MMO A&P Making about $11,000 a month with mobile apps.

Braines

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Background:
I used to work as a product manager at an app startup for about 4 years. The app was making around $24,000 a month, and it was all created by one indie developer founder. But I didn’t like the job, so I quit and decided to try being an indie app developer myself.

It’s been almost 13 months since I started this new path. Here’s a quick summary of what I did so far:

Took a Flutter course on Udemy — it took me about 5 weeks to learn.

Started making my first app: it’s a business-to-business app with no ads, only using subscription payments.

It took me about 2 and a half months to finish the app.

Set up a company in the US, got a D-U-N-S number, and opened a bank account.

Created a Google Play Console account.

When I tried to start open testing, I got an email saying, “Your account is terminated for high-risk behavior.” It made no sense, and appealing didn’t help.

I learned a big lesson: "Don’t put all your eggs in one basket," especially with Google. Thank goodness I didn’t learn Kotlin and picked Flutter instead! It doesn’t matter because I still have iOS, Windows, and Web to work on.

I also felt better knowing that iOS makes almost double the money from in-app purchases compared to Android, even though fewer people use it.

Started working on the iOS version of the app.

Made an Apple developer account, and it took about 9 days to get approved.

Released my first app on iOS — that was a big achievement!

While doing all this, I was also building a second app at the same time. It’s a business app for a special kind of company. It’s pretty complicated and took several months to create.

I plan to finish and launch the second app in about 5 weeks.

I’m also going to release it on desktop through the Microsoft Store.

Tech I use: Flutter and Firebase
My coding tool: Cursor
 
I learned a big lesson: "Don’t put all your eggs in one basket," especially with Google. Thank goodness I didn’t learn Kotlin and picked Flutter instead! It doesn’t matter because I still have iOS, Windows, and Web to work on.

Flutter is supported by Google.

Tech I use: Flutter and Firebase
My coding tool: Cursor

Firebase is similar too.

Good luck with your journey!
 
Hey, I’m sorry to hear that. Do you know what risk caused the problem with your app?
 
Flutter is supported by Google.



Firebase is similar too.

Good luck with your journey!

Although Flutter is made by Google, it’s open source. You can fully control it.
I’ve never heard of anyone having their Firebase account banned forever, so that should be okay too.
Even though both are Google products, different teams have their own rules and policies.
 
Hey, I’m sorry to hear that. Do you know what risk caused the problem with your app?

Nothing wrong with the app — it was a clean CRUD app I made from the beginning.
I still have a personal developer account that’s not banned, but I don’t really want to work on it anymore. The 13 testers limit is annoying.
Also, who knows? One day their system might just shut down the account for no reason. So for app stores, my ranking is:
Apple > Microsoft Store > Galaxy Store >>>> Play Store
That’s how I see it.

I notice a big difference in how Apple treats their developers compared to Google.
Apple’s like, Awesome, thanks for all your hard work! We’ll give you a chance.
Google’s like, “Another indie dev? Oh no...
Microsoft and Samsung treat you like royalty.

Google really doesn’t respect developers. I’ve read a lot of stories on Reddit about small companies losing their Play Store accounts. Instead of explaining why, Google’s bot just says, “Sorry, your account stays terminated because of a confirmed violation.” Imagine losing your whole business and that’s all they tell you? That feels really unfair.
I hope the government in the US steps in someday and makes them stop controlling the Play Store like this. They’re already doing that with Chrome!

Until then, I don’t mind earning a bit less — maybe $9,000 instead of $14,000 a month. That’s still enough for me. But I won’t put any app on the Play Store.
 
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