Developer Economics
developereconomics.com · Company blog · on HN since 2013
Developer Economics publishes survey-based research and articles on mobile and app developers, tools, frameworks, and earnings.
What HN saysHN commenters cite its survey data on developer revenue, such as many mobile developers earning under $100 a month, and its framework and tool comparisons.
19HN people shared it
7linked it in comments
33stories submitted
203story points
9 years agolast shared
2013people per year2026
Most-shared posts
- 1Developer Economics Q3 2014: State of the Developer Nation4 people · 3 points · first shared 2014 · discussion on HN
- 2Developer Economics: State of the Developer Nation Q3 20152 people · 3 points · first shared 2015 · discussion on HN
- 3Pros and Cons of the Top 5 Cross-Platform Mobile Tools2 people · 3 points · first shared 2013 · discussion on HN
- 44 Popular JavaScript Frameworks Compared: Ember, Angular, React and Backbone2 people · 3 points · first shared 2016 · discussion on HN
- 5Is the Indie App Opportunity Gone?2 people · 2 points · first shared 2014 · discussion on HN
- 6Why are you still building consumer apps? Enterprise pays 4x more1 people · 146 points · first shared 2013 · 92 comments on HN
- 7Permissions in Mobile Ad SDKs | Developer Economics1 people · 5 points · first shared 2014 · discussion on HN
- 8IOS still the most revenue-generating platform ($5,200 per developer/month)1 people · 4 points · first shared 2013 · 1 comments on HN
- 9Lessons from a one-man app business1 people · 4 points · first shared 2015 · discussion on HN
- 1069% of iOS developers use Android - how developers mix and match platforms1 people · 3 points · first shared 2013 · discussion on HN
- 11Top Game Development Tools: Pros and Cons1 people · 3 points · first shared 2014 · discussion on HN
- 12HTML5 performance is fine, what we are missing is tools1 people · 3 points · first shared 2013 · discussion on HN
- 134 + 2 tools for a happy multi-cloud developer1 people · 2 points · first shared 2014 · discussion on HN
- 14Developer Economics Q1 20141 people · 2 points · first shared 2014 · discussion on HN
- 15Developer Economics Q1 2015: State of the Developer Nation1 people · 2 points · first shared 2015 · discussion on HN
What HN people wrote when they linked it
angersock · 2014-12-22
They'll hire you, exploit you, and then fire you when the funding dries up. Your "customers" will whine endlessly about every change you make, and every change you don't, and then cry out at having to pay more than nothing for your game. The industry mostly only has big publishing houses and captive studios left, and has bar none the very worst sort of customers you'll ever get--just go read through the user feedback on the Steam store.
Importantly this:
http://www.puppygames.net/blog/?p=1574
And this:
http://www.fdg2013.org/program/papers/paper06_zagal_etal.pdf
And this:
http://www.developereconomics.com/mobile-gaming-dirty-secret/
I would never in a million years recommend anybody entering the industry at this point unless they are making an independent game by themselves--and even then, only as a hobby.
If you want to learn something, keep it as a hobby. It'll be a lot of fun, you'll learn a lot, and maybe you'll even get to sell your project. But don't don't don't try to make a living from it.
ahmedfromtunis · 2017-07-31
Am I the only one who expected at least some code examples?
Also:
> Building for HTML5 is free. There are some non-essential paid tools that can help.
Qt requires a commercial license for most commercial use on mobile.
Source: https://www.developereconomics.com/cross-platform-apps-qt-vs-html5
Grangar · 2016-09-15
Not definitive, but there are a lot of good comparisons:
http://smashingboxes.com/blog/choosing-a-front-end-framework-angular-e…
https://www.developereconomics.com/feature-comparison-of-4-popular-js-…
https://www.developereconomics.com/comparison-4-popular-javascript-mv-…
T-A · 2016-08-19
I don't know about "emerging", but at this point it's impossible not to mention AR/VR and machine learning. Developer Economics highlighted both in their latest report [1] - and that is also a partial answer to your second question, their free quarterly surveys are a good way to keep an eye on tech trends.
As an aside, I remain puzzled by HN's hit-and-miss deduplication. Sometimes I submit something and it's caught immediately. Then [2] happens.
[1] https://www.developereconomics.com/reports/developer-economics-state-d…
[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12317342
hrabago · 2015-06-09
> you should spend the $100. You will get it back in the first couple of days if you make a good app.
40% of mobile developers do not even reach $100 in a month [1]. Having a "good app" is not a guarantee that someone will get $100 in two days.
[1] https://www.developereconomics.com/reports/developer-economics-q3-2014…
rnyman · 2014-09-08
Ha! I agree. :-)
It was explained in the presentation and in the report from Vision Mobile: http://www.developereconomics.com/reports/developer-economics-q3-2014/
Basically, the definition of tools is third party tools such as: ad networks, cloud computing, cross-platform (e.g. PhoneGap), games (Unity etc) and more.
melling · 2014-09-04
Well, there will probably still be an abundant number of indie developers willing to make $40k/year. They'll move to Alaska so they can live the dream. I should have kept a list of all the recent podcasts and links. Anyway, here's one from today.
http://www.developereconomics.com/indie-app-opportunity-gone/