The path to creating AnyList was long and winding, so it's hard to say exactly. It wasn't always going to be a standalone app, and we built some stuff that we ended up not using as a result. We've been working on the app since last fall, but we weren't always working on it 100% of the time.

See: http://techcrunch.com/2012/08/17/19-months-and-1-pivot-later...

The company is just me and my co-founder right now, but we also hired some outside graphic design help.

We aren't ready to discuss monetization plans, stay tuned.

Tell me if I'm wrong here but a world where developing a grocery list app is measured in months is a world where there is something seriously wrong with our tools.

I'm not denigrating the app. I haven't tried it. But how is this not a 95% solved problem. Shouldn't our client and server frameworks be doing most of the work? And then maybe a few days to improve the UX and the design?

From the app description: "free for a limited time". I guess they're just planning on charging for it down the road.