Finally cracked iOS after nearly giving up – is the effort actually worth it compared to Android?

I've been building a solo AI platform for the past 3 months. Got the web version live, got Android on the Play Store with around 1,500 downloads fairly quickly – that process was straightforward enough for a first timer.

Then I started on iOS.

What followed was weeks of rejections, rebuilding my entire payment system because Stripe wasn't allowed, learning Xcode from scratch, dealing with Apple's submission process picking up on things I didn't even know were issues. At one point I genuinely gave up and didn't touch it for a month. I convinced myself I didn't need an iOS app. The web version worked fine. Android was getting downloads. Why bother?

Then I had a word with myself, sat back down, and had one more go. Cracked the payment system, submitted last night, woke up to an approval this morning.

Now I'm sitting here wondering – was it worth it?

For context I have zero coding background. This was my first ever iOS submission. So maybe it gets easier with experience. But I genuinely want to know from people who've shipped on both platforms:

• Do you notice a meaningful difference in user quality or behaviour between Play Store and App Store users?
• Is iOS generally less saturated making it easier to get discovered?
• For those with experience – is App Store submission actually this painful for everyone or was it just me starting from zero?
• Did having iOS make a noticeable difference to your revenue or growth?

Genuinely curious whether all that effort is about to pay off or whether I just spent 3 months chasing something that makes a marginal difference.