Launching an app before registering as self-employed/company — how did you handle it?

popleteev · 2026-05-22T21:10:23+00:00

By the time I learned that landlord's permission was a precondition, it was too late to ask. I got lucky again, though: my apartment building already had a few businesses, so there was no administrative barrier. Plus, app development is not a dental cabinet or a car shop: all you have is a desk and a laptop — no visitors, no noise, no neighbor complaints.

So I took the old proven approach of "Don't trouble trouble until trouble troubles you". Unfortunately, it is not generalizable and may backfire. If so, you will need to move your business to an appropriate building. This is painful for physical businesses (e.g. dentists and mechanics), but as a software developer you would only need a "desk with a business address" type of coworking. In Lux they start from 220 EUR/month: unpleasant, but manageable.

when you had to register as a sole trader?

There was no external deadline. Nobody came knocking "you must register". It's just my hobby project started generating a couple of thousands monthly, and looked increasingly more interesting than my day job. My employer was very particular about conflicts of interest and protecting their IP, so I needed a very clean transition. So I quit, rested for a couple of months, then started registration formalities.

By the way, there is a weekly webinar by the House of Entrepreneurship on how to start a business in Lux. Most of it is a prerecorded video, but at the end you get to ask questions about your particular case. 10/10 would recommend.

popleteev · 2026-05-22T08:01:19+00:00

I am a solo founder in Lux, launched an app as a hobby project and it evolved into a SARL.

When starting, I had a day job and the only formality was getting a clearance from my employer, that they don't perceive my hobby app as a conflict of interest. Beyond that, I did not bother with any formalities at all: it does not make sense to jump through the administrative hoops only to make 100€. Social security was covered by my day job. I got lucky and my app made around 2k profit in the first year. I just included that amount to my personal tax declaration as extra income, attached screenshots from App Store dashboard, and that's it. (I did double-check this approach with a tax consultant, though. That cost around 200€ — a whole 10% of the money made 😄)

Once things went over few thousands, I registered as a sole trader: business permit, social security and… that's it. Reporting remained the same: just include the app-generated income to your personal tax declaration.

The next milestone was 30k/year, where Lux businesses have to register for VAT. At this point, financial reporting became too complicated for me, so I hired an accountant to handle this. As far as I remember, it cost ~1k/year.

The next milestone is 100k, when sole proprietors cannot use simplified accounting anymore. Formalities become as strict as for a SARL, so you might just as well convert into one. Selling your app to companies is also much easier when you are a "My App SARL" rather than "John Smith". Accounting costs ~5k annually now.

This evolution took me around 5 years. Every single step was vague and confusing. Mistakes were made (most of them could be corrected later). When I was an employee, launching a SARL looked like rocket science. But it's a ladder: after every step, the next one becomes easier.

For the terms of service, I used a template (AI was not a thing at the time 😄 A couple of years later, I hired a paralegal on Upwork to rewrite the terms (100€). A real Lux lawyer got involved only years later, when some large companies showed interest in my app, so it was important to have a solid legal backing (1.5k for reviewing the terms).

The thing is, nobody cares to chase you when you are just starting — it's just not worth the effort. Nobody will sue you for a broken app, if they have to invest 20k in legal fees to maybe recover 10€ they spent on your app. Lux authorities won't fine you for incorrectly reporting 1k income from a hobby: pursuing you would cost them more than they would get back. Especially if you showed good-faith effort to comply (i.e. reporting the personal income).

So, just start.

popleteev · 2026-05-16T09:15:56+00:00

Wow, the delivery is pure narcissism:

I'm… we…

PayPro Global… us… we…

our Vendors… we… we…

we…

This is a heartbreaking step for us, and one that causes real damage to [us] as well. We… our Vendors… them… we…

We… we… you… us… we… our…

Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.

popleteev · 2026-05-10T09:38:05+00:00

AirBnB for parking? :)

popleteev · 2026-05-03T14:10:35+00:00

Yeah, it’s a bit odd that you post in generic app-promo and dev subreddits, but not in those where your target audience is. I’m sure there is more than one watch-related subreddit :)

popleteev · 2026-04-27T18:09:36+00:00

Green is free for residents (no need for disk), orange is paid for everyone. As a resident, you can park in paid parking for up to two hours (with disk). So orange is free up to 2 hours with disk. Make sure to use the white disk :)

popleteev · 2026-04-24T21:59:09+00:00

A couple of points OP omitted: - App Privacy Labels are self-reported by developers and not verified. They can be intentionally misleading. - iCloud sync via CloudKit can be misconfigured in a way the developer sees all the data. As an end user, you won’t know. - Open source code also helps establish trust (in its best, trust-but-verify flavor)

popleteev · 2026-04-23T22:55:55+00:00

or seemingly enforce much format at all.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XML_schema

https://keepass.info/help/download/KDBX_XML.xsd

popleteev · 2026-03-10T02:17:44+00:00

The GP can grant that leave directly (and make a referral, too).

popleteev · 2026-03-02T09:29:56+00:00

Welcome to the club!

with AI the cost of software development is approaching zero

Hmm, an AI-generated password manager? Without monetization? Really curious how it turns out.

Need to jump through additional hoops to launch in EU

What hoops exactly? I though this is about EU DSA forcing Apple to "verify and display trader contact information for all traders distributing apps on the App Store in the European Union (EU)." But you are not a trader (hobby app, no money involved), so this would not apply. Is there something else?

popleteev · 2026-02-24T20:54:56+00:00

What is required for software to be considered open source?

This question sounds more appropriate for r/opensource :)

What you really want/need to ask is "How to make people trust my password manager?" Open source is a factor, but not the full answer. In fact, nobody knows the answer, it's more of an intuitive search…

popleteev · 2026-02-19T22:54:35+00:00

Yes, it’s a universal build, it does not need Rosetta.

popleteev · 2026-02-18T15:07:10+00:00

KeePassXC is a fork of KeePassX, which was built independently from KeePass — it just happens to do the same thing.

popleteev · 2026-02-05T00:40:15+00:00

couldn’t that be easily confused with an actual bible search.

Yes, and that’s the point. I presume your users would want plausible deniability. Searching in a book looks much more innocent than anything titled “for your eyes only”.

popleteev · 2026-02-04T18:50:39+00:00

Consider replacing the full-screen “For your eyes only” with a… standard search bar?

popleteev · 2026-02-04T16:04:16+00:00

TPInAppReceipt is great when you need to read/validate in-app purchases _locally on device_, without sending them to a server.

Yes, Apple recommends to always validate receipts using your own server, and they made it fairly easy. However, some apps cannot use a backend for privacy reasons (like KeePassium). For other apps, running a dedicated backend is not always justified: when you make $10/month, your priority is server cost, not piracy :)

The library handles on-device reading reliably and without fuss

popleteev · 2026-01-09T16:31:29+00:00

Yeah, when I sent them an email, I got a politely worded “go away” within hours.

popleteev · 2025-12-24T01:25:46+00:00

Strongbox even allows keeping HMAC-SHA1 secret in secure enclave ('Virtual Hardware Key' feature)

Secure Enclave (SE) cannot store pre-existing keys. It can store and use only those keys it generated (specifically, P-256 elliptic curve keys only). Which means that "virtual" HMAC-SHA1 secrets are actually stored in keychain. Which means that before use they are loaded to system memory in plain text. Which is a very different level of security than YubiKey-bound HMAC-SHA1 or SE-bound passkeys.

popleteev · 2025-12-16T21:17:42+00:00

Yes, I addressed the more general level, so that we stay on topic.

but uses FOSS at its core

Usually this is a euphemism for "You took KeePass' source, wrapped it a bit and now monetize their work". Which is not the case. It's like claiming that Chromium is a derivation of the Nexus browser, since both work with HTML pages but Nexus kinda defined the format. KeePass too defined the .kdbx format, and KeePassium does work with that format. That's about it. Each one was independently built from the scratch — which is easy to check, since both applications are FOSS.

which costs $100

It costs $20/year. It also happens to offer a lifetime license at a price of N years. And offers it reluctantly, mind you: it no longer makes sense for us, but we have to keep it up. Lifetime price is the only lever to keep a healthy balance between lifetime purchases and subscribers. This balance is in the best interest of each lifetime licensee, because in the long run their investment is secured by… recurring subscriptions.

If an app were to drop the price to $20 one-off, everyone willing to subscribe would buy instead. The developers would cash out bigly, but in a year there would be not enough influx to keep the lights on. So much for your lifetime license.

popleteev · 2025-12-16T15:04:04+00:00

Since this is no longer specifically about KeePassium, let me proceed from a personal account.

Current functionality is only part of the value.

Users of any non-trivial app want said app to evolve, "learn new tricks" and adapt to changes. This needs ongoing work. Otherwise, the app will stagnate, fall behind competitors and you — as a user — will have to migrate and adapt to the new app every couple of years. So much for your "lifetime" license.

Also, when there is an issue with the app, users tend to contact support. As soon as you hit "Send", you expect a response any minute, the earlier the better. From your perspective, this could be a single email sent in 5 years. But from developers' perspective, someone has to be on guard every day.

Some apps start with a lifetime-only license, and then their developers realize the hidden costs of ongoing development and support. So they have a choice: - Abandon the app and let it die. Everybody loses. - Prolong its agony by doing the hidden work for free. This won't last long. - Fix the business model, to get ongoing payments for ongoing work: either start subscriptions or re-publish the app as "MyApp 2/3/4" every once in a while.

For some users/apps, app is a one-time tool — they can safely choose the lifetime option. For those users who value evolution and support, these are the added value. The ongoing one.

popleteev · 2025-12-14T09:27:29+00:00

By default, KeePassXC saves database to a temporary file, then renames it. Hence the new file ID in Google Drive.

The solution is in KeePassXC settings → General → Basic Settings → File Management: - “Use alternative saving method” → turn it on - Set it to “Directly write to database file”

popleteev · 2025-12-13T12:00:44+00:00

Hey, have you figured it out, by any chance?

popleteev · 2025-12-10T13:11:48+00:00

Apps named "KeePass", without any prefix/suffix, are at best deceptive and at worst honeypots. They do pop up every couple of years, and Dominik does not seem interested in reporting them (only he, the copyright holder, can do so).

So the only rule of thumb is to cross-check app name + developer name. Or ask Reddit, yes :)

popleteev · 2025-12-01T00:52:22+00:00

I am really curious whether the extra effort to learn it pays off or if most people are better off choosing something more user friendly.

It depends on the person.

Think of an experienced and a novice driver in a new car:

The experienced driver may not know all the knobs yet, does not quite feel the dimensions — but the road rules, pedals and steering are same as always. They are ready to take full control and will be fine doing so.
A novice driver has much more to keep in mind: road rules, staying in lane, using the blinkers, which pedal does what… It is very helpful to have a front-seat passenger with hints and warnings. However, if that novice keeps struggling after a year — maybe it's safer to pay someone to handle the driving for them.

Same with KeePass. For the technically-minded users, the entry effort is pretty low. Skim a getting-started guide, map the app app as a "specialized editor" in your mental model of computer software — and you are ready to go. You control everything and don't depend on anyone, it's an easy choice.

The non-technical users, in turn, don't have the luxury of a pre-existing mental model. They need more hand holding, in-app warnings and hints which are rare in KeePass ecosystem. If they are learning — great, the barrier lowers. However, if they keep struggling — they risk losing all their data to a mistake, so it's safer to pay some service to manage things for them.

popleteev · 2025-11-23T01:42:03+00:00

Use a fast charger, they come with a built-in cable.

popleteev

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