“The subscription model has opened up the opportunity for smaller niche apps to make enough money to make a living off of.”

Subscriptions Opened the Door for Solo Indie Apps to Make a Real Living

Before subscriptions, indie app economics were brutal — one-time purchases meant constant churn of new buyers just to stay flat. The recurring subscription model changed the math entirely: even a small niche app with a few thousand paying subscribers generates steady, compound revenue. This is the structural shift that made solo app development a viable career in the 2020s, not just a side project.