Mac App Store vs Direct distribution (from experience) 💡

If you’re building a macOS app, this is one of those decisions that sounds simple but isn’t.

When I started building Room Service, I assumed I’d ship it on the Mac App Store.

That’s the default path.

But pretty quickly, it became clear it wouldn’t work.

Not because of distribution, but because of what the product actually needs to do.

Room Service looks at developer machines in depth: files, processes, local environments, system-level data.

And that’s exactly where the App Store starts pushing back.

Sandbox restrictions limit access to many of the things you actually need. Some features become awkward. Some become unreliable. Some just become impossible.

At that point, I had to make a choice:

ship a limited version on the App Store

or go direct and build the product properly

I chose direct distribution.

That decision changed a lot.

✔️ What got better:

• full control over what the app can access

• features like Dev Ports, Build Watchers, deeper system visibility just work

• faster iteration without review cycles

• more flexibility in how the product evolves

✖️ What got harder:

• distribution becomes manual

• no built-in discovery like the App Store

• payments, licensing, updates all become your problem

• you have to build trust yourself

• you still need to deal with Apple notarization and signing even outside the App Store

There’s no perfect answer here.

If your app fits the sandbox, the App Store is great.

But if your product depends on deeper system access, you start fighting the platform instead of building the product.

For me, going direct made the product possible.

Still figuring out the best long-term distribution strategy, but I don’t regret the decision.

Curious how others approached this. Would be great to hear what worked or didn’t for you.