Welcome to the RevenueCat Shipaton — the mobile hackathon that's all about shipping… a ton.

At RevenueCat, we're all about supporting developers to build and monetize amazing apps. After the overwhelming success of last year's Shipaton, we're thrilled to announce the return of our global hackathon — and this year, we're going bigger than ever.

This August and September, we're inviting builders from all corners of the globe to ship new apps and compete for over $740,000 in cash prizes and truly unique rewards — over $1 million worth of prizes in total.

The challenge

• Ship a brand-new app to the App Store, Google Play Store, or — new this year — the Samsung Galaxy Store, between August 1st and September 30th, 2026.
• Integrate the RevenueCat SDK to power at least one in-app purchase or serve ads through RevenueCat Ads.

Our goal is to give you that final push to ship that project you've had in the back of your mind but never took the time to get started.

Note: Updates to previously released apps won't qualify - it's all about bringing something new to life! You can brainstorm, build, and post before August 1st, but your app must be released for the first time during the Shipaton window.

Bigger and better

Last year's Shipaton blew us away. Hundreds of new apps launched, thousands of #BuildInPublic posts went out, communities from Tokyo to Seoul to London hosted Shipaton IRL events, and winning teams ended up on stage in New York, accepting their Shippy trophies with their apps lighting up a Times Square billboard.

Inspired by your amazing contributions, we've upped the ante for 2026:

• Over $740,000 in cash prizes — and growing as more sponsors join.
• Winning apps featured on giant billboards in Times Square.
• Flights to New York City for the Shippies red carpet award ceremony and RevenueCat's App Growth Annual conference.
• Press coverage for winners on 9to5Mac and 9to5Google.
• NEW: Investor exposure through the Shipaton Growth Fund.
  
  
• NEW: Shipaton Demo Day in Times Square. Every category winner who comes to New York will have the opportunity to demo their app to the public, meet potential users, and gather candid feedback beneath the winners’ Times Square billboards.

Categories

• Grand Prize: Goes to the app that gains the most user traction and growth momentum during the event. We want to hear about what you've done post-release to push your app growth to the next level.
• [NEW] Next Gen Award: A student-only category for the best app submitted by active students — high school, university, bootcamp, campus dev club, anyone learning the craft. Judged on a video submission and open-source code, so no paid Apple or Google developer account is required. Open to students 13 and up. If you're under the age of majority where you live, a parent or guardian just needs to consent and agree to the rules on your behalf. Learn more on the Next Gen page.
• [NEW] Catvertising Award: Celebrates the most creative and effective use of RevenueCat Ads as a monetization method. We're looking for clever placements, smart integration with the rest of the revenue stack, and an experience users don't hate.
• [NEW] Best Game Award: For the best mobile game shipped during the event. We're looking for great gameplay, art direction, and a monetization fit that suits the genre.
• #BuildInPublic Award: For developers who share the most interesting development journey on social media. We're looking for compelling lessons learned or clever ideas that came from engaging with the community.
• HAMM Award (Help Apps Make Money): RevenueCat exists to "Help Apps Make More Money". This award goes to the project that designs the most robust and creative monetization strategy.
• RevenueCat Design Award: For the app that best represents the craft of app development — regardless of business potential. We're looking for innovative ideas and/or beautiful app design and animations.
• RevenueCat Peace Prize: Awarded to the project that provides the greatest social good. We're looking for apps with big benefits to communities or society at large.
• Conflict of Interest Award: A special category for RevenueCat employees and sponsors who couldn't resist joining the fun. No cash prizes, but a shot at glory.

• Influencer Award — Productivity: Christopher Lawley
  For a polished productivity app that gives Apple power users one fast, focused place to save and retrieve reusable text snippets, documents, files, and images. Judges will consider product focus, speed, organization, intelligent features, and the quality of the overall design.
• Influencer Award — Nutrition & Healthy Eating: Abbey’s Kitchen
  For a flexible nutrition app inspired by Abbey’s Hunger Crushing Combo framework. Judges are looking for a compassionate, practical experience that helps users create more satisfying meals in real-life situations without calorie counting, macro tracking, or restrictive meal plans.
• Influencer Award — Yoga & Fitness: Simone Sharice
  For a personalized wellness companion that answers, “What should I do today?” Judges will consider how effectively the app turns movement, Pilates, recovery, and other wellness needs into a clear, achievable daily plan without creating more information overload.
• Influencer Award — Career Coaching: Leadership Heather
  For an app that helps new managers practise difficult workplace conversations before the stakes are real. Judges are looking for realistic scenarios, useful feedback, confidence-building experiences, and active practice with situations such as feedback, boundaries, and saying no.
• Influencer Award — Gaming: Mr Lewis Blogs Gaming
  For a gaming bucket-list app that makes it easy to save games at the moment of discovery. Judges will consider how effectively users can organize, complete, rate, and share games, along with whether managing a backlog feels enjoyable rather than like another chore.

• Ship Kotlin Everywhere — JetBrains
  Recognizes a creative, polished app built for both iOS and Android using Kotlin Multiplatform, Compose Multiplatform, or both. Judges will consider cross-platform quality, consistency, and effective use of Kotlin. Optional consideration may be given to useful build content and contributions to the Kotlin Multiplatform community.
• Most Viral App — Noise
  Awarded to the app that captures the most attention in its market through high-quality, scalable content that converts into downloads. Judges will consider virality, whether the creative formats can be repeated at scale, and how clearly the content communicates the app’s value and addresses users’ needs.
• Best App for Galaxy — Samsung
  Recognizes a high-quality app published on the Galaxy Store and thoughtfully optimized for Samsung Galaxy users. Judges will consider the overall app experience and Galaxy-specific optimization, including foldable-device support, Samsung features, and device performance. Galaxy Store exclusivity may receive bonus consideration but is not required.
• Replit’s Idea to Income
  Recognizes a project that uses Replit to turn a new idea into a live, monetizing mobile app. Judges will primarily consider consistent week-over-week growth in revenue and transactions, supported by paying-user traction, product craft, visual design, and meaningful community engagement.
• Keep Them Coming Back Award — OneSignal
  Recognizes an app that uses OneSignal thoughtfully to bring users back. Judges will consider the quality and stability of the implementation, the value it adds to the user experience, and how creatively the app uses campaigns, push notifications, Journeys, or advanced messaging capabilities.
• The Growth Loop Award — Layers
  Recognizes a team that treats growth as a process of testing, measuring, learning, and improving. Judges will consider the clarity of the audience and growth hypothesis, how Layers was used to run and observe a focused experiment, whether the SDK was installed correctly, and what the team learned or would try next.
• Funnel Vision Award — Stripe
  Recognizes a project that launches a web funnel using RevenueCat Funnels and Stripe. Judges will consider the qualifying web payment volume processed during the measurement period and whether the funnel is thoughtfully designed, functional, and effectively implemented.

Prize structure

You can find the official details of prizes at the bottom of this page, but here's how it all breaks down:

Grand Prize Winner

• $100,000
• Trip to New York City for the Shippies award ceremony and RevenueCat's App Growth Annual conference
• Custom Shippy trophy (presented live on stage!)
• App featured on a massive Times Square billboard
• Media spotlight on 9to5Mac and 9to5Google

#BuildInPublic Category 

• 1st Place: $30,000 + custom Shippy trophy + Times Square billboard feature + media spotlight + Trip to New York City for the Shippies award ceremony and RevenueCat's App Growth Annual conference
• 2nd Place: $20,000
• 3rd Place: $10,000

OneSignal's Keep Them Coming Back Award winner

• 1st Place: $25,000 + custom Shippy trophy + Times Square billboard feature + media spotlight
• 2nd Place: $15,000
• 3rd Place: $5,000

All Other Categories

• 1st Place: $20,000 + custom Shippy trophy + Times Square billboard feature + media spotlight
• 2nd Place: $10,000
• 3rd Place: $5,000

Times Square Demo Day for category winners

Every Shipaton category winner who attends in person will have the opportunity to demo their winning app at Shipaton Demo Day in Times Square on October 22, 2026. Builders will rotate through shared demo pods between 10 AM and 6 PM. Participation is optional and subject to scheduling. Travel is included only for prizes that expressly list travel.

Supported by the industry

This year, our sponsors have shown up big. Huge thanks to Replit, OneSignal, JetBrains, Layers, Noise, Stripe, and Samsung for coming in as category sponsors for Shipaton 2026. And more sponsors are joining the fun all the time, which means bigger cash prizes and more additions to the Ship Kit.

Ship Kit is back: Freebies for every Shipaton participant

Ship Kit is your bundle of tools, credits, deals, and resources from our sponsors to help you build faster, launch better, and save a lot of money along the way. Some deals are while supplies last, so the sooner you register at the top of this page, the sooner you get access as Ship Kit starts to roll out.

The #ShipatonSale

If you have an app, tool, service, course, or template that could help Shipaton builders, run a sale for participants and share it with the #ShipatonSale hashtag. Submit it on the Shipaton website and we'll list community sales for everyone to find. Even if you're not competing, there are ways to support the builders who are.

Shipaton IRL: Events near you

We're excited to take Shipaton directly to developers around the world with Shipaton IRL. Last year, builders gathered in Tokyo, Seoul, London, St. Louis, Barcelona, Delhi, Vancouver, Warsaw, Skopje, and dozens of cities in between. This year, we want even more: kickoff parties, co-working days, weekend build sprints, launch-day meetups, and campus hackathons.

Check out the events page regularly, as new events are being added all the time!

Want to host a Shipaton event yourself? Apply now - we'd love to support you. Approved hosts get a Meetup-in-a-box with Shipaton swag, food vouchers, and organizer resources, and we'll promote your event to the massive Shipaton audience. Perfect for developer communities, hacker clubs, and student organizers planning campus events.

Join the conversation on Discord!

Shipaton isn't just about shipping code - it's about community. Whether you're brainstorming your first idea or prepping for launch day, the official Shipaton Discord is the place to connect, collaborate, and share the journey.

Inside, you'll find fellow builders from around the world debugging code, running paywall experiments, discussing launch strategies, and more. Looking to form a team? Need quick feedback? Want to hang out with other shippers? You'll find it here.

We've also created a dedicated #post-engagement-boost channel where you can share your YouTube videos, posts, and other #BuildInPublic content so other participants can like, comment, or share to help you reach a bigger audience. It's all about creating a positive, encouraging space where we lift each other - and help each other ship.

Shipaton Livestreams

Throughout the event, we'll host twice-a-week livestreams with expert guests, practical sessions, and live Q&A — so you're never building alone for two months.

Come say hi 👋 and make the most of Shipaton!

Ready, set, ship!

Submissions open on August 1st and close on September 30th. Be sure to carefully review all submission requirements to ensure your app qualifies.

We're beyond excited to see what the global builder community creates this year. Register today, and we'll keep you updated via the email address you use there.

Let's get shipping!

• Grand Prize
  Honors the app that gains the most user traction and growth momentum during the event. Judges want to hear about what you've done post-release to push your app growth to the next level. See official rules for full judging criteria.
• Best Game Award
  Open category for the best mobile game shipped during the event. We're looking for great gameplay, art direction, and a monetization fit that suits the genre. See official rules for full judging criteria.
• RevenueCat Peace Prize
  Awarded to the project that provides the greatest social good. We're looking for apps with big benefits to communities or society at large.
• RevenueCat Design Award
  For the app that best represents the craft of app development, separate from viability as a business. We're looking for innovative ideas and/or beautiful app design and animations.
• Catvertising Award
  Celebrates the most creative and effective use of ads as a monetization method. We're looking for clever placements, smart integration with the rest of the revenue stack, and an experience users don't hate.
• Next Gen Award
  A student-only category for the best app submitted by active students with a .edu (or equivalent) email address. Judged on a video submission and open-source code — no App Store or Google Play release required.
• #BuildInPublic Award
  For developers who shared the most interesting development journey on social media. We're looking for the most compelling lessons learned, or ideas incorporated from feedback from the community.
• HAMM Award
  Recognizes the app that makes the smartest use of RevenueCat to drive real revenue.
• Conflict of Interest Award
  Awarded to the best overall app submission from employees of RevenueCat or any Shipaton sponsors.
• Influencer Award — Productivity: Christopher Lawley
  Build a polished app that helps Apple power users quickly save, organize, and retrieve reusable text, files, documents, and images.
• Influencer Award — Nutrition & Healthy Eating: Abbey’s Kitchen
  Create a flexible nutrition app that helps people make meals more satisfying without calorie counting, macro tracking, or restrictive meal plans.
• Influencer Award — Yoga & Fitness: Simone Sharice
  Create a personalized wellness companion that turns movement, Pilates, and recovery needs into a clear and achievable plan for today.
• Influencer Award — Gaming: Mr Lewis Blogs Gaming
  Build a gaming bucket list where players can easily save, organize, complete, rate, and share the games they want to play.
• Influencer Award — Career Coaching: Leadership Heather
  Help new managers practise difficult conversations, receive useful feedback, and build confidence before handling the real situation.
• Replit’s Idea to Income
  Use Replit to turn a new idea into a live, monetizing mobile app with growing revenue, returning customers, strong design, and real community interest.
• Best App for Galaxy — Samsung
  Publish a high-quality app on the Galaxy Store and make it shine on Samsung devices through thoughtful optimization, features, and foldable support.
• Most Viral App — Noise
  Use Noise to create engaging, repeatable content that captures attention, communicates your app’s value, and converts viewers into users.
• Ship Kotlin Everywhere — JetBrains
  Build a polished app for iOS and Android with Kotlin Multiplatform or Compose Multiplatform, delivering a consistent, high-quality experience on both platforms.
• Keep Them Coming Back Award — OneSignal
  Use OneSignal to create thoughtful notifications, campaigns, or Journeys that improve the experience and give users a meaningful reason to return.
• The Growth Loop Award — Layers
  Use Layers to test a focused growth idea, measure the response, explain what you learned, and show how those insights will shape your next experiment.
• Funnel Vision Award — Stripe
  Launch a polished web payment funnel with RevenueCat Funnels and Stripe that works reliably, converts users, and processes real payment volume.