Ask HN: How To Sell Software Without Setting Up Website Or Payment System | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How To Sell Software Without Setting Up Website Or Payment System

7 pointsasimjalis7 comments

Question: Is there something similar to the App Store for other platforms? Meaning something that takes care of the selling and the billing infrastructure and lets me focus just on the development.

One of the neat things about Apple's App Store is that they totally take care of the business side of selling software. As a developer I just upload my bits, create some copy for the landing page and then Apple takes care of everything else.

On most other platforms if I want to sell software I have to create a website, set up a shopping cart, take care of billing, refunds, and many similar small details before I can start selling.

So is there a company that provides end-to-end selling infrastructure for small developers? I want to just upload my app and let them take care of setting up the website, the downloading, deployment, the billing and the payments.

View on HN

Honestly, you're better off outsourcing or building the website.

Software isn't just code, it's a product. Apple has found a way to use their standardized nature to force people to conform to their product with their user interfaces, but with desktop software, that's not the case. The feeling that a software product gives off has to be uniform in all aspects of its sale and usage, or you'll lose potential customers. Take, for example, Panic software (http://www.panic.com/). Their web site, ordering interface, and applications themselves all give off an aura of clean professionalism. This unification isn't something you can get with an App Store-like distribution model.

That having been said, I know Bodega (http://appbodega.com/) is trying to build an App Store for Apple desktops.

An App Store for Mac desktops? That sounds very risky. If Apple release their own built in App Store then your business is gone.

True. It hasn't really taken off as far as I can tell, either. I don't think any application have Bodega as their only distribution model.

That's exactly why iPhone applications generate so much revenues. Not only if you want to sell your app you don't have to worry about accepting payments and everything else, but also your clients won't have to worry about looking for a credit card and fill up never ending forms.

http://digitalriver.com springs to mind. Haven't used them myself - would rather keep in direct contact with my customers, but that's not everyone's cup of tea.

I use http://codecanyon.net?ref=motlive (affiliate link for my own account) I havent sold anything through there but I buy a fair bit.

That is exactly why iPHone app developers are so many in number and they are so popular. Google App Market is this stupid open, it brings no benifits for app developers!

Reply on news.ycombinator.com