Here’s my own side project that’s been earning a bit on the side:
I built DedupX, a macOS app for finding duplicate and visually similar files fast - especially useful for photographers and anyone with big local storage collections.
What it does
- Exact duplicate detection using incremental hashing so it doesn’t have to fully load huge files.
- Perceptual image matching finds similar images even if they’re resized or lightly edited (not just byte-for-byte duplicates).
- Native macOS integration with a Finder right-click scan.
Why I built it: My brother kept running out of space because of tons of photos, and every existing tool I tried either missed similar images or was slow and clunky - so I spent a couple of weekends building something that felt fast, accurate, and native.
Business side
- Free trial (no CC required).
- Paid tiers: ~$5.99/yr or ~$16.99 lifetime.
Got positive feedback and 100+ paying users shortly after launch. Been growing steadily ever since.
Making this cross-platform is definitely a goal I wanna work on, but I lack knowledge of desktop app development on Windows and Linux.
I'm glad you think the app is cheap. Honestly I think the pricing is decent for the current set of features. I might revisit the price if I sneak in more features worthy of a higher price tag, but for now, it's good enough.
I mostly shared the launch post and ran promo campaigns on Reddit, ProductHunt, LinkedIn, Discord and even tried HN (got no replies here -‿-"). Since then, its mostly word of mouth.
Thanks to my customers' feedback, I've made a lot of improvements to the app as well. Feels good getting positive feedback and hearing from people about their use-cases. :)
I haven’t been able to reproduce a freeze at 99% yet. If you’re willing, could you share a bit more detail (approx folder size / number of files, and whether CPU or memory spiked near the end)?
If you’re open to it, I’d also be happy to jump on a quick call or screen share to debug this together — totally optional. You can reach me at my support email mentioned in the About DedupX menu item. I’d really like to track this down and fix it.
I built DedupX, a macOS app for finding duplicate and visually similar files fast - especially useful for photographers and anyone with big local storage collections.
What it does
- Exact duplicate detection using incremental hashing so it doesn’t have to fully load huge files.
- Perceptual image matching finds similar images even if they’re resized or lightly edited (not just byte-for-byte duplicates).
- Native macOS integration with a Finder right-click scan.
Why I built it: My brother kept running out of space because of tons of photos, and every existing tool I tried either missed similar images or was slow and clunky - so I spent a couple of weekends building something that felt fast, accurate, and native.
Business side
- Free trial (no CC required).
- Paid tiers: ~$5.99/yr or ~$16.99 lifetime.
Got positive feedback and 100+ paying users shortly after launch. Been growing steadily ever since.
Link: https://maheepk.net/projects/dedupx/