Revealing My Indie App Business Revenue Metrics [Indie Dev Diary #0]

Why am I starting sharing revenue metrics only now?

Like many indie developers, I was very reluctant to share specific revenue numbers. I only shared relative metrics like X% growth month to month. There are many reasons people don't share their numbers like fear of copycats.
I'm okay with copycats. It's not like I've invented the concept of a home inventory app. I'm just here building my version of a home inventory app in the way it makes the most sense for me.
But my biggest fear was what would other people think. Since I was a kid I often appeared as shy because I was afraid of what would others think of my actions.
I've decided to step out of my comfort zone, and take this opportunity to face that fear by building in public.

I'm very happy I'm starting this new chapter of my indie journey. There are many benefits of doing full-on build-in-public with sharing revenue metrics:

• Stepping out of your comfort zone.

• Getting more eyeballs which leads to other benefits.

• Getting more downloads/leads.

• Getting more feedback.

• Faster building of your personal brand.

• Connecting with more people and building your network.

• Inspiring others to become indie developers.

• Teaching others about indie development backed by concrete numbers.

Current Itemlist stats

These are the current stats for Itemlist taken from the RevenueCat dashboard. Itemlist has 3 pricing options: $2.99 per month / $19.99 per year / $59.99 lifetime.

Most paid users choose yearly or lifetime option. Monthly option is a good solution for users who want to use the app for moving. They usually subscribe for 1-2 months, and it ends up very cheap for them.

Revenue metrics graph

MVP release and Indie App Santa

I've released the app in November 2022. It was an almost useless MVP. I had been improving the app over time The app was part of Indie App Santa in January 2023. I've offered the lifetime option for free. The app got tons of active users who gave tons of feedback. I'm very grateful for that opportunity as it helped me a lot with knowing what to focus on next.

Rebranding to Itemlist

When the app was released, it was called Golden Squirrel and it got a cute orange squirrel on the app icon. Many people didn't take the app seriously because of that branding. Some people thought the app was a game.

The app's revenue wasn't growing, and I was becoming very frustrated. I had been thinking for months what to do about it. At the beginning of summer 2023, I've finally decided to do a complete rebranding with a new app name and new app icon. Learn more about rebranding to Itemlist here.

After the rebranding, the revenue started climbing. It grew almost every month since. It's unbelievable how branding can affect sales, even for a mobile app. Downloads doubled just because of the new brand.

At that time, I also started doing more marketing by being more active on X/Twitter and staring the Itemlist Blog.

Black Friday 2023

Black Friday is a great opportunity for indie devs to get more attention, sales and a nice boost of revenue. Itemlist PRO lifetime was 50% off. It got quite a few sales, and the revenue reached more than $1400 that month.

December and January were better than expected. February was lower than January, but still higher than December. March started much better than expected.

MRR stats graph

MRR stats for Itemlist are not that strong. By most users buying yearly and lifetime options, MRR growth is low.

As you can see on the graph, MRR growth started rising after the rebranding. It dipped a bit around the Black Friday. It grows faster with more monthly sales that are $3, which sometimes happens unexpectedly like in February 2024.

Exciting future ahead

Some exciting things are coming for Itemlist in the near future. I'm also working on a new app that I'm going to share more about very soon 😉

I'll also start writing more blog posts with different topics regarding indie mobile development, so stay tuned.

Thank you for reading through this whole blog post 🙏 What is your opinion about sharing revenue metrics in public? Leave a comment bellow.

If you want to learn more about my indie life, check out my Indie Goodies interview.

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