Three Apps, Two Dead Projects, and One Expensive Lesson

Last updated on 22nd October, 2025

It's been about four and a half months since my last proper update - back when I was still employed and counting down the days. Since then, I left my job on August 29th, dove straight into building, and honestly, time has a funny way of disappearing when you're deep in the code. I blinked, and suddenly it's late October. Let me catch you up on what's been happening in the world of solo app development.

What's Changed Since Last Time

Before diving into the new apps, let me tie up some loose ends from the last update.

The Projects That Never Were

Remember the ideas I had for 2 new projects - RepoStache and ConceptForge? I did launch the landing pages for them a while ago, but both have been officially archived since. The landing pages are offline and the domains are gathering dust.

RepoStache was going to be a marketplace for abandoned code projects. ConceptForge was going to be an AI-driven app idea database with business analysis. Both sounded impressive on paper. Both required massive scope. Both lost my interest before I wrote a single line of actual platform code.

The pattern was identical for both: get excited, build a landing page, tell myself I'll market it later, get zero signups, quietly move on. At least I'm consistent.

I've written detailed retrospectives for both projects on their respective pages if you're curious about the full story of why they failed. The short version: I don't have the passion, time, or resources to build marketplace platforms as a solo developer. Better to recognise that early than waste months building something I'll abandon anyway.

The Markdown Editor That Exists

I did actually build the Laravel Livewire markdown editor I mentioned. It's on GitHub, public, and sitting at beta 0.5. Works perfectly fine for what it does. I just haven't had time to get it to a proper v1 release.

Will I get back to it? Probably, but not anytime soon. Maybe later in 2026 when the current apps are shipped and generating income. For now it's one of those "it exists, it works, it's good enough" projects that doesn't need immediate attention.

Infrastructure Simplification

I've removed Google Drive scheduled backups from all my sites. Switched everything to using the server backups built into my Linode account instead. One less monthly cost, one less dependency on a Google product, cleaner codebases that don't need the Google Drive API, and honestly just easier to manage everything from the Linode admin dashboard.

Sometimes simplification is the best feature you can add.

What I've Actually Built

Three Apps in Seven Weeks

Remember when I said I was going to take some time off after leaving my job to just... decompress? Yeah, that lasted about 30 minutes. Turns out when you've spent years building other people's products, the urge to finally build your own is pretty overwhelming.

I've been working on three macOS apps since August:

AudiBar

AudiBar launched on the App Store on October 20th. It's a menu bar audio player that does exactly what I needed and nothing more. Drag and drop audio files, they play, you get a little ticker showing what's playing. Playlists, shuffle, auto-play. No library management nonsense, no subscription, no cluttering up your dock. Just sits there quietly until you need it.

This was the quick win. Seven days from concept to working app. Sometimes you just need something simple that solves a specific problem without overthinking it.

Chronode

Chronode is done but not launched yet. It's an automatic time tracking app for developers. Watches what you're working on, detects projects without manual timers or plugins, gives you statistics and productivity insights. Exports to CSV, PDF, and JSON.

This one taught me an expensive lesson about the App Store. I'd completely finished building it, had everything ready to submit, and discovered at the last minute that you can't distribute non-sandboxed apps through the App Store. Chronode needs system-level access to track what you're working on. It fundamentally can't be sandboxed.

So that meant pivoting to self-publishing. Which meant learning payment processing, building a licence generation system, creating a custom API for licence verification and activation, and retrofitting the entire app to use it all. What was "done" suddenly needed another couple of weeks of work I hadn't planned for.

Kanodo

Kanodo is the big one. Think Trello meets native macOS, with offline-first architecture, iCloud sync, and none of the subscription nonsense. It's a proper kanban board with workspaces, boards, columns, cards, markdown support, labels, file attachments, card dates, and mini-boards within cards for nested task management.

This has been the most complex of the three by far. Core Data, drag and drop across multiple contexts, file management, analytics dashboards, multi-window coordination. It's also been the most rewarding. It's the kind of tool I've wanted to use for years, and now I'm actually building it.

The Website Refresh

The website needed some love. I hadn't touched it since before I left my job, so a bunch of content was outdated.

Updated the About page to reflect that I'm no longer employed.
Updated the Uses page because some tools have been replaced and I'm using things now I wasn't before.
The Now page was three months stale, which defeats the entire point of having one.

I've now added a proper Projects Section showing everything I've worked on since the last post. Each project has its own page breaking down what it is, why it exists, and what state it's in. Some are shipped products with real users. Others are concepts or learning exercises. A few are halfway done and might stay that way forever.

I decided to bin the contact page as all It had was an email and a form. So I replaced it with a simple mailto link. More small websites seem to be steering away from forms these days, and honestly it means the site needs fewer dependencies and APIs for sending emails. Simplicity wins again.

Oh, and I archived the old Now page entries so people can track back through time and see what I was up to at different points. I originally did this for my own benefit, but thought it might be interesting for others too years down the the road.

What I'm Working On Right Now

Finishing What I Started

The goal is to have all three apps complete and published by the end of 2025. That gives me about 10 weeks from when I'm writing this. Optimistic? Maybe. But I'm committed, and momentum is a hell of a thing.

AudiBar is done. It launched on Monday, so it's still early days. I'll write a proper update next month once I've got some feedback and download numbers to share. Right now it's just sitting there in the App Store waiting for people to discover it exists.

Chronode needs a security fix and final polish. The app is built, the website is live, and most documentation is complete. But I need to rework how it verifies licence keys on app start - currently using UserDefaults which users can manipulate. Once that's fixed, fill in some missing documentation on the website, do a final round of testing, and it should be ready to launch. About a week away from release.

Kanodo needs the most work. I'm migrating from StoreKit 1 to StoreKit 2 for better transaction handling. Then it needs thorough testing to catch any last-minute bugs. Then the website, documentation, and marketing materials. Same as Chronode, but more of it because Kanodo is more complex.

The technical parts are straightforward. The "running a business" parts take longer than you'd think.

The Daily Reality

My typical day probably looks similar to when I was employed. I still seem to be working 8-9 hours most days, but the content is completely different. No meetings. No standups. No sprint planning. Just programming and research. Some weeks I work every day. Other weeks I stick to the standard five-day pattern.

The flexibility is genuinely nice. If I'm not feeling well, I just stop without it being an issue. Some days I feel burnt out, so I don't do anything for the projects. I can take breaks when I actually need them rather than when my calendar says I'm allowed.

It's easy to forget just how much you have to do and think about as a solo developer. Everything is on you to get done. But you can't rush it just to tick boxes. Mistakes happen when you hurry, and you end up with half-arsed results that you'll have to fix later anyway.

The Blockers and Surprises

The £120 Surprise

Releasing AudiBar taught me about EU compliance requirements the hard way. When setting up the App Store page, I had to complete some essential forms for Apple. One of them was related to offering your app to EU users. To distribute in the EU, you need to provide your name, an email, a phone number, and an address. Name and email? No problem. Phone number? That's where it got interesting.

I wasn't about to plaster my personal mobile all over the internet, so I ordered a cheap flip phone from Amazon with a £10 pay-as-you-go SIM and used that as the contact number. Problem solved, right? Not quite. For the address, I was planning to use my pay-as-you-go virtual office address. Seemed perfect. Then I got to the verification stage, and Apple wanted proof of address. I had nothing suitable. The virtual office provider couldn't help because I was on their free plan.

In the end, I had to upgrade to a virtual street address plan costing £120 per year just to get a Virtual Office Agreement that Apple's verification system would accept. Expenses I hadn't foreseen and really could have done without when bootstrapping.

These are the kinds of problems you don't encounter as an employed developer. Code problems are actually the easy part. Business compliance problems are what sneak up and bite you.

The App Store Sandbox Discovery

The Chronode situation still stings a bit. I'd spent three weeks building it, completely finished the app, and was preparing to submit to the App Store when I discovered non-sandboxed apps can't be distributed there.

If I'd known this upfront, I might not have bothered building it. But I'd already invested the time, and the app genuinely solves a problem I have. So pivoting to self-publishing was the only option, which meant learning an entire new set of skills I wasn't planning to acquire.

Payment processing. Licence generation. API development for activation and verification. Retrofitting the app to use it all. These are good skills to have, and I'm glad I learned them, but it wasn't the plan.

The lesson? Research distribution requirements before you build, not after.

What's Coming Next

The End of Year Push

All three current macOS apps will be released and available by the end of the year. That's the commitment. Kanodo and Chronode need their websites, documentation, and marketing materials. Then they need proper testing to make sure nothing breaks in embarrassing ways.

Early next year, I'll focus on marketing and promoting these apps. How exactly, I have no idea yet. I'll figure that out when I get there. The "no social media" experiment has been scrapped - I'm rarely on social media anyway, but I understand it's useful for marketing and promoting products. The key is using it for initial response without relying on it entirely.

The Runway Reality

I've got a comfortable runway. Enough saved to do this for 6-9 months, possibly longer with some contract work sprinkled in. The goal isn't to get rich. It's to build sustainable products that generate enough to keep building. If these three apps can collectively bring in a few thousand a month, I can keep doing this indefinitely. That's the target.

Am I anxious about it? Not really. Not any more confident either. Just focused on getting things done properly and hoping to reap rewards for it next year. Worrying about it won't make the apps ship faster.

Beyond the Three Apps

After the current apps are done and marketed, I'd like to work on an iOS app. I have no idea what yet. We'll see what next year brings. The beauty of working for yourself is you can follow interesting problems wherever they lead.

I'm enjoying this as much as I knew I would. I've done the solo thing before, albeit a long time ago, but I've gained skills and knowledge I didn't have 10+ years ago. The programming is more sophisticated. The architecture is cleaner. The business understanding is deeper. It all compounds.

The Honest Reality

Building three production apps in a few months has been intense. I went from being an employed developer to shipping actual products with payment systems, iCloud integration, and real users. The learning curve was steeper than expected, but there's something incredibly satisfying about seeing your name in the App Store.

The biggest surprise? How much you don't need. No venture capital, no team, no fancy office. Just focus, a willingness to learn, and the ability to ship things that solve real problems. Even if those problems are your own.

The biggest lesson? The technical challenges are rarely the hardest part. Discovering Chronode couldn't be sandboxed after it was built, navigating EU compliance requirements, building entire payment and licensing systems from scratch. These weren't coding problems. They were "running a business" problems. Problems I didn't even know existed until I hit them face first.

But that's the point of documenting this journey. The real story, with all the boring bits and unexpected expenses and pivots you didn't plan for. Not the polished entrepreneur narrative where everything works perfectly and scales to millions of users.

Sometimes you just build things because you need them. Sometimes they turn into products other people want. Sometimes they stay half-finished forever. That's all part of it.

I'll update again when there's something worth reporting. Probably when Chronode and Kanodo launch, or when I've got some actual numbers to share from AudiBar. Until then, back to the code.

If you're on a similar journey or thinking about making the leap, I'd love to hear from you. Always happy to compare notes on the unglamorous parts nobody talks about.