Hi all, I've been lurking this subreddit for a while and I'm genuinely impressed with what some of you are building. I like this sub because folks here are actually supportive, which is rarer than it should be on Reddit. That's what finally pushed me to post something of my own (here and in a couple of other builder subs, since I'm curious how different crowds react).
I've been building products this year, but I'm taking a pretty different route than the usual SaaS playbook. There's a fairly strong philosophy behind it, so let me lay it out.
- All products are buy-once. No monthly subscription trap.
- All products are desktop apps. Your data stays on your system.
- All products are privacy-focused. No sign-up, no analytics.
- All products are dirt cheap so most people can buy them. I'll probably nudge prices up over time, but the bar stays low.
Why this approach?
No hate for SaaS builders but with SaaS, the company owns your data. They get hacked? Your private info gets stolen. They hike the price? Too bad. It's "free"? Yeah, they're probably selling your info on the side. The service shuts down? All your stuff disappears with it. Most of them won't even tell you what tech or AI models they're really running under the hood, so you're basically paying them to train their models on your data for free. And SaaS breaches are happening constantly now. The numbers just keep climbing. On top of that, you're stuck paying for a ton of bloated features you'll never touch. Basically, you're subscribing to a bunch of junk you don't need.
My argument is simple. A desktop app is harder to hack at scale. You shouldn't need an internet connection for something as basic as adding a watermark to a photo or compressing a PDF. Why are people uploading confidential files to sites like iLoveIMG or iLovePDF? They claim to delete files immediately. But who knows?
If my organisation shuts down tomorrow, you still have the app installed and you can keep using it for the rest of your life. Because you actually OWN it.
On the builder side:
- Build it once. Bugs get fixed within a day if someone reports them.
- No monthly server cost. No Devops.
- No chance of waking up to a "all your users data has been leaked" headline.
- Microsoft Store handles the heavy lifting: code signing, payments, analytics. Windows is still very popular among 'normal' folks.
- This is meant to be passive income. I'm not trying to make millions.
- These are tools, not really apps. Each one solves one problem people will always have.
- I genuinely want to empower people, not lock them into a relationship with my company.
- Open source alternatives often have rough UI and slow issue response. I try to do better on both.
If you want the longer version, my site is at 3thousand30 and the full manifesto is there for anyone curious. You can view the apps are listed here.
Where things stand:
Currently 6 apps are live. BatchGen Text and BatchGen Image have been up since mid-March. Another 1 to 3 will go live in May, along with a big update for BatchGen Image, which is the best seller right now. I'll be raising the BatchGen Image price a bit along with the update, since people seem to like it. But not by a lot. 😉
Numbers, since this subreddit usually likes the real picture: 1 to 3 sales a week across all apps. Best day was 5 sales. No reviews yet. I don't know who my buyers are so I can't reach out and learn from them. I've been thinking of adding a small in-app nudge to ask for a review, but I don't want to be that guy who interrupts the work to beg for stars.
I know Microsoft PowerToys covers some of the functionality I've built. That's fine. I think mine are simpler to use, but the next tools I ship will focus on things PowerToys doesn't handle at all.
I'll aim for Android next, once I register the org and so that I can skip the test phase. I have no hopes of finding 20 tester for 14 days.
A bit about me:
Product Manager, 13 years across software engineering, QA and product. Worked at large companies like Amazon and at early and mid-stage startups. Most of my experience has been on data-heavy, workflow-driven platforms.
So what do the SaaS-loving folks here think about this approach? It's not disruptive. It's probably not rational for making money fast. But this is what I actually believe in. Is anyone else here on a similar path? Feedback welcome, including roasts.
Edit: Edited to show links properly.