Users struggle to find trustworthy apps without ads or upsells
Android and iOS users, especially power users, struggle to find apps that are genuinely useful without ads, in-app purchases, or unexpected permissions. Store search can surface paid placements or copycats, and users say the stores lack trusted filters for the qualities they care about. Today they audition apps themselves, abandon options after encountering unwanted prompts, or look for curated and open-source alternatives.
For privacy-conscious, ad-averse app seekers. Mentioned from Jun 2024 to Aug 2026 on Bluesky, Hacker News and Stack Exchange.
9 different people described this problem in 8 separate discussions.
- Indie fit
- 3.0/10
- Pain
- 5.8/10
- Frequency
- 8.3/10
- Willingness to pay
- 5.8/10
- Momentum
- 4.7/10
- Who pays
- Consumers
- Competition
- Medium
- Build difficulty
- Medium
What people said
Quoted word for word. Follow a link to read the whole discussion.
I would pay good money for a version of the Play Store curated by other power users like myself. Which let's me filter out all the apps with adds, micropayments, unexpected permissions, etc
there needs to be a club (with a curated list?) for simple apps that work well, and commit to staying ad-free. I'd love to be able to search amongst such apps prior to auditioning options from the App Store
Build brief
See what to build and who will buy it
- 1 product idea with the smallest useful version and pricing
- 4 places to find your first customers
- 7 more quotes from people who have this problem
- Current workarounds, existing solutions and risks