Maybe not side projects, but I'm running Android and Kde Connect, Home Assistant, Element or Mastodon are all listed as having more than 1 million install. I can't imagine these FOSS projects paying any significant amount of money just to distribute their free apps.

OsmAnd has more than 10 million installs, VLC more than 100 million. Can you imagine the fees? They obviously don't have hundreds of thousands of dollars on hand to pay every month to Apple.

>>OsmAnd has more than 10 million installs, VLC more than 100 million. Can you imagine the fees? They obviously don't have hundreds of thousands of dollars on hand to pay every month to Apple.

VideoLAN (VLC developer) is a non-profit so they are exempt from the Core Technology Fee even if they distribute on an alternate app store.

"OsmAnd is developed by a Dutch private limited company, OsmAnd B.V. located in Amstelveen, the Netherlands"[1] so it looks like they would be subject to the CTF if they choose to distribute from an alternate app store or utilize a non-Apple payment processor; or they could stick to the existing business terms and continue as-is in the Apple App Store.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OsmAnd

Then they can distribute on the AppStore for 100 bucks per year.

To be clear, I'm referring more to the middle tier: apps that are big enough to support an individual or small business.