SA weather app I've been working on — feedback welcome

SpiderGear

SpiderGear

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Hi all

Been working on a weather app for SA over the last few months and it's finally in shape to show people. SAWS warnings with push, lightning strike alerts, EUMETSAT satellite, tides, sport fixtures with the weather at each venue, solar generation estimates if you've got panels — and a braai gauge.

IOS version is live. Play Store version is in review.

TestFlight (build 1.0.4): https://testflight.apple.com/join/9Ss8uM7N

Couple of things I'd love opinions on:
- Is the home screen too busy?
- What's missing that you'd actually use?
- Anything broken or weird?

Cheers
 
I like the solar forecast, don’t think I’ve seen that in any other weather app.

Also like the localised vibes for activities based on conditions.

First potential issue I can see is that the main temperature indication disappears a little bit against the background depending what it is, might want to add a drop shadow or bubble of some nature there to make it more visible at all times.

Don’t love that the widget is behind a Premuim subscription, purely because I’m never ever going to be paying for the weather and as such I’ll now simply use something else.

I would be quite happy if it was ad-supported but offered the widget feature.
 
Thanks for the proper write-up, this is exactly what I needed.

Temp legibility one I'll get sorted — probably just a drop shadow on the text. The photo backgrounds I'd been testing on happened to have decent contrast so I never caught it.

Widget feedback is fair. The reasoning was just "I need to lock something behind premium so the sub has value, and the widget felt like a power-user feature". But your position makes sense and if more people land there I'll rework it. Was trying to add some value for the premium sub but if users expects that widgets are free, I will have to rethink my approach.
 
SpiderGear said:
Thanks for the proper write-up, this is exactly what I needed.

Temp legibility one I'll get sorted — probably just a drop shadow on the text. The photo backgrounds I'd been testing on happened to have decent contrast so I never caught it.

Widget feedback is fair. The reasoning was just "I need to lock something behind premium so the sub has value, and the widget felt like a power-user feature". But your position makes sense and if more people land there I'll rework it. Was trying to add some value for the premium sub but if users expects that widgets are free, I will have to rethink my approach.
Click to expand...

Yeah look it’s very much a me problem, I have no idea what the market is for people actually paying for this stuff.

In isolation your app is great, but from my point of view putting it next to the built-in Apple weather which is free and baked right in I would be hard pushed to pay for those benefits compared to just uninstalling it and using the stock app.

If I don’t have to pay for it I can see myself replacing the stock widget with yours and using your App instead.

So ultimately depends how much of a market there is I guess.

I quite like the F1 stuff in there and could imagine other people being quite keen for the sport ball options.

These projection graphs are also quite unique, don’t recall seeing them in other apps before.

IMG_3566.png

There is an odd white space between them though.
 
An alternative option could be a one shot lifetime purchase.

Generally for this kind of app I don’t see the month to month benefit or paying for it perpetually but could see myself swayed with a one shot lifetime purchase at a reasonable price.

But again I’m not the target demographic, will probably find folks up north will see more value in the lightning data and that could be worth paying for.
 
SauRoNZA said:
An alternative option could be a one shot lifetime purchase.

Generally for this kind of app I don’t see the month to month benefit or paying for it perpetually but could see myself swayed with a one shot lifetime purchase at a reasonable price.

But again I’m not the target demographic, will probably find folks up north will see more value in the lightning data and that could be worth paying for.
Click to expand...

Thanks for this — useful feedback, and you'll be pleased to hear most of it actually landed in 1.0.5 which went out on TestFlight earlier today(App Store sometime this week):

- Widgets are now free for everyone. Your "I'd use yours instead of the stock one if it weren't paywalled" line was the thing that finally pushed me to make that call.

one shot lifetime purchase at a reasonable price.
Click to expand...
What would be a reasonable price? I have no idea what to price this at so I'm currently thumb sucking it.

Premium now basically just unlocks SAWS warning push, lightning strike alerts, and no ads. Up-north Highveld users watching for summer storms get value; for everyone else the free tier is now properly full-featured.

TestFlight URL is still the same if you want to poke at the new build: https://testflight.apple.com/join/9Ss8uM7N
 
SpiderGear said:
Thanks for this — useful feedback, and you'll be pleased to hear most of it actually landed in 1.0.5 which went out on TestFlight earlier today(App Store sometime this week):

- Widgets are now free for everyone. Your "I'd use yours instead of the stock one if it weren't paywalled" line was the thing that finally pushed me to make that call.


What would be a reasonable price? I have no idea what to price this at so I'm currently thumb sucking it.

Premium now basically just unlocks SAWS warning push, lightning strike alerts, and no ads. Up-north Highveld users watching for summer storms get value; for everyone else the free tier is now properly full-featured.

TestFlight URL is still the same if you want to poke at the new build: https://testflight.apple.com/join/9Ss8uM7N
Click to expand...

Awesome, will give it a spin.

As for the pricing, again this is coming from someone who is likely never to pay for weather so in my mind $0.99 a month would be reasonable and then times that by 12 for annual with your discount to accommodate the payment up front.

And then price Lifetime double that of the annual.

I’ll generally use things for free for a few months and if I find value there I’ll hit the lifetime button as a sort of no-ads but giving back to the developer vibe because certain certainly just make no sense to me on a monthly payment basis.
 
SauRoNZA said:
Awesome, will give it a spin.

As for the pricing, again this is coming from someone who is likely never to pay for weather so in my mind $0.99 a month would be reasonable and then times that by 12 for annual with your discount to accommodate the payment up front.

And then price Lifetime double that of the annual.

I’ll generally use things for free for a few months and if I find value there I’ll hit the lifetime button as a sort of no-ads but giving back to the developer vibe because certain certainly just make no sense to me on a monthly payment basis.
Click to expand...

SauRoNZA said:
Ooh I like the Solar forecast widget!
Click to expand...


Cheers — the solar widget was one of the things I had the most fun building, glad you like it.

On pricing, you're making me think. The "$0.99 / annual ×12 / lifetime ×2" ladder is the logic most indie devs converge on and it's hard to argue with. R29 was my "test the water" number.

The "free for months, then hit lifetime as a sort of tip-jar" pattern is exactly the funnel lifetime exists to capture — both sides feel good about it. One nice chunk for the dev instead of bleeding 30% to Apple month after month, and the user gets to support without committing to forever.

Will watch the numbers and adjust. Genuinely useful engagement, thanks.

Anything else you would like to see in the app?
 
Can’t think of anything particular right now, but I’ll certainly come back here if something pops into my mind.

I’ve dropped both the normal and solar widget on my Home Screen, so should effectively see and use it daily.
 
Maybe I am confused, but will people actually pay for a weather app?
It almost sounds like MKHB's wallpaper app.
 
Good luck with the app

Hourly rain forecasts would be great.
 
Jean Claude Vaaldamme said:
Maybe I am confused, but will people actually pay for a weather app?
It almost sounds like MKHB's wallpaper app.
Click to expand...

Fair question.

The free tier is the whole app. Satellite, hourly + 14-day forecasts, tides, sport fixtures, solar production, all the widgets, everything. Premium isn't unlocking the app — it's specifically push notifications (SAWS severe weather warnings + lightning strikes near you) and no ads.

So the question becomes "do I want a push when a thunderstorm warning is issued for my area, or lightning is detected within X km?"

For most people honestly not worth paying for. For someone on the Highveld in summer who's been caught out by a hailstorm or had a strike take out the fridge or Xbox — different calc.
 
I'm a big fan of The Weather Channel
Most accurate weather and tain predictions for CPT

Weather channel current temp 21°
Your App 19°
 
SpiderGear said:
What would be a reasonable price? I have no idea what to price this at so I'm currently thumb sucking it.
Click to expand...
Maybe look at an annual price as a balance between the two. It feel less "recurring", but you will have to get the price just right so it feels worth paying for, without you feeling hard done by.

Currently in closed testing with an Android app myself (and Google's pathetic policy of getting 12 testers to test for 14 days before getting prod access, but let's not go there), and I'm facing this exact issue. A lot of people don't realise the cost incurred by developers. VPS hosting, storage buckets, bulk mail providers, auth providers, API calls to external providers, AI calls (if you're implenting AI features), App/Play Store taxes (or payment gateway fees if you go that way) etc. You'll be lucky to get back 20% of what you charge, while still having to absord the costs of the free users. It's very difficult for indies to compete with what the big guys give you for free.

Another option is feature gating the really cool stuff. Put the core stuff in the free tier, and feature gate the sports forecasting for example. But give the free tier a small sample of it before requiring them to upgrade, or maybe a free 7/14 day trial, depending on what's feasible within your architecture.

Good luck, hope you get there, and when you do please report back on what's working and what doesn't. I'm sure your pain will help a lot of others...
 
Last edited:
Would be cool if you could add custom events, with a time and location, to the sporting events you've got listed. Maybe a push notification if your events weather becomes poor.
 
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