> Clearly as already stated in the article, hosting and distribution is not free.

If I write an app for myself there is no need for hosting or distribution - it costs Apple absolutely nothing, and they don't need to be in the loop.

I've been able to run my own software on my computers forever, and still can on Windows, Mac, and Linux. It's just the mobile OSs that are different, and they shouldn't be. That's what sucks.

---

Related, I've been wondering if this issue will hit more and more consumers as vibe-coding personal apps becomes available to more and more people. Apple may have to change this aspect of its model, in time.

> No complaints over paying more than >$100 a month in subscriptions with coding agents

Plenty. The problem isn't so much the price as it is the loss of sovereignty.

It's not your model running on your computer, it's $CORPORATION's model running on their own data centers. They're just generously allowing you to use it, and only on their terms.

Not a matter of money. It's an outright rejection of the "Billionaire-in-the-middle" model that has been eroding the traditional personal computing ownership model.

Just discovered webxdc in another comment here! https://delta.chat/en/2025-01-23-webxdc-no-billionaires

hosting and distributing binaries to one person, who is also the person who created the app is free

Imagine paying $100/year for the privilege of running homemade software on your desktop computer…

Aside from Apple, running homemade software on a phone was free of cost, even back in the days of Motorola flip phones running Java…