“In the end, I get the equivalent of a $5800/month net salary.”
Alin Panaitiu’s apps, Lunar, rcmd and Clop, took in $108.4k in 2023. Platform fees, state taxes and payment processors took the first cut and left $84.8k before Romania’s own tax maze. All in, $38,440 went to intermediaries. A $120/hour consulting gig would have paid about $214k a year, so a solo indie developer pays roughly $12k a month to avoid Zoom.