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 $700,000 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!
Categories & Awards The event features numerous categories including: * Grand Prize: For the app with the most user traction and growth momentum. * Next Gen Award: A student-only category judged on video submission and open-source code (no paid developer account required). * Catvertising Award: Celebrates creative use of RevenueCat Ads. * Best Game Award: For the best mobile game shipped during the event. * #BuildInPublic Award: For developers who share the most interesting development journey on social media. * HAMM Award: For the project with the most robust and creative monetization strategy. * RevenueCat Design Award: For innovative ideas and beautiful app design. * RevenueCat Peace Prize: For the project providing the greatest social good. * Influencer Awards: Specific categories for Productivity, Nutrition, Yoga, Career Coaching, and Gaming. * Sponsor Awards: Including Ship Kotlin Everywhere (JetBrains), Most Viral App (Noise), Best App for Galaxy (Samsung), Replit's Idea to Income, Keep Them Coming Back (OneSignal), The Growth Loop (Layers), and Funnel Vision (Stripe).
Prizes & Perks Winners receive cash prizes (ranging from $5,000 to $100,000), custom Shippy trophies, trips to New York City for the Shippies red carpet award ceremony and RevenueCat's App Growth Annual conference, and features on giant Times Square billboards. Winners also gain press coverage on 9to5Mac and 9to5Google, plus investor exposure through the Shipaton Growth Fund.
Community & Support Participants receive a "Ship Kit" bundle of tools, credits, and deals from sponsors. The event includes Shipaton IRL events globally, a dedicated Discord community for collaboration, and twice-a-week livestreams with expert guests.