Here at MacStories we write about apps. A lot. Many of those we write about, perhaps even most, are created by individuals and small teams. And typically, those hard-working individuals remain unknown to the public who just know an app as something they use. Today we want to bring a bunch those indie developers to the forefront.

I wasn’t sure exactly where it would lead, but last month I asked on Twitter for independent developers to @ reply me and say hi. Amplified by retweets by Federico and many others, I got dozens and dozens of replies, ultimately totalling just under 200 responses.[1] That’s both a pretty huge number (trust me, it was a time consuming process documenting them all) and also incredibly tiny (there are around 250,000 active developers and over a million apps for sale).

It would be completely ridiculous to perform any kind of analysis on such a small sample size, but it was nonetheless great to have a relatively varied spread of developers from all over the world (illustrated in the above graphic). But more valuable was the list of developers and their Twitter accounts. So I’ve created a Twitter list that includes every developer that @ replied me. We’ve also included the full table of every developer we collated, links to their apps, location and Twitter account (see below). Please note that developers and apps shown in the full list does not mean they are endorsed by me, Federico or MacStories. If a developer met some very minimal criteria, they were included.

The Abbreviated List

However, if you don’t want to scroll through the list of 200 developers or do want to see some of the developers that we do wholeheartedly endorse, we have another list. These are developers that have made some of our favorite apps, make valuable contributions that help the community as a whole, or are themselves influential in the community. Just like the other list, this is not a conclusive list. We have had to use some editorial judgment to keep it to a manageable length – many others certainly deserve to make it onto this list.

iPhone users: This table scrolls horizontally so you can comfortably read the text, even when reading in portrait.

Missing Developers

If you’re a developer and didn’t see my messages on Twitter (and I’m sure there are many of you), you can fill out this short form. I can’t guarantee when or how frequently we’ll update this post, but I anticipate that we will update it. Please read the form carefully and follow the instructions exactly.

The Full List

If you notice a mistake, please email me. If you want to be added to the list, see above.

iPhone users: This table scrolls horizontally so you can comfortably read the text, even when reading in portrait.