# Made an App that Became #1 in Multiple Countries in just One Day

> Meet Zero — a finance tracker built from the ground up in native Swift, designed to feel at home across the entire Apple ecosystem.

- Author: Bryl Lim
- Published: 2026-10-07T02:38:48+00:00
- Updated: 2026-10-07T02:39:17+00:00
- Canonical URL: https://www.bryllim.com/posts/made-an-app-that-became-number-one-in-multiple-countries-in-just-one-day

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# Zero Became the #1 App in the Philippines in Less Than a Day

**What if Apple made a finance tracking app?**

That was the question behind **Zero**.

Meet Zero — a finance tracker built from the ground up in **native Swift**, designed to feel at home across the entire Apple ecosystem.

Available on **iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and Mac**, with real-time **iCloud sync** across your devices. It even launched with **iPhone Duo support on day one**.

No clutter. No complicated setup. Just a fast, minimal way to track your money, manage accounts and cards, plan ahead, and understand where everything goes.

And somehow, less than a day after launching:

# #1 App — All Categories

# #1 App — Finance Category

# #1 Top-Selling Finance App

# #1 Finance App in 17 Countries

Including the **Philippines, Singapore, Qatar, UAE, and more**.

I expected Zero to find its audience eventually. I didn't expect all of this to happen in its **first 24 hours**.

## Why I Built Zero

I already build another finance app, **Tarsi**, so naturally one of the first questions was:

**Why build another finance tracker?**

Because Zero isn't meant to replace Tarsi.

Tarsi is designed to make personal finance more friendly and engaging. It has personality, customization, streaks, achievements, and a companion that encourages you to build better financial habits.

Zero explores the opposite direction.

I wanted to see how far I could take **simplicity, speed, and native Apple experiences**.

Zero is deliberately quiet. It gets out of your way.

Open it, log what happened, and move on.

You can type something as simple as:

> Coffee 180 GCash

and Zero understands what happened and records it.

Behind that minimal interface is a complete finance tracker for managing your **accounts, cards, transactions, budgets, bills, goals, debts, forecasts, and more**.

## Built Natively for Apple

One of my biggest goals with Zero was to make it feel like it genuinely belongs on Apple devices.

Not a web app inside a wrapper.

Not one interface stretched across different screen sizes.

Zero is built from the ground up in **native Swift**.

That means I can take advantage of each platform instead of treating them as an afterthought.

**iPhone** for everyday tracking.

**iPad** when you want more space to see your finances.

**Apple Watch** for quick access from your wrist.

**Mac** for managing everything from your desktop.

And **iCloud** keeps everything synchronized in real time.

The idea is simple: wherever you are in the Apple ecosystem, your money should be there too.

## From Launch to #1

The biggest surprise wasn't Zero reaching #1 in Finance.

It was opening the charts and seeing Zero become the:

**#1 app in the entire Philippine App Store.**

Not just Finance.

**All categories.**

At the same time, Zero started climbing Finance charts internationally, eventually reaching **#1 Finance in 17 countries**.

All within roughly a day of launch.

For something I built as an independent developer, that's difficult to process.

## An App Built in the Philippines, Reaching the World

This is also one of the things I love about building software today.

A developer in the Philippines can build something, publish it to the App Store, and almost immediately have people using it around the world.

You don't necessarily need a massive engineering organization.

You need an idea worth testing, the ability to execute it, and people willing to give what you built a chance.

Zero is still extremely young.

There are things I want to improve, bugs I'll inevitably find, and a long list of ideas I want to explore.

But becoming **#1 overall in the Philippines** and reaching **#1 Finance across 17 countries** in its first day is a beginning I won't forget.

Thank you to everyone who downloaded Zero, shared it, sent feedback, reported an issue, or simply gave a new app a chance.

This is only day one.

**Built natively for Apple. Built in the Philippines.**

Let's see where Zero goes next.
![2011006](/uploads/ypgC4UB58s0YXtdM5ibwHSngE7hEXZvK.jpg)

![2011006](/uploads/uYm3Qj2NpxjuvkcRSV6GnSn4CGGxHj0K.jpg)