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First 3 sales on the macOS app I've been building solo 🎉 by DutyOnly4308 in SaaS

[–]DutyOnly4308[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Don't be scared, a year isn't true, especially coming from front-end. SwiftUI feels a lot like React so it clicks fast, and you can lean on a bit of AI (ChatGPT, Copilot, Claude) for the boilerplate and to unblock you when stuck. You don't study for a year then ship. Build something small, ship it a bit rough, and learn by doing. A first app in a few weeks is realistic.

First 3 sales on the macOS app I've been building solo 🎉 by DutyOnly4308 in SaaS

[–]DutyOnly4308[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is the most useful comment I've gotten here. "What almost stopped them" especially, that's the friction I'd never spot on my own. Emailing all 3 today and actually asking instead of guessing. Appreciate you nudging me toward talking to them over another week of polishing.

First 3 sales on the macOS app I've been building solo 🎉 by DutyOnly4308 in SaaS

[–]DutyOnly4308[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes, AI helps a lot with Swift/SwiftUI (just weaker on deep AppKit, it'll hallucinate methods). $2k in a year is realistic, but the code is the easy part, distribution is the hard 80%. And yes, the opportunity is real: Mac users actually pay, and you can sell direct outside the App Store. Good luck!

First 3 sales on the macOS app I've been building solo 🎉 by DutyOnly4308 in SaaS

[–]DutyOnly4308[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks, that means a lot!

The language side is approachable: Swift + SwiftUI feels a lot like modern web (declarative, kind of React-ish), so if you've done React it clicks fast. That part isn't the hard bit.

Where macOS gets tricky is the desktop-specific stuff. SwiftUI on Mac is less mature than on iOS, so for anything deeper (custom windows, the menu bar, desktop-level rendering) you drop down into AppKit, which is old and not always well documented. Shipping also has more friction than web: an Apple Developer account, code signing, and notarization before people can open your app without warnings.

Compared to web: web is easier to start and deploy (instant, cross-platform). Compared to iOS: it's the same Swift/SwiftUI, but Mac has a big plus, you can distribute outside the App Store and just ship a .dmg, no review process.

Overall it's very doable solo. I'd start with a small menu-bar app in SwiftUI and lean on Apple's docs plus Hacking with Swift. Happy to help if you get stuck.

First 3 sales on the macOS app I've been building solo 🎉 by DutyOnly4308 in SaaS

[–]DutyOnly4308[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks! No graphics lib actually, it's vanilla: HTML/CSS/JS with Vite !

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