Edit: It's great to see that this platform likes downvoting people who release their software for free. Profit matters above all else. I guess next you all will tell me my job is worthless and I suck at life because I make under $100k.
After a couple of years I decided it didn’t make sense to keep paying $100 to Apple every year just to host a small free app.
Maintaining the integrity of an app store is a very non-trivial task, and building an entry barrier in the form of developer fees is one way of doing it. Not saying this is the only solution or even a particularly good one, but every solution will have its share of unintended consequences and exploited armor chinks. Making dev accounts free for no-ads would be an interesting experiment, though. I'd support it for science!
If you’re not committed enough to releasing something with >$100 in value or not committed to releasing something high quality, the App Store doesn’t need you or your app - period.
As a user (and as a dev), I like this. The bar does not need to be lower.
Also if you look at a platform like Unity, the Hobbyist license is $25 a month and the Pro license is $125 a month.
As an Apple fan, I really wish that were true.
90% of what you find in the app stores of Google and Apple is fluff.
And yet I found a half of a dozen Chinese knockoff BonziBuddy clones on the Mac App Store.
Literally, it’s $8.33 per month to be a part of the Apple Developer program. If your app isn’t making that much in a month, then your app isn’t very good or you’re bad at business. No disrespect intended, but $8.33 as a cost of doing business is so trivial as to not even be worth mention.
I won’t work on free software. I have too much respect for myself, my family, and my colleagues to do that.
I happen to like FOSS. It's voluntary after all. I have a bigger issue with how the industry interviews and assesses employees.
Who are you to tell someone how they should or shouldn't spend their free time?
This is a strange attitude for me to see on HN, considering how much most of us love FOSS.
I can understand saying you don't have the time, or simply aren't interested, but to frame it as having "too much respect for myself" seems arrogant and spits in the face of the people who have written major software used in servers around the world.
What it does do is pay for all the app store infrastructure, IDE development, etc etc, so your choice to release something for nothing doesn't externalise those costs on others.
I've been doing this for about ten years.
Now, my development time is worth a lot more than the accumulated $1000. But it's free time, and I volunteer it.
I also recognize the value of $100/yr as a "bozo filter" to Apple. But every year when they auto-bill me, I read the email and think about how it also excludes lots of good people from participating in iOS development.
It'd be great if there was a "NCA" class of app. No commercialization allowed. Always free, never ads, no in-app purchases ever. If all of your apps are NCA, your developer fee would be waived. This is probably too complicated for an Apple product though. :) And I think alternate App Stores or side-loading would be a net negative for the platform. So I pay.
And $8/month is not trivial for billions of people. Consider yourself fortunate that you’re not one of them, but it’s useful to have a more global perspective when discussing the accessibility of a major platform.
Yes, many indie developers are bad at business, but they made good apps. Their month sells might one or two. They pay the $99 to Apples per year just to prevent their apps from being removed App Store.