PlayExitPay

Who it's for

Indie Android developers selling paid apps or paid unlocks outside Google Play; today they cope with Gumroad or Lemon Squeezy file downloads, manual email license keys, GitHub Releases, and F-Droid for free builds.

The problem

Payment: Play billing fees and policy rejections cut revenue. Time: every sale requires manual key issuance and every release requires manually telling users where the new APK is. Legal/records: direct sales lack signed order and update receipts useful for chargebacks, refund disputes, or proving which build a customer received.

How to build it

Hosted web dashboard plus Stripe checkout plus a static signed update feed plus a tiny Android/CLI license checker. Includes APK upload, SHA-256 and signing-certificate fingerprint display, license-key generation, update.xml endpoint, and signed receipt/verification page. Excludes app-store discovery, advanced DRM, iOS, refunds, and chargeback automation.

How it makes money

Developers pay $29/month or 2% of direct sales because it replaces Play billing fees and manual key delivery; free GitHub Releases cannot gate paid builds, issue/revoke license keys, or provide signed purchase/update receipts.

Why it doesn't exist yet

Incumbents skip: Google Play and Apple want the store fee and do not provide a direct Android billing/update channel; Gumroad/Paddle are generic file checkout tools and do not handle APK signing, license verification, or update feeds. Indie gap: a narrow Play-exit middleware that maps one APK to a paid, verifiable direct-download channel.

First users

First 10 come from Android developers publicly announcing Play exits after the Conversations article; offer free setup in r/androiddev, Mastodon, F-Droid forums, and HN, targeting apps with existing paid users who need updates outside Play.

Build size

2 people x 10 weeks; included: APK upload/storage, Stripe checkout, license-key issuance, signed update XML, receipt/verification page, and sample Android checker. Excluded: advanced DRM, subscription proration, app discovery, iOS, F-Droid repo hosting, and chargeback automation.

Biggest risk

Google ships an official Play-licensed direct distribution/payment channel for sideloaded apps, or Android requires paid sideloaded apps to use Play Integrity licensing, making a third-party license/update feed unnecessary.

Conditions for a hit (all 3 required)

• Given an uploaded APK and Stripe product ID, it publishes a product page showing APK SHA-256, signing-certificate fingerprint, price, and a buy button within 30 minutes.
• After a test checkout, it issues a single-use license key and a signed JSON receipt containing order ID, APK hash, license-key hash, and timestamp.
• A sample Android app or CLI can query the update feed with a valid key and receive a signed update XML with a download URL within 5 seconds; an invalid key returns deny.

How it's judged (in 6 months)

A GitHub repository or Product Hunt daily top-5 launch explicitly offering APK license-key checkout plus signed Android update feed reaches 1,000 GitHub stars or Product Hunt daily top 5.(judgment date 2027-03-30)

AI self-confidence 45/100 — self-reported likelihood of meeting the criterion, not a business success rate