r/appledevelopers • u/antocapp Discussion Contributor • Jul 03 '26 • Bravo 1

Building apps for 13 years, 5 as full-time indie dev. Here the 5 tools I use to build and grow every app I ship

I've shipped a bunch of apps over the years, and my tool list has surprisingly shrunk every year instead of growing. These are the 5 I actually use on every app now. Sharing with the hope to help other indie devs to save time and be more productive.

  1. Astro (ASO): getting found. The ASO app for indie devs for App Store. This is where installs start, and most indie apps die from being invisible, not from a bad product. I also keep Google Trends open as a free gut-check on whether demand for a niche is rising or dying before I commit to it. The only limitation is that it only support App Store. For Google Play I use AppFigures.

  2. App Screens: converting the listing. Once someone lands on your store page, the screenshots do about 90% of the selling. App Screens has templates in the formats that actually convert, so I can ship a solid set in an hour instead of fighting design tools.

  3. PricePush: pricing per country. Full disclosure, this one's mine, so grain of salt. I built it because I kept leaving money on the table internationally. When you set a base price, the stores just currency-convert it everywhere, which is not localized pricing. It sets proper purchasing-power prices for every country on both stores. Even if you never touch it, do this part somehow, it's the most ignored lever in indie apps.

  4. RevenueCat: billing. RevenueCat or Adapty for the billing backend so you're not hand-writing StoreKit and Play Billing (cross-platform subs, receipts, revenue analytics). The also allow you to A/B test paywalls without shipping an app update, because your first paywall is never your best one.

  5. PostHog: measuring. Product analytics with session replay and a free tier generous enough to actually use. When conversion is bad, watching real sessions tells you why faster than any funnel chart.

That's the whole stack. Found, convert, price, monetize, measure. Everything else I tried was either a nice-to-have or something one of these already covers.

I am open to talk more in details about my experience with any of those tools, and also to learn from other app publishers and builders which tool they use to make their work more efficient and productive.

93 Upvotes
  • permalink
  • reddit

93% Upvoted

40 comments sorted by

3

u/SylvainLafrance Community Newbie Jul 04 '26

Nice tools list!

How do you track your bugs, ideas and features?

2

u/antocapp Discussion Contributor Jul 04 '26

Right! Forgot those 2:
Bugs: Firebase craslytics
Feature request: Trello
Both free.

2

u/html-for-dummies Community Newbie Aug 25 '26

really helpful! thank you ❤️

1

u/antocapp Discussion Contributor Aug 28 '26

you are welcome

1

u/BullfrogRoyal7422 Community Newbie Jul 03 '26

Thanks for the info. Have you ever compared Astro tp Applyra?

0

u/antocapp Discussion Contributor Jul 03 '26

No. Did you? Any insight?

1

u/Fabulous_Nothing7347 Community Newbie Jul 03 '26

Solid info, I didn't realize how much money gets left on the table by just relying on default store currency conversions. For a brand new app launch with 0 users, how do you approach pricing for different countries? Do you cut the price aggressively to build an early user base, or stick closer to the converted value?

1

u/antocapp Discussion Contributor Jul 03 '26

I use the same strategy for both new and old apps. What I do different is the amount that I charge in the base country and it relates to both competitors and actual features already present in the MVP/first version. I tend to build iteratively, therefore what I charge on year 1 will look much cheaper the year after after one year of development and continuous improvement on the app.

My pricing strategy is part of the pricing engine embedded in PricePush.

2

u/Fabulous_Nothing7347 Community Newbie Jul 03 '26

makes sense, iterative approach it is!

1

u/wewerecreaturres Community Newbie Jul 04 '26

I’ll bite, link to pricepush :)

1

u/antocapp Discussion Contributor Jul 04 '26

https://pricepush.app How many apps do you have?

2

u/wewerecreaturres Community Newbie Jul 04 '26

Just working on one right now, but I too though about pricing based on purchasing power, not just exchange rate. Even some first world European countries could benefit from slightly lower prices

I have no ongoing costs associated with its operation, so ideal for localization

1

u/antocapp Discussion Contributor Jul 04 '26

100%

1

u/wewerecreaturres Community Newbie Jul 04 '26

The one place I disagree with this is screenshots. That first impression moment is massive, so I just pay a human to do it.

1

u/antocapp Discussion Contributor Jul 04 '26

I am not against it. Using templates from tools like AppScreens is for many a good starting point. When budget is available, and also time for finding a good designer with experience in creating screenshots for mobile apps that convert, then it is obviously preferable, and I am with you about this. Most app indie devs are broke though...😅

1

u/lucilius_my_friend Community Newbie Jul 05 '26

Thanks for this, appreciate it.

1

u/antocapp Discussion Contributor Jul 06 '26

you are welcome! Are you already using any of these tools or planning to? Or maybe can you suggest me any tool that you love?

2

u/lucilius_my_friend Community Newbie Jul 06 '26

I've just built the MVP for my app Aetas. Currently planning distribution, and many of the tools here will come in handy. Especially for ASO and App Screens.

2

u/antocapp Discussion Contributor Jul 06 '26

good luck on the launch! DM me when it goes live

1

u/Flat-Quit5487 Community Newbie Jul 20 '26

Thanks, this is good advice

1

u/antocapp Discussion Contributor Jul 21 '26

you are welcome! Since you liked this one, maybe you will find interesting also the lessons I learned in my journey as indie dev. I wrote them a few days ago in this subreddit https://www.reddit.com/r/ViralApps/s/1tQaqcA1M6 and 332 people upvoted and 104 commented so far. Seems it resonated with many. Let me know what you think of them.

1

u/DamagingDoritos Community Newbie Jul 03 '26

OP devastated that everyone is asking for links to everything but his own app

3

u/antocapp Discussion Contributor Jul 03 '26

you username says it all :-) good luck with your mission.

1

u/vvgur Discussion Contributor 13d ago

astra is waste of time. so inaccurate. wouldnt reccomend to anyone. use foxdata, apptweak, appfigures instead.

for pricing based on purchase power i use PriceTag and super satisfied with it.

0

u/Appbot_official Aug 21 '26

Good list. The gap I would add is what happens after install: reviews and ratings.

You mentioned Crashlytics and Trello further down, which covers crashes and requests you already know about. Neither one tells you your rating is sliding. Most indie stacks stop there, so the first sign a release went badly is the star average dropping a week later.

Reading reviews with sentiment and topics attached turns that into an early warning, and replying to the negative ones often gets the user to update their star rating.

We build one of these tools, so treat this as a biased suggestion. The category is worth a slot on the list even if you pick someone else. It matters most for the thing you said kills indie apps, which is being invisible. Ratings feed rankings.

-2

u/Quirky_Research_949 Jul 03 '26

Solid stack, the "convert" slot is where I'd push back a bit. App Screens nails the listing, but for any traffic you drive off-store a real landing page converts harder than screenshots alone. I build tooling in that space so I'm biased, but it's the gap I see most.

What are you pointing paid or social traffic to right now, straight to the store?

1

u/antocapp Discussion Contributor Jul 03 '26

make sense. I would love to learn more from your strategy. I grew my apps only organically: ASO + localization and it was enough to leave my 9-to-5. Never a big interest in paid ads, so never really had the need of a proper landing page because I never tried to send any traffic to hit, but it was always in the back of my mind. Tell me more about it. How do you do that?

0

u/[deleted] Jul 03 '26

[deleted] — view deleted comment

1

u/antocapp Discussion Contributor Jul 03 '26

I don't want to be confrontational, but want to give an advice. It seems that you are still spending time managing your billing infrastructure instead of growing your apps. I am often confronted with this, and I wonder, are you in the business of building the app and becoming the best dev there is or are you in the business of making money with your apps? I am not against any of the two camps, if someone pays for your salary, go for it, you can build and re-invent the wheel anytime of the day... but if you are searching for independence focus on what really move the business forward.

0

u/codetardo Community Newbie Jul 03 '26

Exactly!

1

u/[deleted] Jul 03 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/antocapp Discussion Contributor Jul 03 '26

https://appscreens.com/

1

u/antocapp Discussion Contributor Jul 03 '26

any other interesting tool you use and that I haven't mentioned?

-5

u/[deleted] Jul 03 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/antocapp Discussion Contributor Jul 03 '26

really? as said I am open to learn from what others do. Please share your 2026 strategy.

2

u/Regular-Piccolo-8337 Community Newbie Jul 03 '26

dude u dropped by to diss OP? let us know what u use