It's going to be easier than ever to sell your software online. Photo: DevMate, Paddle
DevMate and Paddle are joining forces to provide macOS developers with a single platform for building, managing, licensing and selling their software online.
The merger will combine the capabilities and expertise of both businesses for a unique, “next-generation platform” that hopes to make life easier for software creators.
Smile CEO Greg Scown leads the team that created popular Mac apps TextExpander and PDFpen. Photo courtesy Smile
Our App Business section is brought to you by MacPaw, maker of proven Mac apps.
Smile, the indie development team behind super-popular productivity apps TextExpander and PDFpen, cut its teeth writing software for technology that barely exists anymore. But thanks to a user-focused attitude and a wholehearted embrace of the third-party tools that power modern offices, the company has been able to keep ahead of the curve as technology changes.
Here's how to harness the power of app reviews (even bad ones). Image: MacPaw
Our App Business section is brought to you by MacPaw, maker of proven Mac apps.
Getting a bad app review is a definite bummer. When some faceless user trashes your labor of love in the App Store or some other public venue, it can really sting. But if you’re smart about it, you can turn negative reviews into positive opportunities for improving your app and winning committed customers.
Here’s how to spin bad app reviews into developer gold.
For Mac developers, handling app licensing can be a huge hassle. Image: MacPaw
Our new App Business section is brought to you by MacPaw, maker of proven Mac apps.
For independent Mac developers, one of the big, daunting tasks that the Mac App Store efficiently handles is app licensing. You just submit your app, then the store manages the actual app license through its user accounts. But this unquestionable convenience comes with a few critical downsides.
The indie developers at DigiDNA scored their first hit with iMazing for Mac. Photo: DigiDNA
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Sometimes you’ve got to think small to hit it big. For DigiDNA, a Swiss development team that makes popular software for managing iOS devices, that means functioning more like a tight rock ‘n’ roll band than a sprawling orchestra.
Protecting apps from crackers can be a daunting task for developers. Image: MacPaw
Our new App Business section is brought to you by MacPaw, maker of proven Mac apps.
App developers put a lot of time and effort into preventing their apps from being cracked or pirated. But for every coder taking a step toward making an app more secure, there’s someone on the march to crack it. The integrity of any app is subject to an ongoing arms race.
The most popular and useful apps are the most likely to release the cracken (I’m so sorry), so finding out that a bunch of people have downloaded your app illegally can be worn as something of a badge of pride. But that’s cold comfort when you’re losing customers, so let’s take a look at a couple of the most likely app-cracking approaches developers should protect against.
Putting a price tag on in-house app development can be tricky. Photo: MacPaw
Our new App Business section is brought to you by MacPaw, maker of proven Mac apps.
If you’re developing a Mac app, you’re faced with a major either/or decision: whether to distribute inside or outside of the Mac App Store (MAS). Sticking to the MAS means you’ve got access to tools for licensing, hosting, crash reporting and other necessary tasks. However, Apple’s tools may not be what’s best for your app.
You need a game plan if you want to successfully launch your Mac app. Image: MacPaw
Our new App Business section is brought to you by MacPaw, maker of proven Mac apps.
So you’re going to launch an app for Mac. Congrats! Now you’ve got to figure out an app marketing strategy that will get it to the widest audience possible.
There are many ways to approach the birth of a new product, but even in a field as fast-growing and dynamic as the world of apps, experience has yielded accepted wisdom about the best ways to start and maintain a successful campaign. Here are great rules of thumb for maximizing impact and customers for your app.
The Mac App Store isn't the only way you should distribute your apps. Image: MacPaw
Our new App Business section is brought to you by MacPaw, maker of proven Mac apps.
Like death and taxes, distributing your new app through the Mac App Store can seem inevitable. It’s widely considered the easiest way to get the widest exposure for an app, a centralized marketplace for software with a captive audience of buyers.
But ever more developers are looking beyond the Mac App Store (MAS) for distribution options that best serve their app. MacPaw, maker of DevMate, performed an interesting survey of developers to ask if they prefer MAS or another app store alternative, and why.