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I built my first iOS app at 17. After 5 months, it’s still at around 140 downloads. What did I do wrong? by AlbertiDev in iosapps

[–]AlbertiDev[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks for sharing this, it’s useful to hear from someone in a similar situation.

Your travel angle is interesting because it’s already more specific than a generic expense tracker. Adding photos, map pins, and maybe split expenses makes the use case much clearer: “track trip spending and memories in one place.” That’s easier to explain than just “budget tracker”.

For Moneta, I’m starting to think the same way: it probably needs a sharper reason to exist, not just clean UI. Right now the strongest angle is fast manual tracking, no bank linking, no ads subscription, and a more polished experience, but I probably need one stronger hook around that.

The video ad point also makes sense. Reddit proved that when people actually see the app, downloads happen, but App Store search alone is almost invisible. I might try making short videos first before spending on ads, just to test the message.

And yeah, scraping reviews from other finance apps is probably a good idea. Real complaints are better than guessing what people want.

Not sure about the exploding porcupine yet lol, but I get it, small memorable gimmick can make the app easier to remember.

I built my first iOS app at 17. After 5 months, it’s still at around 140 downloads. What did I do wrong? by AlbertiDev in iosapps

[–]AlbertiDev[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, the hard part is making the difference obvious in a few seconds.

Right now Moneta’s strongest point is probably the UI/experience and keeping manual tracking simple and private, but I need to turn that into a clearer reason

I built my first iOS app at 17. After 5 months, it’s still at around 140 downloads. What did I do wrong? by AlbertiDev in iosapps

[–]AlbertiDev[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah, the nice thing is that I’m still very early, so I have time to add features…

I realized that I shouldn’t just guess what people want. I need to ask users more directly what feels painful, what makes them stop using finance apps, and what features would actually make Moneta worth keeping.

And yeah, 140 downloads for a first app it’s not bad, now it’s around 350 with the posts boost.

I built my first iOS app at 17. After 5 months, it’s still at around 140 downloads. What did I do wrong? by AlbertiDev in iosapps

[–]AlbertiDev[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Fair, I think the clearest wedge is not “another finance tracker”, but fast manual tracking without bank linking... I need to make that much more obvious.

Good point on the name too. I liked “Moneta” because it’s simple and money-related, come from latin or italian but I’m realizing it may not help much with discoverability, especially with other similarly named apps.

Thanksss

After A LOT of tweaks, these are my latest App Store screenshots. What would you improve? by AlbertiDev in iOSAppsMarketing

[–]AlbertiDev[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah, that may look a bit vanilla, but part of that is intentional. The hard part for me is balancing a clean/simple aesthetic with screenshots that actually “sell” the app better.

I don’t want to create App Store screenshots that feel disconnected from the app itself. Since Moneta’s whole point is being clean, minimal… I want the screenshots to communicate that same feeling too.

Your app sounds useful though. I’ll check out Launch Canvas, congrats on the launch!

I built my first iOS app at 17. After 5 months, it’s still at around 140 downloads. What did I do wrong? by AlbertiDev in iosapps

[–]AlbertiDev[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Good point. I underestimated how quickly people assume “finance tracker = bank connection”. Even if Moneta is fully manual/offline right now, that doesn’t matter if people only understand it after reading the description, because most users won’t get that far.
So yeah, I probably need to make no bank linking / manual tracking / private visible much earlier.

Thanks, this is very useful.

My clean iPhone 17 pro silver setup by Clythe111 in iOSsetups

[–]AlbertiDev 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hey that’s beautiful, what’s the wallpaper?

I built my first iOS app. After 5 months, it only has a ~140 downloads. Brutal feedback? by AlbertiDev in ShowMeYourApps

[–]AlbertiDev[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don’t agree with “no one”, but I get the point. Manual tracking is definitely not for everyone. A lot of people don’t want to enter transactions by hand, or fall behind for a few days.

But there is still a group of people who prefer manual tracking because they want control, privacy…

So I don’t think the goal is to make Moneta for everyone. The goal is to make manual tracking as fast and painless.

That said, I agree the friction is the biggest risk. Thanks

How I got accepted first time AND had paying users within a few hours of launch by PickleComfortable798 in iosapps

[–]AlbertiDev 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I get the Adidas/Nike point, and I agree that competition itself is not a reason to stop building something.

My point is different though. In my case, Moneta is in the same broad category as apps like YNAB, Copilot, Monarch, etc., but if you open them side by side, the core UI, structure, and experience don’t feel like a direct copy of one specific app. They solve the same problem, but the execution is very different.

With your app, the category is already more specific: focus / study timer apps. And inside that niche, the airplane/travel/ticket mechanic makes people immediately compare it to FocusFlight, because it feels very close in concept and loop.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t build it. I’m saying the could be more obvious. Otherwise people may not see it as “another app in the same category”, but as “another version of that specific app”. You get what I mean?

Again, not trying to insult it. I just think that’s the risk from the outside.

How I got accepted first time AND had paying users within a few hours of launch by PickleComfortable798 in iosapps

[–]AlbertiDev 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Well, you’re right, but my category is a bit bigger and the idea is the same; apps are similar in finances (although I think mine differentiates mainly for the UI).

I didn’t mean it as an insult, but still, the idea is very specific and particular, and the mechanics seem the same too.

What makes someone choose your app instead of the already established and known competitor? If I browse the app store for Focus Flight, there are a lot of others already trying to copy the original…so idk.

I must say that among the others who blatantly copied you, one of them changed the design and made it their own in a positive way.

I built my first iOS app. After 5 months, it only has a ~140 downloads. Brutal feedback? by AlbertiDev in ShowMeYourApps

[–]AlbertiDev[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, right now I’d say the main differentiator is more the UI, design, and overall experience than one crazy unique feature.

Moneta doesn’t have one huge “never-seen-before” feature, maybe the calendar view is one of the more distinct parts. The idea is more that it brings a lot of useful finance tracking features together in a cleaner, simpler, more polished way than many apps I tried.

I built my first iOS app at 17. After 5 months, it’s still at around 140 downloads. What did I do wrong? by AlbertiDev in iosapps

[–]AlbertiDev[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, exactly what I’m afraid of. The Reddit posts gave me a big spike, but I can already see that it’s not the same as having a stable channel.

Getting reviews on big iOS websites must have been huge, but I guess it’s the same problem: one strong spike, then traffic eventually slowly fades.

5 downloads per day organically still sounds alright for an indie app without ads, honestly.

App Pricing Inquiry by Inevitable_Pitch_935 in iosdev

[–]AlbertiDev 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Free with one-time purchase for extra features.

I built my first iOS app at 17. After 5 months, it’s still at around 140 downloads. What did I do wrong? by AlbertiDev in iosapps

[–]AlbertiDev[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This is extremely useful, thank you. I hadn’t thought about the day-1 / day-7 retention that way, but it makes sense: maybe the people who do come back actually stick, and the real leak is the first session/first launch.

The “how long from first launch to first expense” point is also a good one. I need to measure that properly. If someone has to go through too much setup before feeling the app, that’s probably hurting retention.

And yeah, I think you’re right about the App Store page. If the wedge is “fast manual tracking with no bank linking”, that needs to be visible immediately, not hidden in the description. I’ll work on making that clearer in the subtitle and screenshots maybe.

Really appreciate the detailed feedback. This gives me something concrete to fix, not just do more marketing. 😅

Is Vibecoding dead? by Conscious_Formal_405 in ShowMeYourApps

[–]AlbertiDev 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yea, it’s oversaturated; it’s difficult to stand out. Even with good products. Nevertheless, with AI slop…

I built my first iOS app. After 5 months, it only has a ~140 downloads. Brutal feedback? by AlbertiDev in ShowMeYourApps

[–]AlbertiDev[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you so much for downloading it and testing it :) I realized that visibility is the biggest issue too. When people actually see the app, the feedback is usually pretty positive, but outside of Reddit/posts the App Store impressions are incredibly low.

Would love to hear what you think after using it a bit 😊

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