Solo and indie developers
An indie SaaS gets cloned in a weekend
Quillmint is a one-person invoicing app for freelancers. After a busy launch, its developer added quillmint.com and the iOS app to Infringement Ninja on the Starter plan, with the App Store link so lookalike apps could be compared with the real one.
Invoices that chase themselves.
Start free, upgrade when you get paid.
Free
£0
Solo
£9
Studio
£19
Invoices that chase themselves.
Start free, upgrade when you get paid.
Free
£0
Solo
£9
Studio
£19
Card number
Quillmint
Quillmint (you)
Turns your timesheets into polished invoices in seconds.
InvoiceMint: Freelance Billing
Brightline Apps Ltd
Turns your timesheets into polished invoices in seconds.
Finding 1
Day 3: a certificate was issued for quillmint-app.com. We loaded the homepage before judging it and found a working clone.
quillmint-app.com
A new site copies Quillmint's homepage, pricing and sign-up flow on a lookalike domain.
Why it matters
The domain adds only “-app” to the brand. The homepage reuses Quillmint's headline (“Invoices that chase themselves”), the same three-tier pricing table and near-identical screenshots, but takes card details on its own checkout. Customers searching for Quillmint could easily land here and pay the wrong business.
Evidence
Found athttps://quillmint-app.com
DetailsCertificate issued 3 days ago Homepage: Quillmint: Invoices that chase themselves. Start free, upgrade when you get paid.
Match“quillmint app”, 92% similar (contains your name)
The draft we generated
Generated from the alert in one click. Details in [square brackets] are filled in by you before sending.
Domain abuse report
Subject: Impersonation and trade mark abuse: quillmint-app.com
Next steps
- Find the registrar with a WHOIS lookup and send this to their abuse address.
- If the site is behind Cloudflare, also use Cloudflare's abuse form, which forwards to the host.
- Report the page to Google Safe Browsing so browsers warn visitors.
Finding 2
Day 6: an App Store search for “invoice app for freelancers” turned up an app with a different name but a rewritten copy of Quillmint's description and matching screenshots.
InvoiceMint: Freelance Billing
A newly listed app reuses Quillmint's description and screenshot captions under a similar name.
Why it matters
Most of the description is Quillmint's with the name swapped, including the line “invoices that chase late payments for you”. Its first two screenshots use the same captions and colour scheme, and “Quillmint” appears in the listing's promotional text. Together that's a clear attempt to pass off as Quillmint and capture its searches.
Looks copied
- Description
- Screenshots
- Uses your name in its listing
Evidence
Found athttps://apps.apple.com/app/id0000000000
DetailsBrightline Apps Ltd on the App Store Business InvoiceMint turns your timesheets into polished invoices in seconds. Track hours, send invoices and chase late payments automatically…
Match“invoicemint”, 86% similar (similar spelling)
The draft we generated
Generated from the alert in one click. Details in [square brackets] are filled in by you before sending.
App store IP complaint
Subject: App Store Content Dispute: InvoiceMint: Freelance Billing
Next steps
- Submit this through Apple's App Store Content Dispute form, choosing the copyright and trademark options.
- Attach side-by-side screenshots of both listings.
- Apple shares your complaint with the developer, so keep your own records of the dates.
How it played out
Both were reported the same day they were found, from drafts that took a minute to check. Without monitoring, the first sign would have been a support email from a customer who'd paid the clone.
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The businesses, people, listings and applications in this example are fictional.