Introduction
I am going to start off by providing you with this crazy statistic. In 2025 there was a 24% increase in year on year growth of apps being published to the Apple app store. The largest since the app boom years of 2013, 2014 and 2015.
In real number terms, we saw 557,000 new apps being published to the Apple app store. In 2026 we have seen an increase in year on year for Q1, with app launches already up 115%. That is 414,000 new apps that were launched in the first 3 months of 2026, alone!!!
This growth is of course being driven by AI. While this is cool to see, what makes for more interesting reading is how many of these apps are acutely successful.
Revenue cat recently conducted a study by looking at the following data:
- 29,000+ subscription apps
- 18,000+ developers
- 290 million subscribers
- $6.7 billion in tracked subscription revenue
What they found was that only around 17.2% generate at least $1,000 in monthly recurring revenue, and just 3.5% reach $10,000/month.
There are many reasons as to why this is the case but that is a separate article that we are not going to explore here. One of the reasons, specifically the lack of reviews, feedback loops and social proof is something we are going to look at, in fact, we are going to explore how you can turn this problem into a $5,000 MRR business that you can bootstrap.
The Feedback & Review Problem
One of the biggest issues when creating a new app, SAAS product or any sort of product for that matter is getting reviews, feedback and test user/testers of your product.
Its a loop, you need feedback to improve the product, you need a good product to get reviews and you need reviews to get more customers. When you are starting out it can be difficult to get new users or find the right kinds of people to give you feedback, its essentially one huge time sync with a lot of uncertainty around it.
I've experienced it myself and I am not alone. Twitter(X but I refuse to use its new name) is full of people desperately asking for feedback and fighting over attention to try and get users of the platform to reply with feedback and visit their product, hoping they test it out. Look at the tweet below, it has 83 people, all trying to get feedback and this was the first tweet on my feed when searching for it.
Its not just twitter though, people are willing to pay money for reviews and feedback, just look at Upwork.
If you do one thing today, it should be this, go to Upwork, search job listings for "app feedback", "app testing" or "product feedback" and look at the results below.
3 App Testing Posts
Real people, paying real money for an in demand service.
Its a huge industry and there is a huge demand people to give genuine reviews and feedback on apps.
The Market
Demand for user testing & feedback is absolutely huge! It has a global search volume of 741,000 searches per month with 300,000 of those coming from the United States alone.
You can see in the image above just how large the search volume is for this topic.
The Idea
Create a platform that connects founders, businesses and solopreners with people willing to test your product for money. Think Upwork but for app reviews and feedback.
A founder posts a review job with a set of actions that a user must take, providing evidence that they used the app. The tester must also leave feedback and or a review, then, in return they get paid a fee set but the person, in this case the founder, who posted the job.
You can make money by charging a fee to facilitate it or a small subscription.
Competition
The competition isn't that great either...
| Platform | How it works | Typical cost |
|---|---|---|
| UserTesting | Recruit testers matching your audience who complete structured tasks and record their screen and voice | $$$ |
| User Interviews | Recruit participants for interviews or usability sessions | $$–$$$ |
| Respondent | Find professionals and niche audiences for feedback | $$–$$$$ |
| BetaTesting | Post your app, recruit testers, receive bug reports and feedback | $$ |
| Trymata | Users perform tasks while recording their experience | $$ |
| Userlytics | Remote moderated and unmoderated usability tests | $$$ |
| PlaytestCloud | Mainly for mobile games, with gameplay recordings and surveys | $$ |
| PickFu | Fast opinion polls on designs, landing pages, and app concepts | $ |
| uTest | Large network of testers for functional testing and usability | $$–$$$ |
| Testbirds | Crowdtesting with real devices and users | $$–$$$ |
All of them are old school SAAS and people want something they can simply sign up to, get started straight away and not have to pay over the odds to use.
| Platform | Common complaints from customers | Sources |
|---|---|---|
| UserTesting | Expensive for startups, participant quality can vary, some screeners are inaccurate, AI summaries still require manual analysis, occasional onboarding/UI frustrations. (g2.com) | G2 Reviews – UserTesting |
| User Interviews | Premium pricing, recruiting niche audiences can be difficult, participant no-shows, costs increase quickly for larger studies. | G2 Reviews – User Interviews |
| Respondent | High participant costs, inconsistent response rates, recruiting specialists can be slow, some applicants fail screening despite appearing qualified. | G2 Reviews – Respondent |
| BetaTesting | Feedback quality varies, some testers provide superficial reports, limited engagement from participants, niche recruitment can be difficult. | G2 Reviews – BetaTesting |
| Trymata | Recorder reliability issues, inconsistent participant quality, interface feels dated, occasional technical problems during sessions. | G2 Reviews – Trymata |
| Userlytics | Interface could be more polished, slower workflows than competitors, reporting UX could improve, occasional usability frustrations. (g2.com) | G2 Reviews – Userlytics |
| PlaytestCloud | Primarily designed for mobile games, limited outside gaming, recruiting specific demographics can take time, costs increase for larger studies. | PlaytestCloud Reviews – G2 |
| PickFu | Great for quick opinions but lacks deep qualitative feedback, unsuitable for full usability testing, limited task complexity. | G2 Reviews – PickFu |
| uTest | Large volume of bug reports requires significant triage, inconsistent tester quality, communication overhead, learning curve for managing crowdtesting. | G2 Reviews – uTest |
| Testbirds | Higher pricing than some competitors, project setup can be time-consuming, turnaround depends on tester availability and geography. | G2 Reviews – Testbirds |
A summary that can be found on G2 says that one of the issues with UserTesting for example is that the quality of participants isn't the best. This seems to be a theme across a lot of the tools above online and is a problem that you would need to solve.
