You've tried the subscription. You've tried the paywall. You've Googled "how to monetise an app" at 11pm and closed the tab. At some point you just accept the app makes nothing and move on. Hatoi is for before that moment.
No credit card. We're trying to make you money, not take it.
Why you're still at $0
Every monetisation path that exists was designed for a different type of product. The ones that were supposed to work for you came with a catch you only found out after you'd already spent the weekend on it.
What it looks like
You drop a component where there's already empty space. Hatoi handles everything else — what goes in it, who pays for it, when it shows up. You don't touch it again.
<HatoiSurface type="loading" /><HatoiSurface type="empty-state" /><HatoiSurface type="result-page" />The reasons
Most indie developers cycle through the same four attempts in the same order. Each one makes sense in theory. Each one runs into the same wall.
A $9.99/month subscription works when someone's job depends on your app every single day. For most indie tools, people use it once a week, maybe less. The ask is too big for the frequency. You set up Stripe, added a paywall, posted about it, and watched 94 people click "maybe later". The other six asked for a refund.
Every ad network had the same answer: come back when you have more users. But you needed the ad revenue to afford more users. That's the catch. They all have minimum thresholds, approval processes, and account requirements that assume you've already solved the problem you came to them to solve.
You added a "Pro" version. Nobody quite knew what was in it. You never finished the upgrade page. You spent two weekends building a paywall for a feature set that wasn't compelling enough on its own. The upgrade page got 200 visits and 3 sales. Two were from people who thought they were getting something different.
All three paths led to the same place: more work, more time, still $0. Somewhere right now there's a developer paying $18 a month in hosting fees for an app with a 4.8-star rating and no revenue. Eventually you shut it down, and an app that people actually liked just disappears.
The catch-22
Ad networks make their money from scale. They're optimised for apps with hundreds of thousands of daily users. If you have 2,000 users, you're not their target customer — even if every one of those users is engaged and paying attention.
Hatoi applies to the networks on your behalf as a publisher, pools inventory across thousands of indie apps, and passes the demand back to you. You get access to the same demand that major apps do, without having to be one first.
Where the money comes from
Every app has screens that get viewed constantly and earn nothing. Loading states, empty states, result pages — moments when your user is already looking at the screen and there's nothing there. That's the inventory.
When someone opens your app for the first time and nothing's there yet, that screen is shown to everyone. Right now it earns nothing.
Users look at your loading screen every session. It's one of the most-viewed parts of your app and it's completely empty.
The page after someone finishes what they came to do. They're happy, they're paying attention, and there's nothing on the screen.
People visit settings constantly and leave immediately. It gets consistent traffic and earns nothing.
Shown to every new user exactly once, with their full attention. You'll never get a better placement than this.
One tag: <HatoiSurface type="empty-state" />. Hatoi works out what to put in it.
What you earn from
Ads aren't the only option. Hatoi handles multiple revenue types through the same backend so you're not rebuilding integrations every time you want to try something new.
Hatoi connects you to major ad demand through one integration. No applications, no approval queues, no minimum thresholds. You add the component. We run the auction and pay you the result.
At launchRemove ads, unlock a feature, buy a pack of credits. Same SDK, same dashboard. Stripe, Apple, and Google routing handled depending on platform. You set the price.
At launchAlso coming: tips from users who just want to support you, and affiliate placements for tools your users would actually find useful.
Pricing
No monthly fee. No setup cost. No minimum revenue threshold to get started. One number.
You earn $100 in a month, we take $15. You earn $0, we take $0. There's no monthly charge while you're getting started, and no contract to sign before you've seen a single dollar.
How it works
Four steps. No sales call, no account manager, no approval queue.
One line. Works with iOS, Android, React Native, and web.
npm install @hatoi/sdk
What's your app, what platform, roughly how many users, are you earning anything right now. Hatoi uses that to suggest where to start.
Drop a HatoiSurface component into your loading screens, empty states, or result pages. Hatoi works out what to show there based on what's paying best right now.
<HatoiSurface type="result-page" />
Your dashboard shows revenue by placement. After a week you get a summary of what's working, what to try next, and what each surface is worth.
First cohort is capped at 50 apps. About 30 spots remaining. No minimum user count. No credit card.