about this event
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 is to 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, and to 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.
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 $700,000 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, and new investor exposure through the Shipaton Growth Fund.
Categories include the Grand Prize for the app with the most user traction and growth momentum; the new Next Gen Award, a student-only category for the best app submitted by active students judged on a video submission and open-source code (open to students 13 and up); the new Catvertising Award celebrating the most creative and effective use of RevenueCat Ads; the new Best Game Award; the #BuildInPublic Award for developers who share the most interesting development journey on social media; the HAMM Award (Help Apps Make Money) for the most robust and creative monetization strategy; the RevenueCat Design Award for the best craft of app development; the RevenueCat Peace Prize for the project providing the greatest social good; and the Conflict of Interest Award for RevenueCat employees and sponsors.
Influencer awards include the Productivity award (Christopher Lawley) for a polished productivity app for Apple power users, the Nutrition & Healthy Eating award (Abbey's Kitchen) for a flexible nutrition app, the Yoga & Fitness award (Simone Sharice) for a personalized wellness companion, the Career Coaching award (Leadership Heather) for an app helping new managers practise difficult workplace conversations, and the Gaming award (Mr Lewis Blogs Gaming) for a gaming bucket-list app.
Sponsor categories include the Ship Kotlin Everywhere award by JetBrains for apps built with Kotlin Multiplatform or Compose Multiplatform, the Most Viral App award by Noise, the Best App for Galaxy award by Samsung for apps published on the Galaxy Store, Replit's Idea to Income for projects turning a new idea into a monetizing app, OneSignal's Keep Them Coming Back Award, the Growth Loop Award by Layers, and the Funnel Vision Award by Stripe for projects launching a web funnel using RevenueCat Funnels and Stripe.
The Grand Prize winner receives $100,000, a trip to New York City for the Shippies award ceremony and App Growth Annual conference, a custom Shippy trophy presented live on stage, an app feature on a massive Times Square billboard, and media spotlight on 9to5Mac and 9to5Google. The #BuildInPublic category pays $30,000/$20,000/$10,000 for its top three, OneSignal's award pays $25,000/$15,000/$5,000, and all other categories pay $20,000/$10,000/$5,000 plus rewards for first place.
Sponsors for Shipaton 2026 include Replit, OneSignal, JetBrains, Layers, Noise, Stripe, and Samsung. Ship Kit returns as a bundle of tools, credits, deals, and resources for every Shipaton participant. The #ShipatonSale invites anyone with an app, tool, service, course, or template that could help Shipaton builders to run a sale for participants.
Shipaton IRL events are planned around the world including kickoff parties, co-working days, weekend build sprints, launch-day meetups, and campus hackathons. Approved hosts get a Meetup-in-a-box with Shipaton swag, food vouchers, and organizer resources.
Community happens through the official Shipaton Discord, with a dedicated #post-engagement-boost channel for sharing content. Throughout the event, twice-a-week livestreams feature expert guests, practical sessions, and live Q&A.
Submissions open on August 1st and close on September 30th, 2026.
tracks
Grand Prize
For the app that gains the most user traction and growth momentum during the event.
Next Gen Award
A student-only category for the best app submitted by active students — high school, university, bootcamp, campus dev club. Judged on a video submission and open-source code, open to students 13 and up.
Catvertising Award
Celebrates the most creative and effective use of RevenueCat Ads as a monetization method.
Best Game Award
For the best mobile game shipped during the event, 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.
HAMM Award (Help Apps Make Money)
For 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, with innovative ideas and/or beautiful app design and animations.
RevenueCat Peace Prize
For the project that provides the greatest social good, with apps that bring big benefits to communities or society at large.
Conflict of Interest Award
A special category for RevenueCat employees and sponsors. No cash prizes, but a shot at glory.
Influencer Award — Productivity
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.
Influencer Award — Nutrition & Healthy Eating
For a flexible nutrition app inspired by Abbey's Hunger Crushing Combo framework, helping users create more satisfying meals without calorie counting or restrictive plans.
Influencer Award — Yoga & Fitness
For a personalized wellness companion that answers “What should I do today?”, turning movement, Pilates, recovery into a clear daily plan.
Influencer Award — Career Coaching
For an app that helps new managers practise difficult workplace conversations before the stakes are real.
Influencer Award — Gaming
For a gaming bucket-list app that makes it easy to save games at the moment of discovery.
Ship Kotlin Everywhere — JetBrains
Recognizes a creative, polished app built for both iOS and Android using Kotlin Multiplatform, Compose Multiplatform, or both.
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.
Best App for Galaxy — Samsung
Recognizes a high-quality app published on the Galaxy Store and thoughtfully optimized for Samsung Galaxy users.
Replit's Idea to Income
Recognizes a project that uses Replit to turn a new idea into a live, monetizing mobile app.
Keep Them Coming Back Award — OneSignal
Recognizes an app that uses OneSignal thoughtfully to bring users back.
The Growth Loop Award — Layers
Recognizes a team that treats growth as a process of testing, measuring, learning, and improving.
Funnel Vision Award — Stripe
Recognizes a project that launches a web funnel using RevenueCat Funnels and Stripe.
when
Shipaton submissions open
Submissions open for the RevenueCat Shipaton 2026.
◍ OnlineShipaton submissions close
Submissions close for the RevenueCat Shipaton 2026.
◍ Onlinetickets
| tickets | price | Fee | Status | description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Participation | €0 | Free | Available | Free registration for the RevenueCat Shipaton 2026 global hackathon. |
prizes
| # | PRIZE | price |
|---|---|---|
| Grand Prize — 1st | Cash prize, trip to New York City for Shippies award ceremony and App Growth Annual conference, custom Shippy trophy, Times Square billboard feature, media spotlight on 9to5Mac and 9to5Google | $100,000 |
| #BuildInPublic — 1st | Custom Shippy trophy + Times Square billboard feature + media spotlight + trip to New York City | $30,000 |
| #BuildInPublic — 2nd | Cash prize | $20,000 |
| #BuildInPublic — 3rd | Cash prize | $10,000 |
| OneSignal Keep Them Coming Back — 1st | Custom Shippy trophy + Times Square billboard feature + media spotlight | $25,000 |
| OneSignal Keep Them Coming Back — 2nd | Cash prize | $15,000 |
| OneSignal Keep Them Coming Back — 3rd | Cash prize | $5,000 |
| All Other Categories — 1st | Custom Shippy trophy + Times Square billboard feature + media spotlight | $20,000 |
| All Other Categories — 2nd | Cash prize | $10,000 |
| All Other Categories — 3rd | Cash prize | $5,000 |