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Starter

Starter Plan

$19 / month

For solo indie developers who want to ship betas and sell their app directly. Everything in Free, plus paid downloads and room to grow.

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What's Included

Apps

3 apps

Register up to 3 macOS apps. Ideal for a main app plus a companion app or extension.

Testers

100 testers

Invite up to 100 beta testers per app. Enough for a serious beta program with multiple testing rounds.

Releases

50 releases / month

Upload up to 50 signed and notarized DMG builds per month — roughly 2-3 per business day. Plenty of room for active development cycles.

Paid Direct Downloads

Included

Sell your app directly to customers. They buy from your storefront, download a signed DMG, and you keep ~97% after card processing. Zero per-transaction platform cut — you only pay Square's standard processing fee (2.6% + $0.10).

Token-Gated Downloads

Included

Every download link is a unique, opaque token. Configurable attempt limits (up to 20 per token) and expiry (up to 7 days). Instant revocation by grant ID, email, or token.

CLI Access

Full access

The complete open-source Rust CLI. Build, sign, notarize, upload, manage testers, and distribute — all from your terminal. View on GitHub.

Security

Full platform security

Same security as all tiers: HMAC'd emails, SHA-256 hashed tokens, PBKDF2 password hashing (600K iterations), all HTTPS, no public R2 URLs, API keys shown once.

Email Support

Included

Email support via support@app-dist.com. We aim for under 24-hour response time during business days.

Not Included

Sparkle Auto-Updates

Automatic appcast.xml generation, Ed25519 signed updates, and beta/stable channels. Requires Pro plan or above.

Custom Domain

Host your download page on your own domain (e.g., downloads.myapp.com). Requires Studio plan.

Overages & Limits

100 testers / app

Hard cap. Overages are available: $5 / additional 50 testers / month. Or upgrade to Pro (500 testers).

Metered
50 releases / month

Hard cap. Additional releases require upgrading to Pro (unlimited).

Hard cap
3 apps

Hard cap. Additional apps require upgrading to Pro (10 apps).

Hard cap
Paid downloads

Zero per-transaction fees. You keep ~97% of every sale after Square's standard card processing fee (2.6% + $0.10). There is no platform commission, no percentage cut, no hidden fees.

Unlimited
Download bandwidth

Unlimited. Zero egress fees on Cloudflare R2. Your customers can download as many times as they want at no extra cost to you.

Unlimited
DMG storage

Unlimited. All release artifacts (DMG + ZIP) are stored at no additional cost.

Unlimited
Grant emails

Grant emails to testers are included in your subscription. There is no separate per-email charge.

Included

Fine Print

  • "Paid direct downloads" means you can sell your app through the platform. You connect your own Square merchant account — we never touch your payment funds. You are the merchant of record for your own sales.
  • Square's processing fee (2.6% + $0.10 per transaction) is paid directly to Square, not to app-dist. We charge you nothing beyond the $19/month subscription.
  • Tester overages are billed at the end of each billing cycle. You'll receive a notification before overages are charged, and you can cap overages in your dashboard.
  • "50 releases / month" counts each unique DMG upload as one release. Re-uploading the same version does not count as an additional release.
  • Download tokens can be configured with up to 20 download attempts and up to 168 hours (7 days) expiry per token.
  • Monthly plans are billed in advance. You can cancel at any time. When you cancel, your account downgrades to Free at the end of the billing period.
  • All plan limits reset at the start of each billing cycle (monthly).