Lakeside App Factory
A collection of macOS applications.
All applications are currently free to try. If you find one useful, please consider paying for it if your time is valuable, or share it with a friend otherwise. Home
The Premise
Busking for apps.
Donate if you can, refer a friend who might if you can’t.
The suggested donation is $25 if you find an app useful.
The Donation
Donate your way.
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The Donation Addendum
Think of this like a dance in the subway, a sidewalk cellist in Paris, an autobot on the Vegas strip. The payment is not compulsory, but is fundamental to continued development.
If you donate, you can specify an application you are supporting and a way to contact you. I will try to keep you informed of app updates. If the app goes behind a paywall within a year or two of your donation, and you donated at the business pricing rates below, I will provide a complementary app license.
If you are a business or other organization, email for license purchasing details. A non-widget app is $25/year per a user. A widget-like app is $5/year per a user.
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The Transition
If there’s enough reach or support, the apps would transition to a paid product. The general goal is for them to be “Perpetual License” apps with 1-3 years of complementary updates.
The Extra Thoughts
Indie app development seems caught in a chasm of doom. On average, people use very few paid apps. There isn’t enough virality or k-factor growth for wide distribution on apps that are exclusively paid. There aren’t enough benefits to customers when an app compensates for limited distribution with a high price. A subscription pushes away many people who gain low marginal utility such that the mental transaction cost makes the on-going subscription not worth it.
On my end, implementing billing, feature flags, licenses, marketing will consume as much or more time than implementing the app.
And then everything else. Under the sun, the moon, and the stars. On the chips, the ASICs and the Cloud. It has already been said.
So, at least initially, I’ll treat an app a little like an apple at a grocery store. We ask people to not walk out without paying. In this case, if you gain an hour of your time back in utility, pay for it. If you did not, move on. Round up if uncertain.
The Math
The goal is to find enough support to sustain development at roughly $2/month per user for regular app or for a collection of simpler menubar apps.
One developer year funded:
• 40 purchases a week
• 800 purchases a year
• $25 * 40 purchases * 50 weeks
If one in one hundred downloads leads to a payment, it will take 80,000 downloads.
• 40 donations, 40 * 100 = 4,000 attempted users
• 800 donations, 800 * 100 = 80,000 attempted users
If one in one thousand downloads leads to a payment, it will take 800,000 downloads.
• 40 donations, 40* 1000 = 40,000 attempted users per week
• 800 donations, 800 * 1000 = 800,000 attempted users per year
Made in Oakland, CA.
If you're by the lake, email me and I can airdrop you a copy.
@lakesideapps • Contact