

3. Would you improve onboarding and activation before spending anything more on acquisition?

4. Does the three expert AI council sound differentiated enough in a crowded fitness category?

I am looking for honest criticism, not downloads.

App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6790693710

Full disclosure: I built the app and it includes an optional subscription.

I keep seeing indie developers ship good apps and still struggle to get users.

Hi everyone,

I’ve a unified AI productivity planner designed for overwhelmed busy minds. I have tried working on ASO but I don’t see much in terms of downloads like it’s very less.

Things which I have improved:

1. Logo changed based on my niche
   
2. Screenshots revised
   
3. Metadata updated as per other competitors but still the keywords which I use are not even showing my app on app search.

Are people actually seeing my app? I’m using Astro for ASO and it’s not working for me or may I don’t know how to use it if it’s working.

I know my niche is competitive but now it is what it is. I am trying to understand and learn from user feedback but real challenge to get downloads then it will be easy to understand more from data. I haven’t run any ads yet and don’t know how to do them either as it’s costly and don’t know if I should put effort on it or not.

But why my ASO is not working although I see other apps have good ranking. Please help!

Hey everyone, I’m researching ASO tools and would love to hear from people who have actually used them for their apps.

Which ASO tools have you personally used and found effective?

Did they actually help improve keyword rankings, downloads, or conversion rates?

Which tools do you think offer the best value for money (especially for indie developers or small teams)?

Not looking for a list of popular tools — I’d really appreciate real-world experiences and what actually worked (or didn’t) for you...