A TikTok about "first sale today" pushed an unmanaged bookkeeping app up the Colombia finance Top Grossing chart
What it is A solo-built iPhone expense tracker: link Apple Pay once and it logs transactions automatically. Data stays in your own iCloud. After a 30-day trial, it's a one-time purchase of about $10–$13.
Why it took off The developer's TikTok story, "quit my job to build an app, first sale today, no subscriptions", went viral. It hit Latin American users' resentment of subscriptions. Because one-time purchases land on the day of payment, the app ranked high on the finance charts of small countries, where the bar is low.
BHow you could follow Don't be the 31th no-subscription expense app on iPhone. Build the Android version it lacks: auto-logging from bank notifications, multi-account support, one-time purchase. Then follow its playbook of the founder on camera, serialized storytelling for acquisition.
- Data (updated daily) · Launched 2026-09-09 · Colombia rating 59 · 11-08 charting in 8 stores
iOS · best category chart rank · by store SpainColombiaSVData 2026-10-28 → 2026-11-08 (12 days, 12 observations). Lower rank is higher; gaps mean it wasn't charted that dayiOS · rating count · Colombia Data 2026-10-28 → 2026-11-08 (12 days, 12 observations). Apple doesn't publish download counts; rating growth is a proxy for downloads.
In 2026 October 14, Colombian designer Juan Pablo posted a TikTok saying he had spent 6 years in product design, left his big-company job, and built a no-subscription iPhone expense tracker. "Today I made my first sale." The video got 188k views. 3 days later he said downloads had climbed from 100 to 2,700. The app is called Lucia. Nothing about its features is unique. What made it work was the price and the storytelling. Both can be copied, and the hard part is keeping growth going after the copy.
A solo-built expense tracker that charges once
Lucia: Control de Gastos is an iPhone expense tracker listed under 2026-09-09. The developer is Juan Pablo Martinez Saavedra, under a personal account, and the public-facing studio name is First & Last Studio. The first line of the store page reads "Lucia tracks your spending for you": link Wallet once, and every Apple Pay purchase is logged and categorized automatically in the background. For cash and other payment methods, you tap to log. You can also use Siri, Back Tap, the Action Button, or home-screen widgets.
The second paragraph states the pitch: "No subscriptions: pay once, and Lucia is yours. No sign-up, no ads, no tracking. Your data stays in your iCloud."
Pricing is free to download with a 30-day trial, then a one-time "lifetime" purchase: COP 49,900 in the Colombia store, MXN 199 in the Mexico store, roughly US$10–13 (App Store page, 11-06).
Nothing for a month, then one video lit it up
For the first month after launch, almost nobody used it. Juan Pablo's TikTok account @juan.pabloms has about a dozen videos total, all posted after 10-14. The first one is the one that blew up:
¿Cansado de pagar suscripciones mensuales y regalar tus datos en apps de finanzas? (Tired of paying monthly subscriptions and handing your data to finance apps?) …hoy conseguí mi primera venta (today I made my first sale)
That one line carries three things: a specific person, resentment of subscriptions, and privacy. As of 11-06, the video has 188k views, 24k likes, and 767 comments. The two most-liked comments are "Just installed it, here for the ride" (1,108 likes) and "When you succeed, I'll say I was here when this was still empty" (898 likes). The third is "But you promised: no subscriptions" (183 likes). The audience came to back a person, not to see a feature.
He then turned it into a serial: 10-15 posted "second sale"; 10-17 posted "3 days from 100 to 2,700 downloads"; 10-20 posted "we hit #11 on the App Store, competing with banks"; 10-29 said "almost at 5,000 downloads." Each one continues the last.
Then he did three things
Discount codes in exchange for engagement. 10-24, 10-26, and 10-27 ran back to back, each ending with "This Friday, 30 30%-off codes: 1. Like 2. Comment 3. Repost." He announced winners in 10-30. The three got 82k, 20k, and 61k views.
Possibly boosted with paid spend (inferred). The 10-24 video got 82k views but only 656 likes, a like-to-view rate of 0.8%. Organic videos from the same account usually sit around 10%. A like rate that low usually means TikTok paid promotion.
Turn the hardest step into a tutorial. Apple Pay auto-bookkeeping makes users set up an automation in the Shortcuts app themselves, and plenty of people get stuck right there. He published setup tutorials for iOS 26 and iOS 27 on 10-17 and 10-18 (7,329 and 12,252 plays), and the app now has step-by-step onboarding too. The fifth comment under the hit video reads: "Set it up, now teach us how to use it."
Two smaller moves: store names were tailored by language region. Latin America got "Control de Gastos", Spain got "Gastos y Presupuestos", the US got "Expense Tracker", and Germany got "Ausgaben & Budget", each claiming its own keyword set. Updates were also frequent: roughly 15 versions in under two months. The "installment payments" feature teased in 10-20 shipped in version 1.4 on 10-24.
Money: good chart rank, tiny scale
From 10-28 to 11-06, Lucia sat between #13 and #33 on the Colombia finance Top Grossing chart each day. Its best was #3 in El Salvador (11-02), #10 in Honduras, and #11 in Guatemala and Ecuador (App Store charts).
But don't read those ranks as revenue. As of 11-06, it had 103 ratings worldwide: 56 in Colombia, 5 in El Salvador, and 1 in Honduras. Two things explain the high ranks. One-time purchases land the day someone pays, so one sale equals a year of revenue. And the finance charts in countries like El Salvador and Honduras have very low bars, where a few sales a day can reach the top 20.
Rough math (estimate): based on the ~5,000 downloads he cited, assuming 5–10% of trials convert to a purchase at about US$11 each, the total to date is a few thousand dollars. That's a good start for a solo project, but not yet a business.
Momentum is also fading. After 10-28, it added only 0–5 ratings a day worldwide, and Mexico gained none from 10-28 onward. The videos he posted in November drew only a few hundred to a couple thousand views.
Who else is competing: this category is already crowded
Apple Pay auto-logging, iCloud storage, and shared ledgers: Lucia has all of these, and so do most of its peers.
| Competitors | Scale (total ratings in the region, 11-06) | How it differs from Lucia |
|---|---|---|
| Finanzas personales - Parker | 3,422,7 days +137; #2 on the Colombia and El Salvador finance Top Grossing charts | Subscription model, COP 79,900–129,900 per year; about 30 times Lucia's scale |
| Quanto: Gastos y Presupuesto | Spanish version 623 + English version 824 | Also does Apple Pay auto-logging and local storage; lifetime tier at COP 299,900, 6 times Lucia's price |
| Kesef | 489 | Apple Pay plus Mercado Pago auto-logging, skewed toward Argentina |
| MonAi | #3 on the Colombia finance Top Grossing chart | AI expense tracking, subscription model, annual fee COP 269,900 |
| Fleur | Over 30k combined across all language versions | The long-running subscription budgeting app that gives each country its own local name |
More important: since June 2026, new Spanish-language budgeting apps have appeared on the App Store with descriptions saying "sin suscripción / pago único" (no subscription, one-time payment). There are nearly 30 of them, such as Tally, Famoni, Boki, Rumbo and NUPY, and most have only a few dozen to a hundred-odd ratings. They don't look like copies of Lucia. Everyone is noticing the same thing: Latin American users are tired of subscriptions.
So Lucia differs from the rest in only three ways: a cheap one-time purchase, the story of "one person building it, collecting no data," and a more polished interface than similar apps. Those three points are the copy of that viral video. The selling point and the acquisition are the same thing.
What it hasn't done: Android
Under the viral video, comments asking about an Android version keep coming: "I remember we Android users too" (84 likes), "I'm on Android, but good luck with it," "When is the Android version coming?" Most people in Latin America use Android, with iPhone holding a small share (inferred; common market-share estimates put Android at around 80%). Lucia's automatic logging is built on Apple Pay and Shortcuts, and it won't be going to Android any time soon.
Another recurring request is "multiple accounts." One comment says "I can't separate my several cards and accounts, tell me when you add that." A five-star review from Mexico also says "I wish one account could split into several money pockets." A three-star review complains that Wallet notifications for BBVA card payments arrive slowly, so logging lags behind too.
If it were you
Verdict: B. Anyone can copy the approach, and the category is already crowded. Doing "Spanish + no subscription + automatic logging" on iPhone means becoming the #31 entrant. The gap worth betting on is the part Lucia hasn't done: Android.
Who it suits: a 1–2 person team, with someone willing to appear on camera and tell their own story; someone who can build native Android and has experience with notification reading; a native speaker or long-term resident of an Android-dominant market where willingness to pay for subscriptions is low (Latin America, Southeast Asia and the Middle East all qualify).
Who it doesn't suit: people unwilling to show their face, or who only want to wait for store search to pick up; people who want to build the iPhone version and head-to-head compete with Parker and Quanto; people who plan to make money from subscriptions. What you're selling is "no subscription."
How to build it: an Android version of "no subscription, automatic logging." On Android you can read consumption notifications from bank apps and Google Wallet to log automatically, and support multiple accounts and cards from day one. Sell it as a one-time purchase priced at less than half of a local subscription's annual fee (roughly US$5–10 in Latin America). The interface has to look good. That's what Lucia's reviews praise most.
How to get users: follow Lucia's rhythm. The first video is "who I am, why I built it, first sale today." After that, post a follow-up for every download milestone and every chart placement. From the second week, give away discount codes in exchange for reviews and shares. Make a separate tutorial for the hardest part, setup. Under viral videos from Lucia and similar apps, the people asking "is there an Android version?" are your first users.
Launch before: January 2027. New Year is the best time of year for budgeting apps, and "manage your money in the new year" videos perform best in January.
Signs you've read it wrong: ① Lucia, Parker or Quanto ships an Android version within 3 months and starts growing; ② your first story video gets under 10k views and even 5 follow-ups can't get traction, meaning the story is already overused; ③ the purchase rate after the trial ends is below 3%, meaning Android users only want the free use and won't pay.
Research notes: competitor table, acquisition evidence, full research report
- Competitors
Name Where Launched Scale How it differs from this one Finanzas personales - Parker iOS 2025-11 3,422 ratings, 7 days +137; #2 in Finance (Top Grossing) in Colombia, El Salvador and Ecuador Similar features (it can also hook into Apple Pay via Shortcuts), but subscription-based (COP 7.99–130k a year); scale is 30× Lucia's Quanto: Gastos y Presupuesto iOS 2026-01 623 Spanish + 824 English ratings, 7 days +76/+39 Also has Apple Pay automation and local storage; subscription plus a lifetime tier, lifetime COP 299,900, about 6 times Lucia's price Kesef: Gestor de gastos iOS 2026-02 489 rating Apple Pay (via Atajos) plus Mercado Pago automatic logging, with shared expense groups; leans Argentina Kelo: Control de Gastos iOS 2025-04 93 rating Apple Pay automatic logging only in the Premium subscription; focused on subscription reminders AI Money: Control de Gastos iOS 2026-02 186 ratings, #10 in Colombia Logs via Apple Pay, SMS and a WhatsApp bot; sells the AI angle Finanzas personales - MonAi iOS 2023-06 #3 in Finance (Top Grossing) in Colombia, #10 in Mexico; promoted by large creators AI-based logging, subscription (COP 269,900 per year) Fleur iOS 2022-05 Over 30k ratings combined across all language versions The long-running subscription budgeting app that gives each country its own local name Monefy / Spendee / Wallet by BudgetBakers / YNAB iOS 2013–2017 Long-established; consistently in the top 20 of Latin America's Finance (Top Grossing) chart Subscription or high price; bank connection or fully manual; no Apple Pay automatic logging Apple Wallet / FinanceKit Big-company features iOS 17.4 Built into the system Wallet shows card transactions but has no budgets or categories. FinanceKit is essentially unusable in Latin America, so apps like Lucia fill that gap with Shortcuts. - Where users come from
- Confirmed TikTok developer build-in-public: @juan.pabloms posted "6 años como product designer … hoy conseguí mi primera venta" on 10-14, with 188,411 views and 24,088 likes; 10-17 posted "De 100 a 2.700 descargas en 3 días"; 10-20 posted "#11 del App Store"
- Confirmed Giveaway of discount codes in exchange for engagement: 10-24, 10-26 and 10-27 videos promised 30 30%-off codes to those who liked, commented and shared; 10-30 announced the winners
- Inferred TikTok Promote paid boosting: the 10-24 video with 82,420 views had only 656 likes (0.8%), while the 10-27 video had 60,686 views / 1,526 likes. Its like-to-view ratio is far below the account's organic videos.
- Confirmed Friends/family or alt accounts promoting it: @mariavictoriams (1,386 followers) posted 3 times promoting Lucia, including "top 12 apps de finanzas"
- Confirmed ASO names set per storefront: different storefronts use Control de Gastos / Gastos y Presupuestos / Expense Tracker / Budget & Spending / Ausgaben & Budget
- Inferred Media / X / Reddit: neither Jina search nor x-radar found anything
Lucia: Control de Gastos (iOS 6806171510) research report
One sentence: a solo iPhone expense-tracking app built by Juan Pablo Martinez Saavedra, a former product designer from Colombia, 2026-09-09 on the App Store. Its pitch is "link Apple Pay once and it logs expenses automatically, data stored only in your iCloud, no subscription, one-time purchase," priced at about US$10–13. It got its initial traction from the developer's own build-in-public TikTok video (2026-10-14.2M views, 24k likes), and he says downloads went from 100 to 2,700 within 3 days. It ranks high on finance Top Grossing charts in small Spanish-speaking markets because those charts have low entry barriers, and its one-time price is far cheaper than the annual fees of comparable subscription apps, so conversion from one-time purchases is concentrated. Scale is still tiny: 103 ratings globally, and few people know about it yet.
1. How to read the data card
- Rating scale: 103 combined across all storefronts (appstore database 2026-11-06), +7 in the last 18 days. Colombia 56 (+7 in 12 days), Mexico 31 (no change since 10-28), other countries in single digits. Lookup average rating: Colombia 4.9, Mexico 4.74.
- Charts (appstore.chart_rank, 10-28 to 11-06):
- Colombia Finance Top Grossing: stayed between #13 and #33 every day, best was #13 on 11-01; Finance Top Free sat at #99,10-31 to #194 on 10-28, then dropped out of the top 200.
- El Salvador Top Grossing Finance: best #11-02 on 3; Honduras best #10 (11-03); Guatemala and Ecuador each hit #11 for one day; Chile best #20; Mexico bounced between #34 and #180; Spain fell after reaching #11-01 on 53.
- The Top Grossing Finance charts in these small countries have a very low bar, so a few sales a day can put an app in the top 20. A chart position only shows that people are paying, not how much revenue there is.
- The peak falls outside the database's window: our database only started collecting data on 10-28, while the developer's own stated growth period was 10-14 to 10-17 (see section 3), and he also said "#10-20 on the App Store" on 11. So what the database shows is the decline after the peak.
- Pricing: free to download, 30-day trial, then an in-app purchase "Acceso de por vida." COP 49,900 in Colombia, MXN 199 in Mexico (App Store page, 2026-11-06); the studio website lists $9.99 one-time.
- Updates are very infrequent: 1.0 (9/9) → 1.1 (9/11) → 1.2 (9/14) → 1.3 (10/3) → 1.3.1–1.3.4 (10/10–10/16) → 1.4–1.4.3 (10/24–11/1) → 1.5 (11/4) → 1.5.1 (11/5). Roughly 15 releases in under two months (App Store version history).
- Per-language ASO naming: the US storefront calls it "Lucia: Expense Tracker"; the El Salvador English page calls it "Lucia: Budget & Spending"; Spain, Paraguay and Nicaragua call it "Lucia: Gastos y Presupuestos"; Germany calls it "Lucia: Ausgaben & Budget"; the main Latin American storefront calls it "Lucia: Control de Gastos" (storefront pages from search results). The recall rationale says it is "running ASO tests," but in practice it uses different keywords in its names per storefront.
- Developer: an individual account, which also has a second app, "Nodo: Did I Do It?" (released 2026-10-24). The studio name used publicly is First & Last Studio (firstandlaststudio.com). Its website emphasizes "native, private, one-time purchase, made to last," and says it was developed using "AI as leverage."
2. Competitors
There is a lot of competition. The iPhone budgeting niche for Spanish-speaking Latin America has been crowded with indie products for 2025–2026 years, and "automatic logging via Apple Pay" is not unique to Lucia.
| Competitors | Platform | Launched | Scale (appstore database 2026-11-06, all storefronts combined) | How it differs from Lucia |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Finanzas personales - Parker(isaac Almanza) | iOS | 2025-11 | 3,422 ratings, 7 days +137; #2 in Finance (Top Grossing) in Colombia, El Salvador and Ecuador | Subscription model (Colombia Pro: COP 14,900/month or 79,900–129,900/year). There's also a TikTok creator teaching people to link Apple Pay via "Atajos" (@majooo.finanzas, 73K views). Its scale is 30× Lucia's, making it the category leader. |
| Quanto: Gastos y Presupuesto(Alejandro Ausejo) | iOS | 2026-01 | Spanish 623 + English 824,7 days +76/+39; El Salvador #11, Nicaragua #8 | Also has Apple Pay automation and local storage, but is subscription-based with a lifetime tier (lifetime COP 299,900, about 6 times Lucia's price) |
| Kesef: Gestor de gastos(Gonzalo Nahmias) | iOS | 2026-02 | 489 ratings, best #2 in one category | Apple Pay (via Atajos) plus Mercado Pago automatic logging, with shared expense groups; leans Argentina |
| Kelo: Control de Gastos | iOS | 2025-04 | 93 rating | Apple Pay automatic logging is part of the Premium subscription; focused on subscription reminders |
| AI Money: Control de Gastos | iOS | 2026-02 | 186 ratings, #10 in Colombia | Logs via Apple Pay, SMS and a WhatsApp bot; sells the AI angle |
| Finanzas personales - MonAi | iOS/Android | 2023-06 | #3 in Colombia, #10 in Mexico; promoted by a large creator (@imcharli.e, 190k views) | AI-based logging, subscription (COP 269,900 per year) |
| Fleur(Akash Jain) | iOS | 2022-05 | Over 30k ratings combined across all language versions | A long-running budgeting app that gives each country its own local name, subscription-based |
| Monefy / Spendee / Wallet by BudgetBakers / Money Pro / YNAB | iOS/Android | 2013–2017 | Long-established; consistently in the top 20 of Latin America's Finance (Top Grossing) chart | Subscription or high price; Wallet and YNAB connect to banks, not through Apple Pay |
| Treinta, Splitwise | iOS/Android | — | Latin America Finance Top Grossing #1–4 | One is a bookkeeping app for small merchants, the other splits bills. Neither is a direct competitor. |
| Apple Wallet's built-in spending summary / FinanceKit | Big-company features | iOS 17.4+ | — | Wallet can show transactions for your cards, but it has no cross-payment-method budgeting or categorization. FinanceKit only opens up cards in some countries, and Latin America is mostly not covered. Apps like Lucia fill this gap with a Shortcuts "transaction" automation (inferred; see section 4). |
| BEEZZ, Tally, Famoni, Boki, Rumbo, NUPY, etc. | iOS | 2026-09–10 | All have dozens to a hundred-plus ratings. | A wave of new Spanish bookkeeping apps marketed as "sin suscripción / pago único" appeared around the same time (appstore library search by description finds nearly 30 since 2026-06). Lucia is riding the same trend, not copying anyone. |
Verdict: Lucia has nothing unique on features. Apple Pay auto-logging, iCloud local storage, and shared ledgers are all offered by Parker, Quanto, and Kesef. What really sets it apart is pricing and narrative: a one-time purchase of roughly US$10–13, while rivals either subscribe or charge 3–6 times more for their lifetime tier. Its interface is also more polished, which fits the developer's background as a designer.
3. Where users came from (growth tactics)
| Channel | Evidence | Confirmed |
|---|---|---|
| The developer does build-in-public on TikTok | @juan.pabloms (6,424 followers, 15 videos total, all posted after 2026-10-14). 10-14 That one: "¿Cansado de pagar suscripciones mensuales y regalar tus datos en apps de finanzas? … 6 years working as a product designer … today I got my first sale"188,411 plays, 24,088 likes, 767 comments. 10-15 "Second sale" 19,212 plays; 10-17 "De 100 a 2.700 descargas en 3 días" 17,735 plays; 10-20 "¡Llegamos al puesto #11 del App Store compitiendo con bancos!" (video list pulled via TikHub, 2026-11-06) | Yes |
| "First sale" story + anti-subscription sentiment | The hit video hit three notes at once: an indie developer's story, resentment toward subscriptions, and privacy. 9-09 sat quiet for a month after launch, and this video was posted 10-14. That shows the growth came entirely from this content. | Yes |
| Giveaway of 30 30%-off codes in exchange for engagement | Videos 10-24, 10-26, and 10-27 all say "Este viernes regalaré 30 códigos con 30% de descuento … 1. like 2. comenta 3. compártelo", with winners announced 10-30. These three got 82,420, 19,874, and 60,686 views respectively. | Yes |
| Possibly paid TikTok Promote | The 10-24 video got 82,420 views and only 656 likes (0.8%). The 10-27 video got 60,686 views and 1,526 likes (2.5%). Organic videos on the same account typically sit around 10% likes-to-views. A like rate this low usually signals paid boosting. | No (inference) |
| Friends and family helping spread it | @mariavictoriams (1,386 followers, same initials ms as the developer, possibly a relative or friend) posted 3 promo tweets for Lucia starting 10-15. One, "top 12 de apps de finanzas más descargadas", got 1,122 views, and the 11-02 one got 4,943 views. | Yes (relationship not verified) |
| Support videos to reduce churn | 10-17 and 10-18 posted tutorial videos specifically on "Apple Pay not working on iOS 26 / iOS 27" (7,317 / 12,252 views), and the app added step-by-step guidance inside. | Yes |
| @juan.pabloms has 1,351 followers; there's also @lucia.app.es with only 10 followers (Jina search results). | Yes, but small volume | |
| Store search / ASO | Different names by storefront, covering keywords like "Control de Gastos / Gastos y Presupuestos / Expense Tracker / Budget & Spending". Lukas cross-links to it under "También te puede gustar" on the store page. | Yes |
| Media, X, Reddit, big accounts | Jina search and x-radar (last 60 days) show no press coverage or discussion at all. | Not found |
4. Why it took off
- A story-style TikTok video sparked the cold start: the app sat near zero for its first month. Then a video titled 10-14「Former big-tech designer quits to build an app, first sale today」 pulled 188k views, and the developer says downloads jumped from 100 to 2,700 within 3 days.
- Anti-subscription is exactly the pain point in Latin America: incomes are low and exchange rates make everything costlier, while rival apps charge yearly fees in the COP 8–130k range. Lucia's lifetime price is just COP 49,900, cheaper than a rival's one-year subscription. Reviews keep coming back to this (Mexico 10-23 five-star: "no debes de pagar algún tipo de suscripción, solo un pago y la tienes").
- One-time purchases inflate small-country chart ranks: one-time payments concentrate revenue on the day of conversion, and finance Top Grossing charts in El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala and similar markets have low bars. That's why it ranks #3–11 with a single-digit rating count. The chart position overstates its size and doesn't indicate real revenue.
- Auto-logging lowers the barrier to tracking: Apple Pay purchases are logged automatically, and you can log a quick entry by tapping the back of the phone, via Siri, or with the Action Button. Most competitors offer this too, so it's table stakes rather than a differentiator. Reviews also complain about delayed logging from BBVA cards showing up in Wallet notifications (Mexico, 10-22 stars). It appears to use the Shortcuts "transaction" automation rather than FinanceKit; this is inferred, based on the developer posting setup tutorials for iOS 26 / 27 and the 1.2 release adding Apple Pay step-by-step guidance.
- Designer-grade polish plus fast iteration: the website and screenshots are clearly more refined than competitors', with a custom font and a consistent orange palette (1.3 release notes). User requests get built quickly: installments (cuotas) were teased in a video by 10-20 and shipped in the 1.4 release by 10-24.
5. Differentiation, and whether it's really why it grew
- The differentiation isn't in features: Apple Pay auto-logging, iCloud, shared ledgers and subscription management are all offered by Parker, Quanto and Kesef.
- The differentiation comes down to three things: price model (cheap one-time purchase, single tier, no subscription), narrative (anti-subscription, anti-data-harvesting, plus a specific person telling the "I built this alone" story), and design. The first two are exactly the copy of the viral TikTok videos, so differentiation and acquisition are the same thing. This differentiation is genuinely why it took off, but the bar is low: any indie developer could copy the pricing and tell the same story.
- Staying power is questionable: since 10-28, the whole world adds only 0–5 ratings a day, and in Mexico it hasn't grown since 10-28. Momentum depends on the developer continually posting videos, and the November posts only got a few hundred to two thousand-plus views.
6. Visibility and copycats
- Visibility: almost nobody knows about it. No TrustMRR listing, no revenue disclosures, no press coverage, and no one discussing it on X (0 posts in x-radar over the last 60 days). The only public numbers are the developer's TikTok claims: "3 days, 2,700 downloads" and "#11 on the App Store."
- Copycats: none confirmed. But "Spanish, iPhone, Apple Pay auto-logging, no subscription" has been a trend for 2026 years. Appstore library search by description finds nearly 30 new Spanish bookkeeping apps since 2026-06 marketed as "sin suscripción / pago único", such as Tally (10-29), Famoni (10-28), Boki (10-27), Rumbo (10-20), and NUPY (10-14). None of them look like Lucia copies.
7. What to borrow
- In the cold-start phase, a real-person "first sale" story video works far better than feature demos. Afterward you can keep the story going with update videos like "download milestones" or "charted" and use discount-code giveaways to trade for likes, comments and shares.
- Enter a market with clear subscription fatigue and low incomes using a low-priced one-time purchase. Then target small countries with low-bar category Top Grossing charts, which makes it easy to get a "charted" screenshot to use as promo material.
- Use different store names per language region to cover keywords.
- For the most painful setup (Apple Pay automation), film dedicated tutorial videos and add step-by-step guidance in the app.
8. Uncertain
- Real downloads and revenue can't be verified. "2,700 downloads" is the developer's own claim, and "#11" is unclear which country or chart it is on (possibly Colombia's finance free chart, which our database 10-28 didn't cover before).
- Whether they paid for TikTok Promote or ads is inferred only from the likes-to-views ratio.
- The relationship between @mariavictoriams and the developer is unverified.
- The technical path for auto-logging (Shortcuts or FinanceKit) is inferred.
- It's unclear what sustains revenue after a one-time purchase, and whether the second app, Nodo, signals a "studio portfolio" strategy needs more observation.
Sources
- appstore library (agent-im, DuckDB): app_day / chart_rank / app_profile / app_text, 2026-10-28 through 11-06
- iTunes lookup (mx/co, 2026-11-06); App Store pages apps.apple.com/co/app/id6806171510 and /mx/ (in-app purchase prices, version history); competitor in-app prices from their Colombia store pages
- Website www.firstandlaststudio.com/lucia and www.firstandlaststudio.com/
- TikHub: @juan.pabloms's profile and video list; searches for "Lucia control de gastos", "app lucia gastos", "lucia app finanzas" (2026-11-06)
- Jina search (media and social); x-radar (last 60 days, 0 posts)