When I tell people I've shipped (or am shipping) 13 small apps under one umbrella with zero subscriptions, the most common reaction is "doesn't that fight your own economics?"
Yes. It does. This post is about why I'm doing it anyway, what's currently live, and what I've learned about running a portfolio of indie apps in 2026.
The portfolio
| App | Platform | Status | Category | Price | |---|---|---|---|---| | SipNote | iPhone / iPad / Apple Watch | Live | Caffeine tracking | $2.99 one-time | | QuickPix | Mac | Live | Image compression | Free + one-time Pro | | QuickVid Compress | Mac | Live | Video compression | Free + one-time Pro | | Nota | Mac | Coming | Local AI notes | TBD | | SnapPro | Mac | Coming | Screenshots & screen recording | TBD | | ViewOne | Mac | Coming | Burst photo culling | TBD | | PhotoBridge | iPhone | Coming | Photo backup to NAS/S3 | TBD | | Photo Archive Assistant | Mac | Coming | iCloud photo archiving | TBD | | IDKit | TBD | Coming | TBD | TBD | | LoopSnap | TBD | Coming | TBD | TBD | | ScoreFlow | TBD | Coming | TBD | TBD | | ToolShelf | TBD | Coming | TBD | TBD | | Weft | TBD | Coming | TBD | TBD |
3 launched, 10 in various stages from "ready next quarter" to "scoped but not started."
What ties them together
All Obelisk apps share four constraints, in this order:
1. Local-first. Your data stays on your device. No accounts, no cloud round-trips, no telemetry SDKs. iCloud sync is optional and end-to-end-encrypted by Apple.
2. One-time pricing. No subscriptions. Every app is either free (with an optional one-time Pro unlock) or a one-time purchase. The Pro features are always accumulators — they get more useful the more you use the app. Never "permission to keep using basic functionality."
3. Focused scope. Each app does one thing. QuickPix compresses images. QuickVid compresses video. SipNote tracks caffeine. If I notice a feature creep, I split it into a new app rather than bloating the existing one.
4. Native, modern macOS / iOS. Built in Swift, taking advantage of Apple frameworks (Vision, VideoToolbox, HealthKit, WatchKit, sips). No Electron, no cross-platform shortcuts.
These constraints aren't moral positions. They're product decisions that compound — if every app follows the same principles, users of one app find the others recognizable.
Why the portfolio model
The orthodox advice for indie devs in 2026 is: 1. Pick one app 2. Build it deep 3. Charge a subscription 4. Compound MRR 5. Maybe sell it eventually
This is good advice. Most indie devs trying to do otherwise fail. So why am I doing otherwise?
Because of how I work, not because of revenue. I get bored. After 6-8 months of focused work on a single app, I'm done. The 9th month is when polish would happen — and polish is exactly what gets sacrificed when I'm bored. Better to ship the app at month 8 in good-enough shape, then move to the next idea while it's still novel.
Some indie devs are wired to grind on one app for 5 years. I'm not. The portfolio model trades the compound revenue benefit for the compound interest benefit: I stay engaged across years instead of burning out at year 2.
Because most indie problems are bigger than one app. SipNote and PhotoBridge have nothing in common as products, but they share the same DNA — local-first, no subscriptions, no accounts. A user who appreciates that DNA finds the portfolio more interesting than any single app.
Because the cost of an additional app, given existing infrastructure, is low. Once you have an obelisk.club landing system (this site), an obelisk-cli (the tool that ships apps to App Store Connect), a shared swift package for common UI, an analytics-free architecture, and a brand — each new app costs less than the previous. Marginal cost shrinks; portfolio leverage grows.
What's been hard
Cash flow. Subscription apps generate predictable revenue. One-time-purchase portfolios generate spiky revenue, and a $2.99 one-time sale needs ~10 customers to equal one $2.99/month subscriber over a year. The math is not in my favor.
Apple Search Ads. Subscription apps can sustainably pay $1-3 per acquired user. I can pay $0.30. This caps the growth channels I have access to.
Customer support load grows linearly. Every shipped app generates its own bucket of support emails. By app 7, I'll have to spend serious time on this — not in proportion to revenue.
App Store search competition. Subscription apps can afford to spam keyword fields and ASO services. I can't. So my ASO has to be sharper, not louder.
App Review judges you on portfolio coherence. Apple's reviewers ask "why do these apps exist as separate apps?" if the connection isn't obvious. I've had Nota delayed once because the reviewer thought it should be a feature inside SipNote. Each new app needs its standalone value clear in the first 30 seconds of review.
What I'm not optimizing for
- Maximum lifetime revenue per user
- A pitch deck worth raising on
- An exit / acquisition story
- Wirecutter "best of" rankings
- Influencer-tier marketing budgets
If any of those become priorities for me, the portfolio model is wrong. I'd consolidate to two flagship apps with subscriptions and ride the compound MRR.
What I am optimizing for
- Software I'd want to use myself
- Trust that survives multiple apps under one brand
- The continued ability to ship new things every 6-8 months without burning out
- A small, opinionated audience that cares about what we care about
If 5 years from now Obelisk has 30 apps, 10,000 users in total, and a handful of those users own most of them — that's the win.
How you can help (if you want)
Try one of the live apps. Tell me what's wrong with it. Use the feedback inbox: obeliskclubclub@gmail.com. I read every message and the next version of every app is built from these conversations.
If you're an indie dev considering the portfolio model, I'm happy to compare notes. Email the same address; subject "Portfolio model" gets a longer reply.
If you write about Apple-ecosystem software and a portfolio of focused, local-first, no-subscription apps would be interesting to your audience, I have a press kit at obelisk.club/sipnote/press (and equivalents for each launched app). Promo codes available.
Get the apps
Currently live, all linked back here from each app's detail page:
- SipNote — Caffeine and beverage tracker for iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch
- QuickPix — Mac image compressor (sips-engine powered)
- QuickVid Compress — Mac video compressor (HEVC/H.264)
Compare them honestly to the alternatives:
- SipNote vs HiCoffee · vs RECaf · vs Caffi
- QuickPix vs ImageOptim · vs TinyPNG · vs Squoosh
- QuickVid vs HandBrake · vs Compressor · vs Permute
Frequently asked questions
Why no subscriptions?
Three reasons: (1) the kind of person who cares about local-first apps is already paying for too many subscriptions and doesn't need another, (2) my apps are mostly bursty-use rather than continuous-use, which is fundamentally hostile to recurring billing, and (3) trust compounds across a portfolio when every app feels owned not rented. There's a longer version of this argument in Why I built SipNote without a subscription.
How does a one-time-pricing portfolio sustain itself?
Math: 13 apps, even at $3 average price and modest sales velocity, can sustain a single developer at indie scale. The leverage is that each new app has lower marginal cost than the last (shared infrastructure, brand recognition, this blog earning organic traffic for all apps). The risk is that any single app doesn't reach critical mass; the diversification is that 13 of them spread the risk.
What's the connection between the apps?
Three things: (1) local-first architecture (none of them store your data on our servers), (2) one-time pricing (none of them subscribe-walls basic functionality), and (3) focused scope (each app does one thing well, with clean UX). Brand-wise: same theme color palette, same typography on the website, recognizable navigation. Each app stands alone but family resemblance is intentional.
Which app should I start with?
If you're on iOS and like tracking small habits, SipNote. If you're a designer or developer on Mac who compresses images regularly, QuickPix. If you compress videos for Discord / iMessage / email more than monthly, QuickVid. Free tiers cover the basics for all three.
Is Obelisk Club a company or a person?
A person — me, Peter Zhang. Obelisk Club is the brand I ship under, but it's a one-person operation. Email reaches me directly: obeliskclubclub@gmail.com.