The Tools I Actually Use Every Day to Build Indie Apps

ChatGPT's best attempt at generating a feature image for this post.

A look at everything I rely on to design, build, launch, and grow my apps.

I often see other developers sharing lists of their go-to tools, and I’ve always found those posts useful — even if just to pick up one or two new ideas. So I figured I’d share my own stack: the tools I use on a daily or near-daily basis while building and growing my indie apps.

It’s not a curated or optimized list — just the actual apps, services, and resources I rely on across design, development, analytics, monetization, and marketing.

Most are free, some are paid. But all of them are actually useful and help me move fast and efficiently as a solo developer.

🧱 Design & Prototyping

Figma — UX, Icons, Screenshots

Price: Free plan available, paid from $12/month
I use Figma for everything from wireframes and prototypes to App Store screenshots and app icons. I still use the free (or near-free) plan and just work out of one big, slightly messy file. It’s flexible and fast, even if my organization could use some work.

Coolors — Color Palette Generator

Price: Free, Pro version from $3/month
Whenever I’m working on a new app or refreshing a UI, I use Coolors to generate color palettes and gradient ideas. Quick and visual, without needing to dive deep into color theory (although if you're not confident with colors, like me, I would recommend watching a few YouTube videos on basic color theory / building out a color palette for a product).

Storyset — Customizable Vector Illustrations

Price: Free with attribution
Great for onboarding illustrations or empty states. You can customize the illustrations' style and color directly from the site, so it can match your color scheme without any editing in a vector graphics tool.

💻 Development & Architecture

ChatGPT — Copywriting, Code Help & Brainstorming

Price: Free tier available, Plus plan $20/month
I use ChatGPT (Plus plan) almost daily for a mix of tasks: drafting onboarding copy, generating SwiftUI snippets, validating feature ideas, or just getting unstuck when I’m thinking through a tricky implementation. It’s not always perfect, but for lightweight help and ideation, it saves me time and helps me move faster.

I think the most useful thing ChatGPT does for me as an indie dev is copywriting. There are times when I need to think up a lot of copy for a lot of screens or features quickly - e.g. onboarding flows or copy for randomly generated push notifications – and ChatGPT is able to deliver high-quality simple copy fast (given a few prompt iterations).

Cursor — AI Coding Assistant

Price: Free plan available, paid from $20/month
Cursor helps me scaffold out features, refactor code, and navigate larger projects. It’s especially useful for generating boilerplate or architecture ideas. I still review and tweak everything it writes, as it often generates code that doesn't compile, but it saves a lot of time on setup.

CloudKit — Lightweight Cloud Storage

Price: Free (as part of Apple Developer Program)
CloudKit has become my preferred backend for iOS-only apps. It’s fast to implement, requires no logins, and works well with SwiftData. I’ve used Firebase Auth and Firestore in the past, but CloudKit has been faster and easier for my recent projects.

Fork — Git Client

Price: $59.99 for a licence, free trial available
My go-to Git GUI. It’s fast, stable, and easy to use. Far less buggy than some other Git clients I’ve tried.

📊 Analytics, ASO & Monetization

Firebase — Analytics & Crash Reporting

Price: Free tier available, pay-as-you-go
I use Firebase for crash reports and analytics. It gives me a good balance of functionality without worrying too much about usage limits, which is helpful when I’m testing new features or sending lots of event data.

In the past, I’ve also used Firebase Authentication and Firestore to handle user login and data storage. It worked well, but for my newer apps, I’ve found CloudKit to be much easier and faster to build with — especially since I’m currently focusing on iOS-only apps and not publishing to the Google Play Store. CloudKit’s native integration, no-login-required setup, and minimal backend configuration have made it a more efficient choice.

Appfigures — Keyword Research & App Tracking

Price: Starts at $9.99/month, I use $44.99/month plan (to track more keywords)
One of my most valuable tools. I use it to:

Track keyword rankings
Explore search term opportunities
Monitor ratings and reviews
Get alerts for App Store features or Top 200 chart placements
Get a quick-look at competitor apps

It’s the first place I go when researching keywords for a new app and I use it to monitor keywords daily for my existing or upcoming apps.

Google Trends — Trend & Seasonality Insights

Price: Free
I use this to validate broader demand and check seasonal trends for app ideas. It’s especially helpful when exploring use cases like fitness (January spikes) or avoiding trends that might be on the decline.

RevenueCat — In-App Subscriptions

Price: Free (up to $2.5k monthly tracked revenue), 1% of MTR (after 2.5k MTR).
Handles subscription logic and in-app purchases across Apple platforms. I use it for every app with a subscription model. I tried to do subscriptions without RevenueCat years ago and the pain was immense. If you're doing subscriptions on iOS (or Google) I would say it's a no brainer must-have.

Also the ability to remotely configure paywalls and track revenue in one place is incredibly useful with their new paywalls (in beta). Their podcast, SubClub, is also a great resource for learning from other product, growth and app developer success stories.

Xnapper — Screenshots with nice gradient backgrounds

Price: One-time purchase ($29 USD)
I use this to generate clean, polished screenshots for social and the App Store. Quick to use and makes everything look more professional.

CapCut — Mobile Video Editor

Price: Free (paid plans available)
For short-form content like social media clips or quick app previews. Works well on iPhone and is easy to learn.

Final Cut Pro — App Store Preview Videos

Price: $299 one-time or $4.99/month via Apple’s Pro App bundle
For more control when editing App Store preview videos or product demos. Heavier than CapCut, but gives me the precision I need for more polished videos (although I probably know less than 1% of what it can actually do!).

Disclaimer: I got the Mac version of Final Cut Pro for free when working at Apple and I still use this today, so I'm not sure if I'd jump to this immediately if I had to pay for it now given my limited usage.

📚 Learning & Community

Apple Developer App — WWDC & Docs

Price: Free
I keep a backlog of WWDC sessions bookmarked in here. When I need a deep dive on StoreKit, CloudKit, or anything Apple-specific, this is where I go. Even really old videos are still useful for background on certain topics.

Kavsoft — SwiftUI UIs & Animations

Price: Free (YouTube)
Great for creative SwiftUI techniques and modern UI ideas. Really love the style of these videos too, no dialog, no talking, just some music and coding with the occasional explainer note. I often turn the speed up to 2x+ and slow down when I get to a bit I don't understand or that uses a new technique I've not seen before.

Stewart Lynch — Swift Framework Tutorials

Price: Free (YouTube) + Paid Courses
Clear and detailed teaching, especially for Swift and SwiftUI frameworks. Love his teaching style and goes into depth on topics he covers, which is awesome.

Hacking with Swift — Go-To Swift Resource

Price: Free (Blog & YouTube) + Paid courses & books
Almost every “how do I do X in SwiftUI” search ends up here. It's still one of the most reliable resources for indie iOS devs, with an active community too.

Price: Starts at $9/month
I use Ghost to run this blog and email newsletter. I considered Substack but wanted more ownership over my email list. Ghost has worked well so far.

📷 Visual Assets

Pexels — Royalty-Free Photos & Videos

Price: Free with attribution.
I use Pexels for background images, lifestyle shots, and videos when building marketing materials or App Store previews.

Storyset — Vector Illustrations

Price: Free with attribution.
Clean and flexible illustrations for onboarding, empty states, or landing pages.

SF Symbols — Native Icons for Apple Platforms

Price: Free
Apple’s SF Symbols library is my go-to for app icons and UI symbols. They’re scalable, built to match the system design language, and integrate directly with SwiftUI. I use the SF Symbols Mac app to explore icons, but when working on mockups in Figma, I rely on one of the many Figma plugins that let you insert SF Symbols directly — a much better option than copying over low-res screenshots or exporting clunky image assets.

🔐 Security

1Password — Passwords & API Key Management

Price: Starts at $2.99/month
Helps me keep signing keys, API credentials, and business logins safe and organized. Essential when juggling multiple apps. I also use this for personal password management and it has been absolute life save on multiple occasions.

🧹 Tools I've Moved Away From

Stack Overflow

Still shows up in search results, but most answers are outdated or irrelevant for modern Swift problems. I find ChatGPT or Cursor much faster and more helpful in context.

Notion

I used to manage my roadmaps and feature lists in Notion, but I’ve switched back to Apple Notes. It’s just far simpler for my use case and I found myself over-planning in Notion, as it did make everything look a lot prettier ✨.

Final Thoughts

This list isn’t exhaustive, but it covers all the tools I find myself coming back to again and again as a solo developer. They're not just "nice-to-haves" — they play a practical role in how I build, test, and grow apps.

If you're also building solo — or just want a simpler, more focused tool stack for developing apps for Apple platforms — I hope this helps give you a few ideas or shortcuts.

And if you use a tool that’s made a big difference to your workflow, I’d love to hear about it.

— Mike