I Started Indie Development with AI — Building Was Easy, Selling Was 100x Harder
Source: Dev.to
Introduction
We live in an era where AI makes indie development accessible to anyone. I can barely write code, but I wanted to build apps and earn revenue using AI. I started with that casual mindset — and reality hit hard.
This article is for anyone thinking about starting indie development. Here’s what I wish I’d known from the beginning.
Bottom line: Building an app isn’t that hard. Selling it is 100× harder.
I began by building apps in areas that interested me. With AI, it was surprisingly easy to create something functional. But after building, I realized something:
“Where do I actually sell this?”
Coming from Japan, the options for indie developers to sell apps are extremely limited compared to English‑speaking markets.
Options I Tried (Why I Gave Up)
Personal blog / Landing page
- Can’t compete with big players in SEO
Mobile apps
- Both Android and iOS are completely saturated
SaaS
- Very few distribution platforms available in my market
Social media marketing
- Zero followers
The Biggest Lesson
“If you build it, they will come” is complete fiction. No matter how good your product is, if no one can find it, it will never sell.
After extensive research, I landed on Chrome extensions.
Why I Chose Chrome Extensions
Advantages
- Simple scope – Small enough for AI‑assisted development
- Built‑in distribution – Chrome Web Store does the heavy lifting
- Easy monetization – ExtensionPay — just a few lines of code
- Niche‑friendly – Big companies don’t bother with small niches
My Extensions Portfolio
- PromptStash — Save & manage AI prompts (supports 19+ AI services)
- DataPick — Extract data from web pages without code
- SnippetVault — Code snippet manager
- ReadMark — Remember your reading position
- YouTube Shorts Killer — Hide YouTube Shorts completely
- X Detox — Remove noise from X (Twitter)
- ZenRead — Distraction‑free reading mode
- Rakuten Sellers Analytics — Analyze sellers on Rakuten marketplace
- Arbitra — Cross‑platform price comparison
- Japanese Font Finder — Identify fonts on any website
- TVerPlus — Improve TVer streaming experience
- Yahoo Comfort Mode — Better Yahoo! Japan browsing
- Rental Property Analysis — Analyze rental properties
- Purchase Property Analysis — Analyze properties for purchase
Takeaways
- AI has dramatically lowered the barrier to building things, but the barrier to selling hasn’t budged.
- Decide your distribution channel before you start building.
- Chrome extensions are an excellent choice for indie developers.
- Revenue is still minimal, but the foundation is in place.
Portfolio Link
🔗 Full portfolio → S‑Hub
Call to Action
What’s your experience with indie development? Let me know in the comments!