Growkin

Small habits, healthy growth — nurture yourself, one day at a time.

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Inspiration

We wanted to build a habit tracker that doesn't feel like a chore. Most health apps are full of numbers and guilt. We asked: what if checking off a healthy habit felt like taking care of a small companion instead? That idea became Growkin — pick a companion (Egg, Seed, Droplet, or Moon), log small daily habits across diet, exercise, sleep, and hydration, and watch your bond with it grow.

What it does

Growkin lets you choose a companion and track simple daily wins — cutting back on sugary snacks, walking more, going to bed earlier, staying hydrated. Each habit you complete raises your Bond Level. A Premium tier unlocks a full calendar history and trend charts of your daily score, powered by a 7-day free trial and yearly/monthly subscriptions through RevenueCat.

How we built it

  • Flutter for a single iOS codebase with full English/Japanese localization
  • RevenueCat for subscription management — Offerings, entitlement checks (GrowWell Pro), purchase restore, and sandbox testing
  • Codemagic for CI/CD, building and shipping directly to App Store Connect
  • GitHub Pages hosting our public privacy policy and support page, required for App Store review

Challenges we ran into

Shipping to the App Store solo meant clearing every review hurdle one at a time: trademark conflicts on our English app name (we iterated through three names before landing on Growkin), missing EULA/Privacy Policy links inside the in-app paywall, getting Apple's native purchase sheet to correctly reflect our 7-day free trial offer, and setting up EU DSA trader status with identity verification. Each rejection came with a specific fix, and after several rounds, Growkin passed review and went live.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Growkin is a shipped, live App Store app with working subscriptions (monthly/yearly, 7-day free trial), full bilingual support, a custom hand-made app icon, and DSA compliance for EU distribution — all built and shipped independently.

What we learned

App Store review is as much a design and legal exercise as an engineering one — paywall link requirements, trial-offer configuration, and regional compliance (DSA) all shape the final product as much as the code does.

What's next for Growkin

  • Expanding companion types and growth stages
  • Deeper trend insights in the Premium tier
  • Localizing into more languages beyond English/Japanese

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