Shipping Tollere: A Minimalist Shopping List App with SwiftUI and CloudKit

Description and use

Developers released the Tollere shopping list app on the App Store. Built with SwiftUI, SwiftData, and CloudKit, it avoids custom backend infrastructure. The app emphasizes minimalism, lacks subscriptions, and uses a one-time payment for shared list features.

Problem

The developers needed a simple, reliable shopping list app for personal use that avoided feature bloat, complex account management, and subscription models, while ensuring real-time synchronization between users.

Outcome

The app was approved and launched on the App Store. It serves its intended purpose of simple, shared shopping lists without noise. The developer avoided building a custom backend by leveraging iCloud services, resulting in a low-maintenance, subscription-free product.

Workflow

• Develop the app using SwiftUI and SwiftData for local storage.
• Implement real-time sharing using Apple's CloudKit without a custom backend.
• Distribute via TestFlight to gather feedback from a few hundred users.
• Address specific bugs, such as CloudKit propagation delays, by implementing quiet retry logic.
• Submit the app to the App Store with a minimal feature set (no categories, no accounts).
• Launch with a one-time payment model (€6.99) for the Pro sharing feature.

Evidence

SwiftUI, SwiftData, CloudKit. Dark mode only. No backend on our side — everything lives in iCloud.

Source

We fixed a bug where the shared list would sometimes take a few minutes to appear on the other person's phone after accepting the invite. CloudKit propagation is slow sometimes, so now the app just retries quietly until items show up.

Source

This is a Pro feature. One-time, €6.99. No subscription, no annual renewal, nothing to cancel.

Source