Thank HN: My SaaS paid my rent this month

Re:Thank HN: My SaaS paid my rent this month by cronix on Monday January 20, 2020 @02:24PM (#22101398)

That's pretty cool! Have you thought about making it into a PWA and ditch the proprietary ios/android ecosystems and just allow anyone with a browser to use it? It doesn't seem like there is much in this app that NEEDS to be a "mobile" specific app. It looks like you could do it all with html/js and some local storage. I'm a big believer in open crossplatform systems, when it's possible. Obviously if you need access to hardware sensors, etc, it wouldn't work very well.

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Re:Thank HN: My SaaS paid my rent this month by mduerksen on Monday January 20, 2020 @02:49PM (#22101587)

For a big portion of the app, I would agree (arguments about native feel aside).

But well, there is the virtual planner feature that makes heavy use of carefully tuned iOS gesture recognizers for zooming, panning, dragging, tapping and holding, all in combination for a smooth and useable editor on a small screen.

Not that I have actually tried, but I suspect I would have to lay more groundwork to implement the same experience with the browser DOM. This could of course just be a lack of knowledge on my part, but my time is finite :)

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Re:Thank HN: My SaaS paid my rent this month by CSSer on Tuesday January 21, 2020 @04:39PM (#22111910)

Hi, web app dev here. It’s possible to do. Whether it piques your interest or is worth your personal effort to do is of course up to you, but it is doable. Some may scoff, but I’d even say it’s possible to do it elegantly.

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Re:Thank HN: My SaaS paid my rent this month by privateSFacct on Monday January 20, 2020 @03:15PM (#22101774)

Can you give some examples of simple open cross platform systems that make money?

I like my apps to be apps and a lot of the "Apps" that are HTML/js are janky cross platform and are tricky to pay for (vs one touch on ioS)

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Re:Thank HN: My SaaS paid my rent this month by ta999999171 on Monday January 20, 2020 @06:11PM (#22102842)

"Make money" is a misnomer, but successful PWAs tossed around here include Uber, Starbucks, etc...

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Re:Thank HN: My SaaS paid my rent this month by privateSFacct on Wednesday January 22, 2020 @07:36PM (#22123654)

Sorry - but Uber is very much a app first app. Most people using it are coming through the "proprietary" ecosystem parent wants to get rid of.

I don't use starbucks, but I wouldn't be surprised if it also had a proper app store app and didn't require users to use a web browser to access the app.

If anything - this proves the user preference for apps vs websites.

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