With all that’s going on in the world, it may not surprise folks to learn that small developers are starting to feel the economic crunch along with everyone else. In an email exchange I had earlier today, another owner of an indie software company told me:
It’s been an awful couple of months. [The city] is mostly locked down until May 4th. My kids look like they are going to be home for the foreseeable future. Their schools have gone full remote learning. So far, [my company] is weathering the storm. We have been giving out a few more complimentary extensions and refunds. But we have always given that to anyone that asks so it’s hard to see the change. How are you doing?
Their sentiments go on to echo what I’ve heard both publicly and privately from other folks in our little world of apps and services. I’m extraordinarily lucky that I have a full-time job (for now?) in addition to my app business. Don’t get me wrong – my app sales sure as hell help a whole lot, but I’m in a much better position to come out the other side of all this in one piece than folks who truly do depend on the whims of consumers for their 70% App Store cut.
And, as usual, John Sundell continues the be the nicest guy online. He has decided…
…that I wanted to do something for our community’s indies.
Normally, this site (and all of my other work) is funded by sponsorships through non-tracking, privacy-focused (and JavaScript-free) ads that I run on a weekly basis. But for the next two weeks there will be no ads on this site. Instead, each day, I’ll promote a new indie app whose developer has been financially impacted by the current pandemic. For free, with no strings attached.
He’s taken it a step further than his own blog and started a GitHub project to coordinate the effort. The project has a growing list of folks helping out to promote our favorite indie apps. It’s a wonderful idea, and I’ve started brainstorming my own list of must-have apps from independent developers that I can’t wait to write about in the coming days and weeks.
I hope you’ll stick around and read along as I go into excruciating detail about my favorite software and services that I can’t live without.