Why you might want to release outside the MAS, and How you can use existing services and frameworks for payments, licensing, updates etc. Essentially, I share what I’ve learned by publishing my drag-and-drag Git client for designers (http://gemba.io) outside the Mac App Store. Inspired by Matt Gemmell’s 2012 post (http://mattgemmell.com/releasing-outside-the-app-store/), and updated for 2014.

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@yangmeyer
CocoaHeads Stockholm
3 Nov 2014
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3. Publishing Mac apps
outside the Mac App Store

4. MAS cons
• Review Guidelines
• Sandboxing
• Waiting for Review
• Standard landing page experience
• Inflexible pricing (trials, upgrades, coupons)
• Customer support
• No quick refunds

5. Non-MAS pros
• Build whatever you want
• Release whenever you want
• Custom landing page experience
• Free trials
• 1-on-1 customer support and relationships
• Curated reviews & testimonials

6. Non-MAS cons
• Need your own landing page
• Need your own analytics
• Need your own payments/storefront system
• Need your own download hosting
• Need your own licensing system
• Need your own updating mechanism

7. How-To

8. Own Landing Page
• Domain: Gandi.net (29€/yr)
• Design: ThemeForest.net ($12 for "Shoelace")
• Hosting: GitHub Pages (free)
• Signup: Mailchimp (free up to 2k subscribers)

9. Own Analytics
• Google Analytics for gemba.io (free)
• Mixpanel for Gemba.app (free up to 200k
events/month)

10. Own Payments
• FastSpring?
• Gumroad?
• Paddle.com ($0.50 + 5%)

11. Own Licensing
• CocoaFob?
• Paddle.com !

12. Own Download Hosting
• Amazon S3/CloudFront?
• Paddle.com !

14. Own Updating
• Sparkle (free)

15. Full Exposure

16. When things go wrong, you will hear about it.
When things go great, you will hear about it.

17. Tack!
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Let me know if I can help:
@yangmeyer
yang@gemba.io