I got tired of subscription travel planners so I built a $2.99 offline Japan itinerary app
I’ve been experimenting with building a small utility app without subscriptions, servers, or API token costs.
Instead of generating itineraries through cloud models, this Japan travel planner runs locally on device:
• itineraries assemble from curated day blocks stored locally
• Apple Intelligence is used to know more about trip
• fully offline-first architecture
• no login required
• no backend infra
• no ongoing generation cost
• one-time $2.99 purchase
I seeded the app with a small set of starter itineraries (Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka routes), and I’m currently collecting suggestions from early users on what trips to add next.
Just opened pre-orders and I’m curious how others here think about:
– local-first architecture for content-driven apps
– whether avoiding backend infra is still practical at scale
– using Apple Intelligence as a helper layer instead of a core engine
– viability of one-time paid utilities on the App Store right now
Would love to hear how others are approaching similar design decisions.
Let me know also if you wanna download it on test flight :)
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/japan-on-a-budget-joab/id6761426637