--- title: Building a Distribution and Sales System for Indie Apps... description: Building an independent distribution system for macOS apps outside the App Store requires solving packaging (DMG Canvas), notarization, automatic updates... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/building-a-distribution-and-sales-system-for-indie-apps-from-scratch-bz6kgq3qw twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Building a Distribution and Sales System for Indie Apps from Scratch | daily.dev og:description: Building an independent distribution system for macOS apps outside the App Store requires solving packaging (DMG Canvas), notarization, automatic updates... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/building-a-distribution-and-sales-system-for-indie-apps-from-scratch-bz6kgq3qw og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/bz6KgQ3qW.png og:image:alt: Building a Distribution and Sales System for Indie Apps from Scratch og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Building a Distribution and Sales System for Indie Apps from Scratch **[Fatbobman](https://daily.dev/sources/fatbobman)** · [@fatbobman](https://daily.dev/fatbobman) · 10 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Building an independent distribution system for macOS apps outside the App Store requires solving packaging (DMG Canvas), notarization, automatic updates (Sparkle framework), licensing (self-hosted Keygen.sh), and global payment collection (Stripe with US company registration). The process involves significant infrastructure work including DMG packaging with notarization, implementing Sparkle for auto-updates with CloudFlare R2 hosting, deploying a self-hosted licensing system, navigating complex payment provider registration (especially for Chinese developers), and building webhook services to automate license generation and delivery after purchase. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Building and Shipping Mac and iOS Apps Without Ever Opening Xcode](https://daily.dev/posts/building-and-shipping-mac-and-ios-apps-without-ever-opening-xcode-hniefalt7) · Hacker News · 2 upvotes · 0 comments - [Gravity DMG: Sign, notarize, & design DMG packages for your macOS apps](https://daily.dev/posts/gravity-dmg-sign-notarize-design-dmg-packages-for-your-macos-apps-jt9wshgbe) · Product Hunt · 4 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#mac](https://daily.dev/tags/mac), [#stripe](https://daily.dev/tags/stripe), [#payment-processing](https://daily.dev/tags/payment-processing) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/building-a-distribution-and-sales-system-for-indie-apps-from-scratch-bz6kgq3qw) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Building a Distribution and Sales System for Indie Apps from Scratch","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/building-a-distribution-and-sales-system-for-indie-apps-from-scratch-bz6kgq3qw","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/building-a-distribution-and-sales-system-for-indie-apps-from-scratch-bz6kgq3qw"},"datePublished":"2025-12-22T13:40:58.502Z","dateModified":"2025-12-23T10:00:13.299Z","description":"Building an independent distribution system for macOS apps outside the App Store requires solving packaging (DMG Canvas), notarization, automatic updates...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/1ef12e7072d4deefec6de261122362a2?_a=AQAEulh","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/1ef12e7072d4deefec6de261122362a2?_a=AQAEulh","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Fatbobman","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Yang Xu","url":"https://daily.dev/fatbobman","image":"https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/a/AGNmyxYJD8FDo35yPZMvl1IE9sT7UrM002H-UQb82wk-6A=s96-c","interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"EndorseAction"},"userInteractionCount":60}},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/building-a-distribution-and-sales-system-for-indie-apps-from-scratch-bz6kgq3qw","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"mac,stripe,payment-processing","timeRequired":"PT10M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Fatbobman","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/fatbobman"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Building a Distribution and Sales System for Indie Apps from Scratch"}]} ```