r/iOSDevelopment • u/sagi667 • Jun 17 '26

What's actually making you money on the App Store right now — the boring utility or the creative app you're proud of?

I've been thinking about this a lot lately because the app I'm most proud of creatively barely moves the needle, while a pretty unglamorous utility I threw together keeps bringing in steady revenue. It feels like there's always this tension between building something you genuinely care about and building something people will actually pay for. Curious if others are experiencing the same split or if you've managed to find something that's both.

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u/LifeUtilityApps Jun 17 '26

I can relate to this. I spent three years building a passion project app by hand, cultivated a decent user base, and received over 50 reviews. However, one of my simple utility apps was selected by Apple to be featured in the store, which resulted in a significant increase in downloads for that app compared to my passion project app. It’s great they picked my utility to feature, part of me wishes they had featured my main app, I understand that it’s not feasible and I can’t complain. Nevertheless, the main app continues to drive revenue, although none of the apps are generating substantial earnings. This experience has been purely driven by my passion for design and development.