

Ask HN: How much money are you making as an indie mobile app developer? - alc90

How much money you&#x27;re making from Android&#x2F;iOS apps on a monthly basis? Any revenue reports that you want to share?
======
clarky07
I've made ~220k over the last 4 years, anywhere from 3-8k a month, depending
on the season and how well things are going. It's been pretty decent, combined
with a bit of freelancing here and there to deal with the lower months. I will
say that it is much harder now than it was 4 years ago. I only wish I had
started even sooner.

I've written up my experiences a few times over the years

[1] [http://www.entrelife.com/2012/05/how-i-went-
from-0-to-50k-on...](http://www.entrelife.com/2012/05/how-i-went-
from-0-to-50k-on-app-stores.html) [2] [http://www.entrelife.com/2013/01/my-
first-year-on-my-own-in-...](http://www.entrelife.com/2013/01/my-first-year-
on-my-own-in-review-2012.html) [3] [http://www.entrelife.com/2014/01/my-app-
business-2013-year-i...](http://www.entrelife.com/2014/01/my-app-
business-2013-year-in-review.html) [4]
[http://www.entrelife.com/2015/01/2014-year-in-review-for-
my-...](http://www.entrelife.com/2015/01/2014-year-in-review-for-my-app-
business.html)

My 4 year anniversary of quitting my day job is actually this weekend. I'll
likely write up something in the next day or two summarizing things.

------
Arjuna
I'll chime in...

I developed my first game, Rocket Renegade [1], for iOS. Although I think that
it was well-received (based on the reviews and emails I've received), it's
made under $100 US since launching in January 2015. But, I did _finish_ , and
I taught myself Swift in the process, so I'm proud of that.

I'm a classic example of a technical person that's learning the marketing
side, so I have a lot to learn in that area. I think the game is a solid
offering for its genre (80s/90s inspired shmup).

For stories of much greater success than myself:

1\. There was a user here (kreci) that used to post financial reports
regarding his Android development efforts, but it doesn't appear that he has
been active on HN for quite some time. However, you may still find his reports
a useful/interesting resource [2].

2\. Nathan Barry (nathanbarry) has written about his experience developing his
"OneVoice" app and the financials surrounding it [3].

3\. The greatest financial success story that I am aware of in terms of sales
in the mobile space is Allen Wong. He really hit it big with "5-0 Radio Police
Scanner". He did an AMA [4], which you may find interesting.

[1] [https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/rocket-
renegade/id955229059?...](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/rocket-
renegade/id955229059?mt=8)

[2]
[https://hn.algolia.com/?query=author:kreci%20%22Income%20Rep...](https://hn.algolia.com/?query=author:kreci%20%22Income%20Report%22&sort=byPopularity&prefix=false&page=0&dateRange=all&type=story)

[3] [http://nathanbarry.com/how-i-made-19000-on-the-app-store-
whi...](http://nathanbarry.com/how-i-made-19000-on-the-app-store-while-
learning-to-code)

[4]
[https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/17lwcs/iama_a_person_...](https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/17lwcs/iama_a_person_in_his_20s_who_went_from_rags_to)

~~~
rgbrgb
Looks cool, nice work! Before you get discouraged, remember that Angry Birds
was Rovio's 52nd game [1] -- consumer products and pop art are a hit-based
crapshoot. As much as you want to learn about marketing stuff, make sure to
keep producing new work.

[1]:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rovio_Entertainment](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rovio_Entertainment)

~~~
Arjuna
_" [...] make sure to keep producing new work."_

Thank you. Yes, this is solid advice... to keep moving. I'm working on
figuring out what's next.

------
smartician
In 2014, I made a grand total of $3,700 (mostly ad revenue, some in-app
purchases to remove ads) for my vocabulary training app WordPic, and Sapphire
Smash, a hexagon-based match 3 game. Both are only available on Android and
Amazon.

I also spent $300 running ads for the game last year, which I have yet to
recoup. Overall, it's quite disappointing.

[https://play.google.com/store/apps/developer?id=Smartician](https://play.google.com/store/apps/developer?id=Smartician)

------
randsp
I made about $500 with a wallpaper for kids
([https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.jafj.spark...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.jafj.sparksteddytrial))
and $3500 with a wallpaper for World of Warcraft enthusiasts. This last one
was removed by Google/Blizzard because copyright infringement when it was
making around $300/month.

~~~
alc90
Interesting - I had also an app in the Play Store that was removed because of
copyright infringement when I reached $300/month.

------
dawie
I made about $1,500 per month with this App for about a year [1]. Over time
the downloads went down and so did the revenue. (It came down to about $300
per month).

This website, which I own started it all [2]. The website was always free and
the app was an revenue generating up-sell for the website.

In Dec 2014, I wanted to sell the Website, but all the sites like Flippa
wanted Adwords Revenue, so I put Adwords on the site...to show some revenue
and try and sell the site.

Adwords revenue immediately jumped to $2K a month, so I decided to make the
app free again, since it was only making $300 and I would rather get it in as
many people's hands/pockets as possible.

Comment if you have any other questions.

[1][https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/7-min-
workout/id657369636?mt...](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/7-min-
workout/id657369636?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D4)

[2][http://7-min.com/](http://7-min.com/)

------
kelukelugames
Almost three dollars off of my flappy bird + team fortress mash up.

[http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/store/app/littlest-
monster...](http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/store/app/littlest-monster-the-
call-of-flight/6849e221-4e81-4128-8d65-45cdf826ed21)

~~~
ionwake
I want to joke but I am scared I would offend. Basically well done man it's
far better than I could do if that is a working hat store !

I have to say though the design is lacking. Other than that keep at it !

~~~
kelukelugames
No worries. Only my friends and co workers really played it. But hey at least
I shipped! :D

And yes the hat store totally works.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FKrrlhvSCk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FKrrlhvSCk)

------
johnpickens
I've made a whopping $40 total on my Android game since February 2014. I
didn't do anything to promote it.

[http://bit.ly/1QBZjay](http://bit.ly/1QBZjay)

~~~
alc90
Do you have some marketing strategies in mind? Or how do you want to increase
the number of downloads?

------
emilburzo
35€ since August 2014

For the "PRO" version of [https://graticule.link/](https://graticule.link/)

------
mrsteveman1
I'm still supporting a few niche utility apps on the iOS and Mac app stores
from a few years ago, back before I started focusing pretty exclusively on
client projects. Things I wrote because I needed them and later cleaned up and
released so others could use them too. They're all due for some updates (life
and full time work frequently take precedence), but they're pretty consistent
in terms of revenue.

Mi-Fi Monitor has an iOS[1] and a Mac[2] version that was developed first but
released a few months later (it's a shared codebase to the maximum extent
possible, different native UI, same app).

They've never really been promoted by me directly, but the Mac version was
independently noticed by a writer at TUAW (now Engadget) soon after release
and was featured[3] on the site. The TUAW story caused the Mac version alone
to generate $600 in just 1-2 days, but then both versions fell back down to a
combined total of roughly $50-100/month where they've stayed ever since.

Several execs at Novatel (Mi-Fi manufacturer) sent support requests or general
emails about them, and I talked to one on the phone briefly about various
things, but they never had any other involvement. Still, that was pretty cool
knowing they were interested and using the apps :)

There is a native Android version of Mi-Fi Monitor but I never released it so
I can't even guess what the revenue would have been like.

The only other app I released myself is Codepoints[4], which only has a Mac
version. It generated about $350 right after release, then fell back down to
around $50-75/month. Again no direct promotion on that one. I get nice emails
from users about it frequently though, which is also cool :)

[1] [https://infincia.com/apps/mi-fi-monitor-
ios](https://infincia.com/apps/mi-fi-monitor-ios)

[2] [https://infincia.com/apps/mi-fi-monitor-
mac](https://infincia.com/apps/mi-fi-monitor-mac)

[3] [http://www.engadget.com/2011/12/13/daily-mac-app-mi-fi-
monit...](http://www.engadget.com/2011/12/13/daily-mac-app-mi-fi-monitor/)

[4]
[https://infincia.com/apps/codepoints](https://infincia.com/apps/codepoints)

------
ashleyp
What's the use of this question? Inspiration? Wondering if it's worth diving
into?

~~~
alc90
Part inspiration: It really gives me a bust of energy and it inspires me to
start/continue working on the things I've been working on/planning.

Part research: I was hopping to find out if and how are indie app developers
making money, what marketing strategies are they using and so on.

I find fascinating this stories (about success or failures) because I've
learned so much things from it.

------
purans
ZERO! Not allowed to make money from my apps on H1B visa status :)

