Niche productivity tools find their footing: from subscription trackers to 3D printing inventories and beyond

Niche productivity tools are carving out tiny but mighty spaces on Mac and iOS, honing in on ultra-specific workflows. North Light positions itself as a completely free, private space to track subscriptions, with a spending chart and no upsells. The MVP emphasizes simplicity and user privacy, with an invitation to join a beta waitlist ^[1].

Filamentory helps 3D printing folks stay organized—filament, printers, parts and more. The free version has no item limit, while a Pro tier at $0.99 unlocks extras like a shopping list and parts tracking ^[2].

Cable by VoltPlan is a wire gauge and fuse calculator for campers, boats, and off-grid rigs. It shows real-time voltage drop and power loss, plus a growing component library and a beta tester invite ^[3].

Haircut AI Haircut Try-On aims to deliver realistic previews of hairstyles, but the thread around it veers into pricing and privacy questions—for example, “Am I reading this right — we have to pay for 30 hairstyles before we can see how this app works?” and “Where do you save our face?” to name a couple of comments in the post ^[4].

Across these four threads, monetization leans on freemium access, one-off upgrades, and early-access invites, proving that laser-focused apps can monetize through depth rather than breadth.

References