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Comment by weinzierl | Hacker News Reader

I am curious what your experience with a free and ethical app in a walled garden will be.

I had a similar idea. About two years ago my kid was playing a simple mobile game with her friends a lot. There are many variations of the game theme but they are all ad infested privacy nightmares listlessly fiddled together.

I thought we could do better and make a good and ethical version - also as an educational project. The game turned out well, but we haven't published it yet. It is still planned, but I had to learn free apps apparently are an uphill battle in walled garden ecosystems.

If you think about it, it makes sense: Apple and Google don't like to get their 30% cut from nothing. I believe that is the deeper reason apps like ours are so rare.

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> free apps apparently are an uphill battle in walled garden ecosystems.

How so? I manage well over 10 App Store Connect and around 7 Android Play Store accounts all with 1-3 apps in them, all free, no IAP, no cut for Apple. I've never felt like it was an uphill battle.

While the app review process is incredibly flawed, I haven't experienced anything that paid apps or apps using IAP run into as well. As in, free apps aren't "targeted" in any way I can see.

Appreciate your perspective — and I agree, technically, free apps can be published without issue. But from my experience (and others I've followed in the FOSS space), the “uphill battle” isn't about being blocked or targeted — it’s more about discovery, sustainability, and alignment with the platform’s incentives.

On stores like Google Play, the design favors apps with ad revenue, IAPs, or growth metrics — not minimal, ethical apps with no monetization. Free, privacy-respecting tools often get buried or flagged for things like lack of user engagement, sparse permissions, or not following monetization guidelines (like not using Google’s billing).

That’s why I released my app, MBCompass, on F-Droid first. It's where users expect simple, ethical apps — and where visibility isn't tied to commercial strategy.

So yeah, free apps aren't “targeted,” but the environment isn’t really designed to support or surface them either.

Ahh, yes. Getting customers or even showing up in search is a whole different ballgame.

Thankfully, I don’t have mess with any of that. All the apps I oversee are companion apps to another service. I’m not trying to attract people _on_ the AppStore to my app. People get the app because they use the service.

That makes a lot of sense — but apps like mine in the “Compass” category really struggle to stand out among countless bloated, ad-filled apps with hundreds of millions of downloads.

What's the incentive to "stand out" though if there is no monetization? It seems to me if there is no motive beyond just publishing an ethical X, then if users find it, they find it, and if they don't, they don't. And those looking for ethical apps (by your implied definition) will probably find it too; I've found a decent amount by filtering out apps with ads and IAP. Although TBF I use Aurora Store, and am unsure if the filter is available in the native Play Store app.

Please do. You can host on both fdroid and Google play / app store for free. F droid constantly needs high quality apps and passion projects are enjoyed by the community well.

I spent a lot of time doing free QA for F-droid apps exclusively and there are a lot of people who do that

Thanks! I don’t have a Play Store account yet due to budget, but this is on my to-do list.

You can start on f droid and maybe people can chip in to fund that

Yeah, that’s the plan! Honestly, building apps like this is tough — especially when aiming for unique features, keeping the app lightweight, and staying up-to-date with the latest tech stack. Support from the community really helps keep it going. :)

link me up when yours is online.

Thanks, I will do it.

Totally agree — it's tough putting something ethical and free into platforms that are built around ads and in-app purchases. I released MBCompass on F-Droid first for that reason, and I’m still figuring out how to reach users who care about privacy and simplicity.

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