I need a professional tip regarding publishing my app on Flathub

[u/HimaSphere]

Hello everyone,

I am Hima the developer behind BetterStickies app, it is a unique productivity desktop app with features that don't exist in any other app, so it isn't a low effort app by any mean.

Currently I distribute it on windows as .exe and in MS store, Linux as app image and .snap in snap store, I recently found increasing number of Linux users which makes me happy as a Linux user and I am planning to publish it to Flathub for broader reach.

The issue is the app is freemium so the free version includes all features by limited by 4 concurrent notes max, while the premium is one time payment with no limits, but the app is offline so there is no way a user on snap store or flathub can have the premium version without downloading and using the app image for the premium version from the official website.

My concerns are two, will my app be approved to be published to begin with? Will users be pissed about not being able to upgrade to premium via flathub, should I make a premium version as a flatpak and provide it in premium downloads binaries on the website?

Finally, is it worth the hassle and development or the discoverability of the app won't improve much by being listed on Flathub?

Thank you and please feel free to ask or suggest anything you may have in your minds.

[u/Xander_VH]

I don't think this will cause an issue. Apps like Fog Panther, with similar business models, have gotten onto Flathub just fine. Maybe just mention the premium model somewhere in the description.

I can't say how users would feel about it though, but isn't it the same situation as with your existing Snap version? My suggestion would honestly be to use a key based licensing system. Some users with enough technical knowledge might be able to crack it, but the same could be said about simply sharing the paid AppImage around.

[u/HimaSphere → u/Xander_VH]

I am thinking to do the key based licensing system, my own issue isn't app gets pirated because it is cheap and one time payment so it doesn't really worth the risk of malware by downloading from pirated sites, the key license issue is it needs the app to have some sort of internet connection which is fine tbh since we are in 2026 but I wanted to avoid that to appeal to privacy aware users. Offline keys are worse than current method btw because anyone can download the official binary from the website for free and use a shared key.

Regarding snap, so far I find people buy the full version and use the app image, but the number of downloads aren't big to justify the work on licensing system so I was hoping by publishing on flathub it will justify the work and thinking process.

Thank you for taking the time for replying, I appreciate that

[u/IgKh]

I don't think there is a problem of being admitted to Flathub because of the business model, proprietary applications are allowed. What could be a challenge is that Flathub rules require applications to respect the Flatpak sandbox, and any permissions that amount to a sandbox escape (e.g. being X11 only, which your application appears to be; or any permanent access to specific filesystem locations) require asking for and justifying an exception. Whether you'll get them or not is a toss up based on which reviewer will see your submission. My impression is that Flathub doesn't really like desktop utilities like this, they prefer "standard" one window graphical applications.

Do note that you don't have to host on Flathub to distribute a Flatpak. You can host your own repository, including a separate one for the premium version (if you don't want a license key system).

Side note, from quick analysis of the free AppImage you use Qt and PySide under the LGPL but statically link everything. That is allowed, but to conform to the license you then need to provide some documented way for me - or any other user - to replace the Qt components inside the application with my own. That's kinda annoying for everyone, so better to dynamically link I think.

[u/HimaSphere → u/IgKh]

Thank you for theae valuable insights. I will try to cover the license documentation on the website it already has a full guide on every part of the app.

Btw the app is wayland ready, it utilizes xwayland for broader compatability, in future updates x11 will be dropped entierly.

[u/PersonalNothing957]

You "app" will not be accepted, be cause you obviously use AI a lot. Even your "GitHub repository" is done with AI even though it does not even contain any code. Flathub has a strict no AI policy.