How I Launched an App That Made 0 Dollars in MRR

Launching WanderSolo

WanderSolo was my testing phase app that was basically only downloaded by friends and family. I knew this was going to be the case with this app because I basically did not market it at all. This was more of a learning experience I could share about the process of developing and uploading an app.

Before deciding to upload an app, I did a bunch of research on how hard it was to get through the iOS App Store. This really pushed me away from making an app for a while. I wanted it to be perfect. It launched far from perfect, and I am not updating the app anymore. I am not even sure if that Claude API key is still active. I was pleasantly surprised by how easy the Apple App Store application process was for me.

How I Built the App

I want to preface this by saying I do have knowledge in native iOS development and Swift. I hand-coded very little of this app. I ended up using Claude Opus 4.6, GPT 5.5, and Sonnet 4.6. I designed the onboarding screens in Figma, had Claude fix up parts of the frontend, and had GPT help with the backend.

This is super not needed. I am just into AI and wanted to learn as much as I could about models at the time. I concluded that I like Codex with 5.5 the most, but it is bad at frontend. I used RevenueCat for transactions and Supabase for the emails and to hold my API key, since if it is publicly available in the files, people can access it.

Application Process

The application part was honestly pretty smooth for WanderSolo. Some things I want to note are that Apple requires ToS and Privacy Policy links to an external site. You must create a site with GitHub Pages or an actual domain and hosting setup. I just have it linked back to my personal site, but for future apps I will be buying each app its own domain and separate site.

Denial in the process is normal too. My app was denied about 2 hours after I posted it because you need to include the policy links in the app description. I had them in the app, but not in the description.

For TestFlight, which is Apple's way to beta test your apps, there are a few quirks. For external testing, you can add anyone's email to a group and they will get an email when your app gets approved. Yes, your app still needs to be approved for external testing.

For internal testing, it is different. You can have people test your app without waiting for Apple to approve it, but they must be added as an internal team member. That means adding the person's email and giving them a position like sales, developer, or whatever else is available. I personally did external testing, and internal testing just for myself.

Teaching Others

I currently have helped two other people post their apps to the App Store when they had zero experience with Swift, iOS, or Apple. Both processes went smoothly, and both have functional apps on the App Store. I encourage people who are scared of coding to use AI to bring their ideas to life without the hassle.

I will soon make a PDF people can access with more information on how to build apps.