# 2 years on the App Store When I published my first iOS app on the App Store in February 2022 I didn’t know what to expect. My main goals were: to learn how to code and make apps that will help me solve my own problems. And while I was also thinking that it would be cool to make money on this, I didn’t have a clue when I will make my first dollar and how much money can I earn a month from my apps. After exactly 2 years I am starting to understand what’s possible and how much time and effort it takes. And I hope that with this article you will see this as well. Important note, though - condition of the app business depends on many factors. I personally know many indie app creators that are more successful financially but also many folks that are not there yet. But I will share some insights and maybe this will give you some idea how the financial part of making iOS apps looks like if you are an indie developer. ## The product - my apps on the App Store ![](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1708069923397/914d29cf-da6f-47d7-8bfa-a75f90da76b8.png align="center") Shoutout to future me with his 100 apps on all Apple devices. Poor guy needs a whole month and 3 AI assistants just to prepare screenshots for all of this. But luckily, right now I still have only 5 iOS apps. And here they are with release dates - so if you want, you can compare this to my Proceeds charts to see how each of the apps affected my revenue. * [Moons](https://apple.co/49soMAO) - Time tracking and project management November 10, 2023 * [Wins](https://apple.co/3mk0NjK) - Setting and tracking personal goals April 12, 2023 * [Numi](https://apple.co/3WjbjnR) - Expense tracker December 22, 2022 * [Emo](https://apple.co/3Vh0en4) - Emotional inventory and journaling October 10, 2022 * [Skoro](https://apple.co/3BWk1zf) - Scoreboard app for sports and games February 26, 2022 ## Sales vs Proceeds All the screenshots you will see here are from Apple’s App Store Connect - a platform for app developers. Apple shows us a lot of data there. Two of the many metrics are Sales and Proceeds. **Sales** - this is how much money your apps generated. **Proceeds** - Sales minus some country specific taxes and Apple’s fee. For most developers this fee is 15% or 30% of your Sales. So in other words, Proceeds is what you will actually get from Apple. Because I want to show you my real revenue as an app developer, all the screenshots you can see here show my Proceeds, not Sales. ## 2023 I made $1.270 on my apps in 2023. For some it's a lot, for some it's not. I always remind myself that it's not a sprint but a marathon. I am just starting and it takes time. And while I am aiming for better results in 2024, I am happy with the results so far. ![](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1708004077889/2556d217-a48f-46b7-8410-58f4f8188293.png align="center") ## 2022 vs 2023 To give you more perspective, this is how last year compares to 2022 when I started. ![](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1708004484589/13eb6edd-293a-402c-957e-27d2fcbfdd16.png align="center") There is some progress here, right? But it doesn't look super constant. There are ups and downs. But you know what? Something that I learned after 2 years - you can't focus too much on the short-term results. Let's zoom in for a moment to see how my daily proceeds looked like. ![](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1708004628884/ca428262-b1d5-464c-9a2e-bd978a6a8736.png align="center") Looking at daily results you might think that I had a 1 great day. Can we stop for a moment here? I just want to say that I appreciate you, November 10 🙌 I wish more days were like you 😅 But even though not all my days brought $109, the long-term results are made of many many small steps. So let's zoom out to see my Proceeds per Quarter. ![](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1708004927102/6cd7f8da-c893-4124-89d1-0bef454f6baf.png align="center") Looks better, right? If we zoom out even more and you look at Proceeds by Year, this progress looks even better. ![](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1708005107533/dcecfb8d-60cf-4521-b7bc-df7c34c3892b.png align="center") Again - someone will say it's a lot. For someone else it's not much. If you are building your business, you need to remember exactly this - it's YOUR business. And only you can decide if it's good or not. And you definitely need some patience. Step by step. Ooh baby! Gonna get to you... wealth. ## January 2024 2024 started really good for me. I reached a new record: $217 in one month. Which is slightly better than November 2023 (my previous best). ![](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1708005723469/b6da9786-db42-49a6-9d67-b68cbe16ad72.png align="center") But again, it's important how you look at your data. If we compare January 2024 to January 2023, the situation looks pretty good. ![](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1708005775863/44a5a649-7a45-4d64-94fe-60ea33a54f4d.png align="center") Will my proceeds keep growing? By 271% again? Slower? Or maybe faster? I do hope. I am definitely very excited to see where my app business will be next year. But you know, I am a bit biased 😉 ## **Costs** Let's talk about costs for a moment. Having only the proceeds part doesn’t tell you the whole story and I want to be very transparent here. I didn’t spend a lot. I pay $99/year for the Apple Developer account, so it’s $198 for 2 years. (There is also a Free account, but to distribute apps on the App Store you need the paid one). I tried Apple’s Search Ads a few months ago, but I only used the free $100 credit you get from Apple when you create your Ads account. And I turned off the ads few days after I used the free $100 so I spent maybe $10 of my own money. And that’s it. I decided to not use any paid APIs in my apps. And so far I am not outsourcing any design or developer work. This could change if I would make more money and have the budget for this, but I wanted to be profitable since day 1, so right now it’s just me. ## Who and what helped me But to make it a "build in public", not a "brag in public" article, I would like to share some general info who and what helped me to get to this point. * iOSdev community - many people helped me with their advice, emotional support. Sometimes someone helped me with some code, often people were offering their help with localizing my app. I would like to thank everyone collectively. I always do this individually anytime someone helpes me. I definitely need to write a separate article about all of you folks, because I wouldn't be here without you ❤️ * #buildinpublic - sharing what you know and how you build your apps wth others is not just a great marketing but it's also a great networking opportunity and a chance to learn from others. * ASO - researching keywords with [Astro](https://tryastro.app?aff=bDP8D) * Localizations - I localized my apps to many languages. And my keywords to even more languages. * New apps - everytime I released a new app, it boosted my sales. But I don't think it's very scalable. More apps doesn't neccesarily mean more money. There are pros and cons of having many apps and I think it deserves a separate article. To be honest, all of these things need a more in-depth articles. And I will try to share more soon. If you are interested in any of these topics or have some other questions, please leave a comment or contact me directly. ## What's next As many indie creators, I would like to change my app business into a sustainbale one. My focus is still on building useful apps with the best quality and User Experience that I can deliver right now with the knowledge and resources I have. But to make it possible for the long run I need improve the business aspect of this. Here are some of my ideas how to get there: * macOS versions of some of my apps * More ASO experiments * Submitting my apps to be featured on the App Store * Experimenting with business models of my apps * Trying Apple Search Ads again ## Thank you for reading! If you want to support my work, please like, comment, share the article and most importantly... 📱Check out my apps on the App Store: [https://apps.apple.com/developer/next-planet/id1495155532](https://apps.apple.com/developer/next-planet/id1495155532) ☕ If you like what I do, consider supporting me on Ko-fi! Every little bit means the world! [https://ko-fi.com/kslazinski](https://ko-fi.com/kslazinski)