Show HN: I completed shipping my desktop app

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Overall reception

  • Many commenters praise the app, UI polish, and the fact it’s a native-feeling desktop app instead of a cloud/SaaS tool.
  • Several find it inspiring as a solo-dev project and appreciate the fast-loading website.
  • A subset dismiss it as “just another paid FFmpeg wrapper,” but others argue that a good desktop UX on top of CLI tools is real value.

Tech stack & architecture

  • App built with Flutter, using SQLite; Next.js is used for the marketing site.
  • It relies on FFmpeg and ImageMagick, which are not bundled: on macOS they are installed via Homebrew scripts.
  • This design is explicitly chosen to stay on the right side of FFmpeg’s LGPL/GPL licensing.

UX, website, and onboarding

  • Landing page is visually appealing but criticized for:
    • “Buy now” being very prominent before screenshots or clear value explanation.
    • Pricing layout looking like a subscription even though it’s one-time.
    • Weak SEO (repeated titles), some grammar issues, unclear download/trial behavior.
  • Demo GIFs/videos are seen as too slow, unclear, or broken on some mobile browsers.
  • Navigation quirks: tools dropdown doesn’t close or scroll well; some elements look clickable but aren’t.

Pricing & licensing debate

  • App is sold as a one-time purchase with lifetime updates.
  • Multiple commenters strongly advise against lifetime updates; recommend:
    • Per-major-version licenses or one year of updates plus paid upgrades later.
  • Heated side-thread on subscriptions vs perpetual licenses, “ownership,” and expectations for long-term maintenance.

Security, distribution & installers

  • macOS users are wary of entering their device password; dev points to public install scripts.
  • Windows users strongly request a standalone EXE/MSI installer instead of relying only on the Microsoft Store, citing enterprise restrictions, offline use, and “lifetime license” concerns.
  • Long subthread on the pain of Windows code signing, EV vs regular certs, and SmartScreen/Defender behavior.

FFmpeg/ImageMagick credit & ethics

  • Several argue the site should clearly credit FFmpeg and ImageMagick (beyond a hidden credits page), both for license compliance and ethics.
  • There’s a broader philosophical debate:
    • One side: charging for a GUI over massive FOSS codebases without visibly acknowledging them feels wrong.
    • Other side: licenses permit it; UI/UX, packaging, and distribution are substantial work and deserve compensation.

Feature requests & bugs

  • Requests include: Linux version (Flatpak/AppImage), better batch workflows, text overlays/GIF workflows, subtitle tooling, screen recording integration, HEIC/JPEG XL support, lossless editing, GoPro/batch trimming tools.
  • Various minor bugs reported in UI, cropping handles, filename collisions, typos, roadmap staleness; dev indicates some are already fixed or being patched.