How To Successfully Sell Your Mobile App In 2023

By Vikas Agrawal

It's difficult to get people to download your mobile app and encourage them to use it. Even if your app is the most amazing thing ever, you will likely fail to monetize it and grow it when you reach a certain ceiling.

That's why selling your mobile app or creating an earn-out-based partnership is so important! You need to sense the right time to sell your mobile app in 2023 and cash in your digital assets.

Why should you care about selling your mobile app?

Even if they're profitable, developers sell their apps. Similarly, mobile-first and profitable startups are closing their doors due to many factors, as published in the Startup Failure Analysis Report from 2018 to 2022 by BlueThrone.

Admittedly, I have worked with an array of startups and mobile app developers and have seen some try to sell their mobile apps. Here are a few reasons people sell:

• Personal reasons: A major chunk of mobile app developers want to sell their mobile apps due to family reasons and financial demands.

• Tax benefits: The U.S. tax system charges a lower amount of tax on mobile app sales as it categorizes the app selling as capital gains.

• New venture: Developers are creative, and they always want to develop new projects that are more interesting and profitable.

• Incapable of growing: There's only so much an indie developer or a small studio can know, manage and do.

What is the current mobile app-selling landscape? Before you think about selling your mobile app, you should ask yourself these questions:

1.Do you know where to sell your mobile app?

2.What makes your app unique? Why should someone buy it over other, similar apps?

3.How will you reach the perfect mobile app buyers and get them interested in your app?

Most app sellers get cheated when they transfer their app-development accounts to unknown buyers. Further, if you are selling an iOS app, you need to know these big hurdles:

1.The app cannot use an iCloud entitlement in any version.

2.Any Passbook entitlement cannot be used with any version of the app.

3.Transferring apps that use Apple Sign-in is not possible.

4.It is impossible to transfer Mac apps made using Mac Catalyst or the iPad apps they are based on.

Are you able to sell your app under these terms?

Most mobile app developers also want to know about the potential selling price. So, how much can you sell your mobile app for?

Calculate the profit and gross revenue of your app. Subtract all of the expenses you're incurring to generate this revenue, such as app store fees, server costs and support. Your app is worth 12 to 36 times its monthly profits.

Now, there's a catch. If your app is making a $10,000 monthly profit, you can usually wait for six to eight months before selling your app. During this time, your app's worth remains the same, and you pocket an extra $60,000 to $80,000.

How do you successfully sell your mobile app in 2023?

There are two ways to sell your mobile apps:

1.Sell on popular marketplaces like Flippa, Sellsideprojects and Transferslot. You can share your mobile app and sell it as a standalone product. This is best for small apps.

2.You can communicate with fellow developers and groups, and transfer your developer accounts to transfer the ownership of your mobile app for a suitable price.

Having said that, I would strongly recommend developers stay away from unknown app brokers. I have witnessed many unwanted situations where developers never received their agreed price from them and had their data stolen.

Many app developers don't have clear knowledge about the financial side of their apps and the app selling process. App brokers--though not all of them--leverage this factor to take unwanted advantage.

Your Takeaway

To summarize this article in a few key points, if you are a mobile app developer and want to sell your app, then focus on these key issues:

•Why do you want to sell your app?

•Is your mobile app profitable? How much of a monthly profit does it make?

•To whom is best to sell your app?

•When is the best time to sell your app?

If you come up with strong answers to these questions, then you are ready to sell your mobile app and make the most out of it.