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🧘 Is AppSumo still worth trying for a startup?

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A friend of mine launched there a few years ago, and they were really happy with the results. At some point, they even considered AppSumo one of their main growth engines.

So now I’m wondering how it looks today.

I’ve seen people talk about getting a huge number of users through AppSumo, but I’m curious what happens during and after the initial spike.

I’ve seen founders talk about getting a lot of users through AppSumo, but I’m more curious about the experience behind those numbers.

Has anyone here actually launched on AppSumo?

Did it become real, long-term growth for you, or was it just one-time boost ?

And if you’ve used AppSumo as a customer, I’d also love to hear how that experience has been.

Would be great to hear some real experiences from people who’ve been through it :-)

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Thanks for asking this, I've been wondering the same thing.

I read through their website, and it seems great, but I'm not sure how accessible it is to early-stage startups. It sounds like they're very stringent about testing and who they allow on the platform. It made me think it's a better marketplace for established brands.

  I'm actually a heavy AppSumo user, I've bought over 260 products there lol. So I've seen a lot of success stories and a lot of failures. A few years ago it really was a strong sales channel. But now that vibe coding has made building a product so much easier, I'm guessing the number of submissions has gone up a lot too. A while back they set up Radar, so new products can't go straight to the main marketplace anymore. Basically, you have to put in some selling effort yourself before they'll sell you on the main one.

Also, AppSumo is a place for lifetime licenses, and the users you get there expect you to stick to that. So anything where your cost grows with usage, like AI tokens, needs careful design so it doesn't end up costing you more than you made.

Anyway, I'm going to give it a shot.

   How does Radar work exactly? Do you submit your product there first, and then they decide whether to move it to the main AppSumo marketplace?

 pretty much. There's one application form, and AppSumo decides where you go. New products mostly land in Radar, which is a shelf you run yourself. You set the price and write the listing, and their review there mostly checks that the product is safe. The main marketplace, where their team actually markets you, is a lot pickier. I've read only around 10% get in. So the way I see it, Radar is where you first prove it can sell.

 Oh, got it ! Thans a lot for this info.

 Yes, they’re looking for products that are already working well and aren’t at a very early stage.

As I understand it, their marketers reach out to you, evaluate your product, discuss and agree on a plan with you, and then start offering it to teams.

For founders who launched there, how much of your AppSumo traffic turned into paying customers after the initial deal ended?

 Thanks for this question! That’s exactly what I’m curious about too. I’d love to hear some real numbers from founders who have gone through it and seen what happened after the initial deal.

You know Raf, mentioned in one of my threads that he had just applied to AppSumo and was waiting for a response. Dear Hisashi =) do you have some news?

 o_Oh! Adan, thanks! This is a real case that can help us understand a lot. Looking forward to hearing from

   thanks for asking!

Yes, I applied on September 15, and it got rejected three days later. The app I submitted was SpaceDeck. It started because I'd bought Sidekick on AppSumo, a browser that puts all your web apps in one place. I really liked it and used it every day, but after only a year and 4 months it got acquired by Perplexity and the service shut down. I kept using it somehow for a while, but eventually hit the limit, so I built my own. In this space Wavebox and Shift are probably the best known.

I can guess why it got rejected. AppSumo is mostly pushing SaaS right now, so a Mac only app probably looked like too small a market. The Sidekick thing might have played into it too. When you submit, there's a field where you pick which product yours replaces, and there was no category for this kind of all in one browser.

One more update. I recently released Pinateca, a SaaS alternative to project management tools like Trello and Asana, and I've already applied with it too. Still waiting on the result. If it gets approved, I'll report back!

Thanks for this insightful answer!

Did you receive a rejection message from AppSumo, or did they not reveal the reason for the rejection?

Regarding Pinateca, I’m very curious to try it and give you some feedback. Did you launch it here on Product Hunt?

I did get an email, but it was a standard one. It said it wasn't a decision on the merit of the product, they're just focused on tools that fit their current audience, and that I could apply again in 6 to 8 business weeks. So the reasons I gave above are just my own guess.

Pinateca isn't on Product Hunt yet. I've heard you basically only get one launch. I've worked in Japanese my whole career and don't know many people in the English-speaking world yet, so I want to build real relationships here in the community first. You can already try it at though, it's free for up to 5 people. I'd really love your feedback!

the usage-cost point Hisashi made is the one I'd weigh most heavily before applying, and I'd add a second piece to it: the support load. lifetime deal buyers are disproportionately the most vocal segment you'll ever have, they paid once and expect to be heard forever, so a bad week of tickets from a LTD cohort can eat more founder time than the deal itself generated in revenue. for us the math only works if you go in assuming the deal is a distribution/feedback channel, not a revenue channel, price it like you're paying for beta testers and word of mouth, and if it turns a profit on top of that, treat it as a bonus rather than the plan.

 thanks a lot! That’s a really interesting point, and honestly a bit scary at first .

But I’m also curious what happens with those lifetime users over time. Do most of them actually keep using the product for years, or does a big part naturally drop off?

I’m wondering because that probably changes the support and usage cost quite a lot too. And with collaborative SaaS, the users who stay can also bring teammates, clients, or friends into the product, so there may be some value beyond the original deal.

Would love to hear from anyone who’s seen what happens 1-2 years after an AppSumo launch.

 from what I've seen discussed in similar threads it's a sharp curve, not a gentle one. the first 60-90 days weed out the tire-kickers who bought because of FOMO on the deal page and never really onboarded, that's where most of the dropoff happens. whoever is still actively using the product at the 3-6 month mark tends to stick around for years, because by then it's load-bearing in their workflow and switching costs more than the LTD saved them. the teammate/referral point is real but it's mostly a collaborative-tool thing, a single-player tool doesn't get that halo at all, so it's worth asking whether your product has a natural "invite a teammate" moment before counting on it.

 Thanks for the info! And yes, runevr is a collaborative platform, so that’s exactly the hope I’m having with AppSumo, that the users who stay will naturally bring their teammates into the product.

Also i wonder if you have any info on the FOMO/LTD ratio? Any statistics around how many buyers are actually FOMO purchases and how many become active users?