HabitKit · B2C · habit tracker app
Share your app's progress and revenue publicly on X and LinkedIn
Founder calls it one of his best decisions; downside is copycats; no numbers
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What they did
Posts building progress on X and LinkedIn plus a blog with weekly reviews that include revenue and downloads. Gets feedback on first versions, motivation and partners from other indie builders, and an audience that roots for him and could boost a new app or offset an App Store downranking.
What happened
Guest calls it one of the best decisions in his app business; drawback is that visible revenue invites copycats that clone the concept and design.
- Stage
- growth
In their words
Sub Club by RevenueCat · From Corporate Web Developer to Full-Time Indie Hacker — Sebastian Röhl, HabitKit“Building in public has definitely been one of the best decisions that I made while building this app business.”
“Even if Apple decides to downrank HabitKit, I always have this audience of people that root for me, that are engaged with me, and that want to help me.”
“it doesn't take too long until people start copying your app's concept, or even shamelessly start copying your design block by block.”
Related topics
Get tactics like this every Monday
New tactics from the week's founder interviews, each linked to where it was said.
More from HabitKit
All 14 HabitKit tactics- Ask for a review right after someone checks off their first habitMost people give 5 stars; over 2,000 reviews and ratings
- Put "habit tracker" at the very start of your app's nameTop 5 for 'habit tracker' in several countries; 'a ton' of organic traffic
- Save up, quit your job, and give yourself 12 months to make it workOnly ~$1,000 revenue after 12 months; went back to work, but the app later hit $15K MRR
- Ship a simple habit grid in 2 months, with no sign-in and data kept on the phoneBecame the base of a $15K/month app; no direct numbers for this choice
- Post your app's progress, wins and failures on X, LinkedIn, Bluesky and ThreadsFounder says it was huge early: podcast invites, video features, developer contacts
- Spend $100 a month on Apple Search Ads to help your search rankingUnproven; founder only hopes Apple favors developers who buy ads
More from this episode
- Liftbear: Quit your job for exactly 12 months on savings; go back if you can't live off itMissed the bar; went back to the old job with a raise, and the app took off later
- Liftbear: Build a workout tracker for yourself in 2 months and ship itAbout 100 downloads in week one, then about 10 a week
- Liftbear: Keep adding features and try ASO, Instagram and Search Ads on a flat appAbout $100 total revenue in six months; dropped the app
- HabitKit: Drop the app that isn't growing and build a new one in 2 monthsNew app's first month beat the old app's six months combined
- HabitKit: Post a screenshot of your app's main screen on Twitter before launch800 likes, far above his usual posts; took it as a sign the app would beat the first
- HabitKit: Go back to your job four days a week and keep Fridays for the appApp took off two months later; went full-time again within about six months
- HabitKit: Get the store listing basics right and let search rankings bring usersTop 5 for a big keyword; 120K downloads and $51K in 2023, $110K by May 2024
- HabitKit: Charge $0.99 a month, $6 a year or $15 for lifeNever tested; hosts bet doubling would roughly double revenue; price test planned
- Raise a niche utility's price from $5 to $20 a monthNo change in downloads after a 4x price rise
- HabitKit: Ask Apple to feature your app using its request formNever got featured