I don’t love the term vibe-coding, but I remain awed by how powerful tools like Claude Code and ChatGPT Codex are for helping developers build software. I’ve written before about what authoring apps means to me in the year of our AI lord 2026.
I’ve also written about apps folks are able to build for themselves, satisfying their particular needs. I love those apps.
But my inbox, Reddit boards about Mac and iOS apps, social networks — they’re stuffed with announcements about new apps, often with absurd pricing. $10 for a file converter. $30 for a screenshot namer. Trackpad tweaks for $9. These prices aren’t crazily high, necessarily, but I’m not convinced they’re appropriate.
Developers deserve to get paid for their time and work, and the general app-using public’s aversion to paying for apps is a problem. But when anyone can build apps, I think pricing is trickier. Why should someone buy Gnome, my GIF searching and sharing app, instead of building their own GIF searching and sharing app? Claude helped me with it. (Claude wrote the full Klipy API integration after I built the app on Tenor’s API integration, before realizing Google was sunsetting said API weeks later.)
The answer, to me, is you pay for an app if the care and attention the developer gives the app is more than you can afford to give. If the few bucks you’ll spend is worth more than the time you’d spend building your own version of the app.
AI has dramatically reduced the cost of producing an app, but it hasn’t reduced the work required to produce a great app.
There’s a difference between generating something that works and creating something that works reliably, handles unexpected situations, feels intuitive, respects platform conventions, and continues improving. A file conversion app really might be worth $30 — but only if the humanity of the developer shines through.
I will gladly pay for apps that feel crafted. I love apps with personality, which is a post I’ve had in drafts for weeks, but I’m not saying an app has to be full of whimsy. I want apps that show refinement, testing, and thoughtfulness. I want apps from developers I trust will keep on building and iterating. I want apps from developers who feel invested — those are the ones I’m willing, even eager, to invest in.
