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I love the idea, and thanks for doing this. I would like to create free apps too just for the heck of it but one of the biggest issues I find with creating free

by sudo712 11mo ago

I love the idea, and thanks for doing this. I would like to create free apps too just for the heck of it but one of the biggest issues I find with creating free app store apps is that, regardless of whether you are charging money or not, you need to keep feeding Apple $100 per year, which is excruciating, especially for countries where the developer population is much higher and the income disparity is high. Since the Play Store only charges 25$ ish and one time, it is much more feasible to do it on the Play Store, hence the availability of such apps is more on Play Store.

jpablo 11mo ago
The $100 is per year.
- OptionOfT 11mo ago
  It is still disgusting. There is no need for that fee to be there, because remember, it sits on top of the purchase of at least $1,500 (a decent Mac). I tried to see if I could make improvements to Immich. No can do, as half of their entitlements require a team account (and even then begging Apple to get the entitlements). Now, they do offer a private account, so I spent time removing those entitlements. Guess what? Starting over 3 times and you're hit with a 'you can only sign 10 apps / week'. Why do apps built for my iPhone, which I explicitly need to put in Developer mode, need to be signed by daddy Cook?
  - sudo712 11mo ago
    True. I completely forgot about that part. I absolutely love my windows PC, but I had to buy a mac so I can support cross platform
  - kiba 11mo ago
    Apple can charge you that because they have a platform which is a monopoly. Granted, they did the work that built and maintain the platform, but at some point it's actually the countless developers who contribute value, not Apple.
- sudo712 11mo ago
  yeah. sorry my brain was on auto pilot.
jezek2 11mo ago
You can create PWA apps for free. The installation process is a bit hidden, you need to instruct users to "Add to homescreen" the app, but a popup with instructions will do. For most apps there is not much difference of being in the AppStore or not, you need to market it yourself anyway.

by sudo712 11mo ago

jpablo 11mo ago

The $100 is per year.

OptionOfT 11mo ago
It is still disgusting. There is no need for that fee to be there, because remember, it sits on top of the purchase of at least $1,500 (a decent Mac). I tried to see if I could make improvements to Immich. No can do, as half of their entitlements require a team account (and even then begging Apple to get the entitlements). Now, they do offer a private account, so I spent time removing those entitlements. Guess what? Starting over 3 times and you're hit with a 'you can only sign 10 apps / week'. Why do apps built for my iPhone, which I explicitly need to put in Developer mode, need to be signed by daddy Cook?
- sudo712 11mo ago
  True. I completely forgot about that part. I absolutely love my windows PC, but I had to buy a mac so I can support cross platform
- kiba 11mo ago
  Apple can charge you that because they have a platform which is a monopoly. Granted, they did the work that built and maintain the platform, but at some point it's actually the countless developers who contribute value, not Apple.
sudo712 11mo ago
yeah. sorry my brain was on auto pilot.

jezek2 11mo ago

You can create PWA apps for free. The installation process is a bit hidden, you need to instruct users to "Add to homescreen" the app, but a popup with instructions will do. For most apps there is not much difference of being in the AppStore or not, you need to market it yourself anyway.