My Must-Have Tools for Indie App Development
Building a successful app business is hard. There are so many things to juggle and so many tools to use. In this article, I will show you five helpful tools that I use regularly while trying to build
Astro - App Store Optimization
Astro has been a game-changer for me as an indie hacker, especially in my journey with HabitKit. Trying to climb the ranks of the competitive world of the Apple App Store can be really hard, but Astro has become my most important tool during this journey.
Its ability to provide information about the difficulty and popularity of keywords allowed me to make informed decisions about which keywords to target, ensuring that HabitKit stands out in a crowded market like the habit-tracking app space. This way I managed to get to the top 5 in the App Store Search rankings in multiple countries and for many important keywords.
Finding the most important keywords for your app is crucial for your ASO strategy. Astro allows you to find the most important keywords for your app and to track their performance over time. picked the most important keyword for my niche ("habit tracker") and decided to go all in on it. I incorporated it first things first into the app name, that's why HabitKit is called "Habit Tracker - HabitKit" on the App Store and Google Play. For the subtitle, I picked the second and third most important keywords ("Streaks & Accountability"). This way I made sure that I had the best possible chance of ranking for "habit tracker" and related search queries after a while.
Cursor - VSCode + AI
I discovered Cursor a few months ago and it has become one of my favorite IDEs. Cursor is an AI-powered coding tool that allows you to write code faster and more efficiently. It's a game changer for me, especially because it can really help with writing good Flutter code. I love that it's basically a fork of VSCode, so I can use all my extensions and it feels just like VSCode (which was my favorite IDE before).
For me, the autocomplete feature is the most important one. I love tabbing through my code and having the AI help me write the next few lines. It makes cumbersome refactoring a lot more fun. The ability to chat (and reference code) is also super helpful and is used daily in my workflow. If you never coded with Cursor before, you should definitely give it a try. It's definitely better than copying and pasting code from ChatGPT back and forth.
Supernotes - Notetaking
Supernotes is my favorite note-taking app. I use it to write down ideas, plan my day, and keep track of my goals. It's a great way to stay organized and to make sure that I don't forget anything. Supernotes has significantly improved my workflow and organization as an indie developer. It’s become an important part of how I manage HabitKit and my day-to-day life.
I manage everything about the development journey of HabitKit in Supernotes. This includes the product backlog, ongoing feature projects, user feedback, and more. The ability to infinitely branch notes allows me to dive deep into each aspect of the app’s development, creating a comprehensive and easily navigable knowledge base.
In my day-to-day life, Supernotes serves as a central hub for both personal and professional information. Its search and linking features make it easy to find and connect related ideas across different areas of my life, which is especially helpful when inspiration for HabitKit strikes outside of “work hours.”
RevenueCat - Official Mobile App
The official RevenueCat mobile app is my favorite tool for tracking my revenue on the road. I used RCKit before, but the official app comes at no additional cost and is a lot more convenient. It's a great way to check my revenue and see how my apps are performing on the App Store and Google Play.
HabitKit - Habit Tracking
The last recommendation is my own app, HabitKit. It's a habit tracker app that helps you build good habits and break bad ones. Developing and using this app completely changed my life for the better and I'm sure it will do the same for you. I've been tracking a set of core habits for over two years now and seeing my consistency in HabitKit is one of the best feelings in the world.
In case you're wondering, the five core habits I track are:
Reading - Try to read every day for at least 15 minutes
Daily Walk - Get out and walk (preferably in nature)
Healthy Eating - Eat healthy and nutritious food
Sport - Weightlifting, running, etc.
Build In Public - Write a post every day
I feel that by doing this, I have grown so much as a person and as a developer. I'm a lot happier and a lot more productive when I have my visual indicator of how consistent I am with my habits.