Why I Build Local-First Mac Apps
Why Tiong Creative apps keep your data on your Mac, and how you can buy them, one app at a time or all 7 paid apps in a one-off bundle.
When I first published this post in September it also launched a Tiong Creative membership. I retired the membership in October and replaced it with a one-off bundle, so I’ve updated this post.
I was paying up to $30 a month for subscriptions and still had to either upgrade to a costlier tier, or use other apps as well to get what I needed. Every RSS app I tried turned into another inbox. I wanted a private space for my notes without giving away control of my content, or reading pages of privacy policy to work out where my data was going. So I built what I wanted, then kept going until each app was good enough to open up to others.
That is the short version, and the longer one is that the subscription model, the way most software works now, has a structural problem for small tools. A monthly price often funds servers, accounts, syncing, support, and the next round of features you may not want. All of that gets paid for whether you use it or not, and your data often has to live on someone else’s servers for the sync to work.
I think there is room for something different. Apps that run on your Mac, keep their data on your machine, and do not need an account. Each paid Tiong Creative app is $39 USD, paid once, with future updates to that app included.
One app, or all of them
There are 9 apps now, 7 paid and 2 free, and I am still building. Some people want one or two specific tools, while others want several, and for them there is the Tiong Creative bundle, which is all 7 paid apps for $149 USD paid once, with updates to those apps included. If I release a new app it will be sold separately, and if you own the bundle I will email you a discount code for it through Gumroad.
Ikigai Journal and Mindful Reader are free for everyone, so they are not in the bundle and you get them from their own pages.
Local-first still means local-first
However you buy them, your data stays on your Mac, there is no Tiong Creative account inside the apps, and you download each app and its updates from your Gumroad Library.
Some apps have optional AI features. For those, you bring your own Anthropic or OpenAI key and use your own account.
I build these apps using Claude Code and Codex, combined with what I have learned across product management, agency ownership, SaaS support and product enablement. They are tools I use myself, and that matters because I notice the small annoyances and keep improving them rather than building something for an imaginary user.
There is no cloud sync or web version, and for some people that rules these apps out entirely, and that is fine. If you want a small tool that does its job and keeps your data on your own Mac, you can choose one app or the whole collection.