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Ask HN: Anyone making a living from just 1 app?

118 points| SomeoneAtHN | 15 years ago | reply

If you have a desktop/mobile/web application that is sustainable and you can be able to live on its profit, list them here. Thanks!

80 comments

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[+] luckydude|15 years ago|reply
I don't know if www.bitkeeper.com qualifies or not (it's the inspiration for git / mercurial / bzr / etc), but it's happily supporting a bunch of people in the US and Canada. Turns out people are willing to pay for this sort of stuff if you do a good job.

Speaking of which, we're looking for a really good web / designer type. If you can stand getting paid for non-open source send me a message. Thanks.

Forgot to say, email in my profile.

[+] hasenj|15 years ago|reply
ah, nice to finally find you :)

I was wondering how bitkeeper was doing, good to know it's doing alright :)

[+] woid|15 years ago|reply
http://binaryage.com

my first commercial app TotalFinder seems to be covering my living expenses soon (launched a week ago)

[+] dmix|15 years ago|reply
I used TotalFinder a while back and remember enjoying it. Installing again.

Small bit of feedback: the handwritten text on your homepage is difficult to read and looks a little out of place with such a cleancut design.

[+] adamgries|15 years ago|reply
I think you should give people an option to get the full version of the application in return for viral actions.

Some people prefer not to pay but would rave about your app to 10 people (e.g. like dropbox, where both sides get some space for free in case of a referral). You could give 2 months free for every person that somebody gets to join (to both the referrer and the new user).

I think otherwise you may be crippling your own growth. Also, I'm sure you can find other premium needs that people would pay for and that don't detract from the experience for the non-paying user.

Lemme know if you want to chat. I like the app a lot and would love to see it get into as many hands as possible :)

[+] allbutlost|15 years ago|reply
Just bought totalfinder - great work, it solves a lot of issues I had with finder.
[+] adamhowell|15 years ago|reply
Everyone who sees me using TotalFinder asks me about it and I know at least a couple have bought it first thing when they got back to their computer. Great work.
[+] maguay|15 years ago|reply
Woah, that looks nice. You need to make a TotalExplorer for Windows 7 that has all those features ... I guarantee you it would sell!
[+] woid|15 years ago|reply
THANK YOU GUYS FOR ALL THE GREAT RESPONSES!

I will work hard to make TotalFinder the best Finder addon ever :-)

[+] makeramen|15 years ago|reply
woah, you made visor too? I love that thing. totalfinder looks awesome too, will be check it out later today.
[+] jeffclark|15 years ago|reply
Whoooa, TotalFinder looks amazing! How long has this been around, and how have I missed this?
[+] yakisoft|15 years ago|reply
Nice, I wonder how long before Apple adds the same functionality.
[+] hasenj|15 years ago|reply
hm, so vanilla Finer doesn't have tabs, doesn't have dual panes, and can't sort folders on top!!

wow.

On Gnome, it's quite the opposite story: all these features are included in vanilla Nautilus, but it just looks ugly! people make plugins to beautify it (elementary nautilus).

[+] chrisfarms|15 years ago|reply
trying it out now ... you my friend probably just got yourself another new customer
[+] rycs|15 years ago|reply
oh nice, a friend told me about it and I bought it right away, great app sr!
[+] klon|15 years ago|reply
Buying now!
[+] bignoggins|15 years ago|reply
http://www.fantasymonsterapp.com/ I'm making a living based off of my iphone app Fantasy Monster, which I did as a Master's class project and released on the app store 4 months ago. It is currently earning more per month than my wife and I are at our full time jobs combined (I'm a s/w engineer she is in HR)
[+] bakachu|15 years ago|reply
Not quite able to live of its profit, but means my wife doesn't have to work part time any more :)

Android Mind Mapping app Thinking Space: http://www.thinkingspace.net

[+] aw3c2|15 years ago|reply
Take some dollars to get a good website. This one is the default Drupal(?) looks, you want something more unique. And make the screenshots full resolution available at least when clicking on them. I would highly suggest making a full resolution image the default, maybe crop it, because it just looks nicer.
[+] mike_h|15 years ago|reply
I can't test the UI dynamics, but the static appearance may be the nicest I've seen for a mind-mapper on any platform -- nice work.
[+] Vulture|15 years ago|reply
I wish I could click your screenshots to enlarge them. I can't see the one on the right very well
[+] Rabidgremlin|15 years ago|reply
Great app. I use it as an example of a good use of a touch UI all the time.
[+] MountainDrew|15 years ago|reply
How (if at all) did you handle marketing your app? I have a few small Android apps in the works and one on the market, but gaining visibility is my biggest issue.
[+] jordo|15 years ago|reply
Although i don't 'live' of it's profit, I have been making more from it the last two months than my 'real' job... 'Stick Golf', - iPhone/iPad game. http://noodlecake.com
[+] rickharrison|15 years ago|reply
I just want to say great job man. I have been doing a lot of traveling lately (for iOS development) and I play this a lot on the plane. As a fellow iOS developer, good job.
[+] danfitch|15 years ago|reply
Stick Golf rocks. I love it and my 4 year old also likes to think he is playing it. How do you make money on it though? I don't think I have ever seen any ads. EDIT(I must have downloaded when it was free? It you ever do a version update I will be buying it for sure.)
[+] thehigherlife|15 years ago|reply
I had a really cool idea for your game, have some time to talk about it?
[+] christo16|15 years ago|reply
I've played stick golf it's great! Keep up the good work.
[+] dangrover|15 years ago|reply
I was living off of my app ShoveBox (wonderwarp.com/shovebox) for most of last year until I made another app.
[+] 2_ghosts|15 years ago|reply
My fiancee is a jewelry designer, making a living selling her work on the website I built for her (http://www.ghostlove.com). Not exactly an app as such, but what the heck :)
[+] rbritton|15 years ago|reply
I make more from my iPad app Portfolio (http://ipadportfolioapp.com/) than my other source of income. I could definitely live on just the app sales alone if it keeps up.
[+] qixxiq|15 years ago|reply
A game I wrote for iPhone (Spit a.k.a Speed) has been covering my living expenses for about eighteen months now but it looks like its coming to an end :(

It seems like its also mostly due to a bug I'm unable to fix (mainly since I can't reproduce it). If anyone wants to give it a shot maybe we can work out a deal?

[+] lanstein|15 years ago|reply
If you're making your living expenses off it, why not just buy an iPhone that exhibits the behavior?
[+] hello_moto|15 years ago|reply
Looks like most of the apps are either OSX desktop app or iPhone/iPad.

There's one Android app and one web-app.

Is there any of you who makes a living in Windows desktop app? just curious.

[+] jng|15 years ago|reply
http://www.viemu.com, and it now supports a second full-time developer too. It's never going to grow much more but that's ok.

There are many, many apps that generate more than enough to sustain one or one hundred people.

[+] iamnafets|15 years ago|reply
Fantastic app. Didn't think I'd make the outlay (it's pricey), but for any tedious tasks I can turn them into a challenge with Regexes and Macros. I really love it, thanks for putting it together and for charging so it is still around today.
[+] hasenj|15 years ago|reply
I use it at my dayjob, and love it!

It's kinda hard to work with visual studio once you get used to vim :)

Oh, and your "why oh why" vim intro really motivated me to learn vim, so thanks for that too!!

[+] city41|15 years ago|reply
Thanks for posting, I was waiting for your 2010 version to be done, and now you remind me that it is :)
[+] joeld42|15 years ago|reply
I'm nowhere near making a living, but my "Brainstormer" app (http://www.tapnik.com/brainstormer) is making enough to pay for my apple gadgets, so it's kind of a self-sustaining hobby at this point.

I just released a free, iAd supported game called "Still Pond" (video review: http://www.appspy.com/still-pond-review) which is only making pocket change, but I haven't done any promotion on it.

[+] inovica|15 years ago|reply
Our first app - SourceGuardian - protects PHP source code and we've been running it for 8 years. We used to make a living off just the one app, but broadened out into other areas. The freedom that the income from SourceGuardian provided allowed us to take risks and create other products - some that have worked out well and others that haven't. Its been thoroughly enjoyable though!
[+] vrikhter|15 years ago|reply
Clockspot.com

Jason, the founder, was profitable within 10 months of building the product (he spent money on adwords). Was running it all by himself for nearly 3 years and is now building out a bigger team to get to the next level. That's when he hired me :)

[+] jaredbrown|15 years ago|reply
www.codemonkeysatwork.com - We have a pay-for iPhone app called QuickShot that I make my money from. I also just launched http://www.talentopoly.com as another source of income.
[+] EGreg|15 years ago|reply
Dude, Total Finder owns ... except when Chrome downloads something and I click to open the finder window. Then it pops out in the middle of nowhere and no chrome around it. I have to click on the tab to get it back whereit belongs -- Fix that please! :)