StressLess

Hey IH friends 👋

I’ve been working on StressLess, a gamified mental health app that helps users track stress, reflect, and grow a little cat companion as they improve.
After some solid traction — including a top 10 ranking in a few countries — I hit a wall many of you probably know:

👉 High installs, low conversion.

People were downloading the app… but dropping off before actually using it.

🔄 The Fix: I Rebuilt the Onboarding

Here’s what I changed:

✅ Simplified first steps – no more long intros or explanations
✅ Instant interaction – users log their mood on the first screen
✅ Feedback first – cat reacts immediately to their emotion
✅ Gated login – moved signup after users experience real value

It’s early, but the difference has been noticeable:
More sessions. More users completing their first flow. More reviews. And — most exciting — more people upgrading to the paid tier.

🤔 Now I'm Thinking Freemium & Login-Free

As a next step, I’m seriously considering:

• Removing mandatory login altogether (privacy-first, friction-free)

• Making the core app free and locking bonus features with a freemium model

StressLess is meant to reduce anxiety — not add steps or pressure.
And the goal is impact first, revenue second (but ideally both 💪).

💬 I’d love your thoughts:

• Have you tried login-free onboarding? Did it help your activation/conversion?

• What’s worked best for you when transitioning from paid → freemium?

[App Store / Play Store]

Thanks for reading. Always building, always learning.
#buildinpublic forever 🐱

Hey Indie Hackers 👋

When I started working on StressLess, I was deep in burnout. I didn’t build it to “launch an app”, I built it to help myself breathe, reflect, and just feel okay again.

Fast forward a few months:

• It’s now live on iOS and Android

• We hit the Top 10 in Health & Wellness in several countries

• And I’ve received messages from users saying the app genuinely helped them feel better

That’s honestly the best part. 💛

🚀 What’s next?

Now that StressLess is growing, I don’t want to build in a vacuum.
So today, I’m opening up the public roadmap to give the community a real voice:

✅ Submit your own feature ideas
✅ Upvote what matters most to you
✅ Track what’s coming next

🗺️ Check it out here:
👉 https://www.stresslss.com/#/roadmap

💬 How you can help:

If you’ve tried the app or just believe in making mental health more human and more fun, I’d love your input:

• What features would make StressLess more helpful?

• What kind of rewards, experiences, or feedback loops feel motivating, not stressful?

• Any integration ideas or content formats you'd love to see?

I’m building this solo, but not alone, because of you.

Let’s grow this little space of calm together 🐱✨

#buildinpublic #mentalhealthapp #indiehackers #founderjourney

I’ve been quietly building a mental health app called StressLess for the past few months — solo, bootstrapped, and full of heart.

This week, I hit a new milestone: 150 new users in one night.

Here’s exactly what worked 👇

🛠 The strategy (zero ads, 100% organic):

1. Find the right subreddit
I used a small internal tool I built to discover active, relevant subreddits based on keywords, post volume, and tone. (If you’re interested in the tool, I might release it!)

2. Offer your app for free — but only briefly
I made StressLess free for 2 days only, with lifetime access via promo code. No bait-and-switch, just transparency.

3. Be present, offer support
I replied to every comment, answered questions, and followed up with people who tried the app. It wasn't about selling — it was about connecting.

🔁 Now what?

• Asking users to leave reviews → already seeing improvement in ASO and category ranking

• Will iterate based on user feedback

• Gearing up to test this same strategy for Android now

💬 Curious:

• Have you tried free offers to gain momentum? What worked?

• Would a subreddit discovery tool be useful to you?

Let’s keep helping each other grow — the indie way 💛
Happy to share what I’ve learned if you’re about to launch.

I started building StressLess during one of the most stressful moments of my life — burnout, anxiety, and that feeling of being stuck.

It began as a tiny self-care app for me.
Today, it’s helping others too — and that feels surreal.

🚨 What just happened:

• ✅ Launched on Android 🎉

• ✅ Got my first monthly paying user on the Play Store

• ✅ Slowly turning my side project into a tiny, sustainable business

StressLess is a soft place to land.
Track your stress. Grow a little cat. Feel a bit better each day.

I’m still solo-building, still learning, still excited for every little step.
Growth is slow — but it’s real.

Next up: community rewards, campaigns, and hopefully… more users finding peace.

if you want to try it :

Android

Thanks for reading.
Let’s keep building what we wish existed 💛

Hey Indie Hackers,

After hitting #10 in the French App Store (Paid – Health & Fitness), I took a step back to rethink the future of StressLess my mental wellness app that blends journaling, breathing exercises, and a cat companion to help people feel calmer, one day at a time.

It started as a tool for myself during burnout.
Now it's slowly turning into something others rely on and I want to make sure it can grow without burning out me, too.

Here’s what’s coming:

🚧 1. New Version Launching Soon

The next release will bring some important changes:

• ✅ Bug fixes and UI polish

• ✅ App review prompt (done softly, respectfully)

• ✅ Reward system: Follow us on X/Instagram and earn little in-app bonuses (cosmetic or small motivational boosts)

• ✅ Android version is on the way!
  I started on iOS for simplicity, but the DMs and comments have made it clear: Android users want in 🟢📱

💸 2. A New Payment System

Right now the app is €1.99 once.
That’s… sustainable for coffee, not product development.

So I’m shifting to a subscription model:

• Monthly and yearly options

• Lifetime one-time still available

• Will keep it affordable but make ongoing dev possible

Why the change?
Because meaningful apps need long-term care, not just downloads.
And I'd like to actually pay myself one day 🙃

📣 3. Upcoming Growth Experiments

I've been bootstrapping visibility with organic Reddit posts and small indie shoutouts.

Now:

• Launching campaigns on IndieSanta and AppRaven

• Testing the waters with micro-influencers in wellness + self-care

• Exploring a homepage redesign for clarity + trust

Would love your feedback on what’s worked for you at this stage.

🤝 Let’s Chat, I Need Your Thoughts:

👉 Have you gone from one-time payment to subscriptions?
What made it work (or flop)?

👉 How do you reward social follows without feeling cheap?

👉 Any Android launch tips you wish you knew earlier?

StressLess started as a personal escape.
Now I want it to be a small companion for people who just need a moment to breathe. 💛

Thank you for all the support so far building in public with this community has kept me grounded.

Let’s keep creating software that feels like a hug, not a KPI.

Marketing has always felt like the uphill part of my indie journey.

I built an app called StressLess — it helps users manage stress through journaling, breathing, and a cute cat companion that grows as they do. 🐱

But no matter how much I improved the product, I wasn’t getting any traction. Launch posts, app tweets... crickets.

So, half out of curiosity, half out of burnout, I posted on a technical subreddit not even a business or mental health one.

📈 What happened?

• 2.9K views

• 25 upvotes

• 15 thoughtful comments

• And actual users signing up

😂 The best part?

It wasn’t some polished pitch. Just me sharing what I built and why.

No “growth hacking,” no fancy funnel.
Just honesty + the right community = signal.

💡 What I learned:

• Don't underestimate developer empathy. Devs struggle with stress too.

• Tech subreddits aren’t just for code — they’re full of humans.

• The best “marketing” might just be showing your work with heart.

If you’ve ever had unexpected traction from a surprising place, I’d love to hear it. 🙌

Last night I saw something surreal:
StressLess — the little app I started building during burnout — hit #10 in the Health & Fitness (paid) charts on the French App Store.

No ads. No team. No paid promotion.
Just a cat. And a quiet mission.

I started StressLess as a way to track my own stress and emotions, to breathe a little easier, and to have something soft to hold onto — emotionally and literally (yes, the app has a cat companion that grows with you 🐱).

Now it’s in the charts alongside apps I used to admire from a distance.

Here’s what I’ve learned so far:

• Mental health products don’t have to be clinical. They can be warm, emotional, even a little silly.

• Building in public helped me stay connected to why I started.

• Localization (FR, ES, JP) brought in way more love than I expected.

If you’re building something small but meaningful:
Keep going.
Your people are out there.

If you’ve launched a product rooted in personal experience, I’d love to hear your story. 💬

Let’s keep building things that heal — not just scale.

📲 https://apps.apple.com/fr/app/stressless-aide-stress/id6743125198

A while back, I hit a wall.
The kind that doesn’t just drain your energy — it quietly takes your joy, clarity, and drive with it.

I was burned out.

What started as "just stress" at work slowly became emotional exhaustion. I lost touch with my routine, my focus, and honestly, with myself.
At some point, I stopped trying to fix it and started listening instead.

That’s when I began building StressLess — not for users, not for a launch, but for me.

A tiny app to track how I felt.
To reflect.
To breathe.
To make sense of the mess inside my mind — and maybe feel just 1% better.

I never expected it to grow. But sharing little progress updates publicly — first as accountability, then as quiet therapy — turned into something I didn’t anticipate:

Connection.

People started messaging me.
Some shared they’d been feeling the same. Others just said “thank you for saying this out loud.”
A few asked if they could try the app. I hadn’t even planned a beta.

Now it’s live, translated into 4 languages, and has features I never imagined adding.
(Yes, there’s a cat companion that grows with you — because healing doesn’t have to be clinical.)

And through it all, building in public helped me stay grounded — not in vanity metrics or launch charts, but in why I started this at all.

If you’ve ever built something personal…
How do you stay connected to the why?
What keeps you going when growth feels slow, or quiet?

Not everything we create needs to be “the next big thing.”
Sometimes it just needs to matter.

I'd love to hear what motivates you — beyond numbers. 🙏

[🔗 App Store ]

Hey Indie Hackers!

After a lot of feedback, testing, and tea-fueled coding sprints ☕🐱, we’re excited to announce StressLess v2 — a major update to our self-care companion app that helps users track stress and grow emotionally… alongside an adorable cat. 🐾

🚀 What’s New in V2:

• ✅ Choose Your Cat Companion – Pick a cat that evolves as you manage your stress!

• 📈 Stress Analytics – View weekly/monthly graphs of your stress levels and common triggers.

• 🧘 Self-Care Tools – Track your mood, journal, breathe, and reflect daily.

• 🎁 Gamified Rewards – Feed and grow your cat by staying consistent.

• 🌍 Multilingual Support!
  Now available in:

  • 🇫🇷 French

  • 🇪🇸 Spanish

  • 🇯🇵 Japanese

💬 Why We Built This

Self-care can feel overwhelming. We wanted to make it simpler, cuter, and a little more fun. The cat isn't just decoration — it grows with your progress, creating an emotional connection that keeps users coming back. ✨

📲 Available on iOS (Android coming soon)

If you're into calming apps, mood tracking, or mental wellness — give it a try and let us know what you think!

[🔗 App Store Link here]

Feedback, critiques, ideas? Drop them below. We're listening. 🙌