About

Plain and Simple is Chandler Young. One person, building small apps that solve a specific problem and then get out of the way.

Why I did this

The short version: the apps I wanted didn’t exist, and the ones that came close asked for too much in return.

Every app here started as a specific, small annoyance. A journal that wanted an account before it would let me write a sentence. No straightforward way to get my step count onto the Home Assistant dashboard already running at home. Each time, the things that existed wanted a subscription, an account, a copy of the data, or all three — for a job that needed none of them.

So I built them for myself. Once something works on your own phone, putting it where other people can have it costs almost nothing. That’s the entire business decision; there was no market analysis.

They’re built the way I’d want a tool built for me: it does the one job, it doesn’t nag, and it doesn’t treat me as inventory.

Why the apps are free

The ordinary ways an app pays for itself all pull against the person using it. Ads compete for your attention. Subscriptions need you locked in whether or not the app is still useful. “Free” with analytics means the data is the product.

These apps avoid all of that by not needing it. There are no servers to pay for, because the apps don’t use any. Your journal syncs through your own iCloud. Your step count goes to your own Home Assistant. Nothing routes through me, which means there’s no hosting bill to cover and nothing about you to sell.

The constraint is also what keeps it honest. An app with no server has nothing to monetise later, no data to be acquired for, and no quiet second act where the terms change. The limitation is the promise.

None of this is a complaint about software being a business. Some things just don’t need to be one.

How to check that’s true

You shouldn’t have to take my word for it. Each app’s privacy policy says plainly what it touches, and where the code is open you can read it yourself. The principles page lists the rules I hold the apps to, in a form specific enough to fail. If something here is unclear or wrong, tell me and I’ll fix it.

Get in touch

Something wrong, or something unclear? Email help@plainandsimple.app.

Something you wish existed? Email idea@plainandsimple.app. That’s how every app here started, so it’s a genuine invitation rather than a suggestion box.

It’s one person answering either way, so it may take a day or two, but every message gets a reply.