Vaultaire: a private photo vault iPhone app at $41K a month, built in three weeks with coding agents
A privacy-first iPhone and iPad app for hiding photos, videos and files: everything is encrypted on the device, there are no accounts, and different unlock patterns open separate vaults.
$41,425 in gross App Store sales in August 2026per month, up from $26,384 in July, as claimed
- Verification
- Self-reported Number stated in a post or interview. Not independently verified.
- App type
- Productivity & lifestyle
- Currency
- US dollars (USD)
- Built with
- OpenAI Codex, Claude Code
- Got customers via
- App Store search (ASO), Localization, SEO, Pinterest, Apple Search Ads, Building in public, Free tools
- Prior audience
- Not stated in the source
“After doing $26,384 in gross App Store sales in July, it reached $41,425 in August.”
Editor's note: Rasty Turek is a career engineer (security, then Gmail at Google) who founded Pex, a copyright tech company sold in 2025, so he is not a beginner, but Vaultaire was his first iPhone app and he says coding agents bridged the iOS parts he didn't know. In his X article he says he built the first version in about three weeks 'by mostly prompting a coding agent' and lists $200/month each for Codex and Claude among his costs; on X he says he uses Claude Code. He doesn't say which agent wrote the first version. The app is written in Swift/UIKit with no backend (iCloud for storage); the website is static on Cloudflare.
How they got customers
No formal launch: he put up the website, published the app, measured everything and ran small experiments. ASO became the biggest channel at about 60% of downloads, and localizing the app and site made Japan a major market. SEO only took off after backlinks from directories and republishing articles on Medium, Blogger and WordPress.com. LinkedIn, X and Reddit did little; one Pinterest push brought 311 visits, 244 downloads, 51 paying customers and $1,122. Apple Search Ads (about $650) returned about $2,400 in attributed sales before he paused them. He also built free browser tools on the site.
Steps to try
Write a detailed product spec first, then hand it to coding agents; he says the product stayed close to that spec.
From the sourceCopy what other indie developers publish about paywalls, pricing, screenshots and ASO instead of reinventing it; he says public shares shaped about 90% of his marketing and monetization decisions.
From the sourceOffer a lifetime plan for a utility app; lifetime was most of his revenue.
From the sourceTest higher prices sooner; he nearly doubled prices and says volume barely changed while revenue roughly doubled.
From the sourceLocalize the app and the website; Japan became one of his biggest markets.
From the sourceBuild backlinks (directories, republished articles) when a new site isn't getting indexed.
From the sourceTry many cheap channels and follow the numbers; Pinterest beat LinkedIn, X and Reddit for him.
From the sourceTrack subscription retention separately from lifetime sales, since lifetime-heavy months don't recur.
Our suggestion
"From the source" steps summarize the linked post. "Our suggestion" steps are general practice from us, not claims by the founder.
Source
We summarize and link. Figures are reproduced as stated and are unaudited unless marked Verified. Founder? Request a correction or removal.
Quick answers
How much does Vaultaire make?
Vaultaire reports $41,425 in gross App Store sales in August 2026 (per month, up from $26,384 in July, as claimed). Source: Rasty Turek (founder), Indie Hackers interview by Channing Allen, Oct 8, 2026. Proof level: Self-reported. Number stated in a post or interview. Not independently verified.
What was Vaultaire built with?
The source says it was built with OpenAI Codex and Claude Code.
How did Vaultaire get customers?
Main growth channels: App Store search (ASO), Localization, SEO, Pinterest, Apple Search Ads, Building in public and Free tools. No formal launch: he put up the website, published the app, measured everything and ran small experiments. ASO became the biggest channel at about 60% of downloads, and localizing the app and site made Japan a major market. SEO only took off after backlinks from directories and republishing articles on Medium, Blogger and WordPress.com. LinkedIn, X and Reddit did little; one Pinterest push brought 311 visits, 244 downloads, 51 paying customers and $1,122. Apple Search Ads (about $650) returned about $2,400 in attributed sales before he paused them. He also built free browser tools on the site.