Richmond, Virginia

Software should feel
considered.

Pixel Workshop is an independent app studio. We make focused software that is useful on day one, respectful of your attention, and polished enough to keep.

Our story

Born out of frustration
with bloated software.

It started with a simple observation: most apps do too much, ask for too much, and respect you too little. Endless subscription prompts, invasive ads, feature bloat that buries the one thing you actually opened the app to do.

So we started building our own. Retro Handheld came first - a retro emulator that just works, no strings attached. Then Solve To Snooze, because alarm clocks have been boring for too long and we needed something that actually got us out of bed.

Every app we ship follows the same rule: it has to earn a place on your home screen. That means doing one thing really well, staying out of your way, and never treating you like a data point.

10

Apps in the collection

Utilities, games, and experiments made with the same focused approach.

0

Ads. Ever.

No ad SDKs, no tracking, no monetization at the cost of your experience.

RVA

Based in Richmond, VA

Proudly building from one of the best mid-sized cities in the country.

How we build

Small team.
Deliberate process.

Modern tools help us move quickly, but product judgment stays human. Every release is designed, tested, and refined with the same care we expect from the software we use ourselves.

01

Start with a real problem

Every app starts with something that genuinely annoyed us, or a gap we noticed in the market. If we wouldn't use it ourselves every day, we don't build it.

02

Design for clarity, not features

We resist the urge to add. Every feature has to justify its existence. If something doesn't make the core experience better, it doesn't make it into the app.

03

Build quickly, review carefully

Automation handles repetitive work so we can spend more time on product decisions, interface quality, testing, and the details users actually notice.

04

Ship, listen, improve

We ship when something is genuinely good — not when it hits an arbitrary deadline. After launch, we listen to users and iterate quickly. No two-year roadmaps, no feature freezes.

Principles

The rules we don't break.

No ads

Always

Ads change incentives. Once you're optimizing for clicks and impressions, you're no longer optimizing for the user. We'd rather charge a fair price upfront.

Privacy by default

On-device whenever possible

Your data lives on your device. We don't collect it, we don't sell it, and we don't even want it. Building apps that way keeps things simple for everyone.

One clear purpose

Focused scope

We don't build Swiss Army knives. We build the best possible version of one specific thing. Scope creep is the enemy of quality.

No subscription traps

Fair pricing

Subscriptions make sense for services with ongoing costs. A flashlight app doesn't have ongoing costs. We price things honestly and don't hide features behind paywalls.

Fast by design

Native performance

Slow apps are bad apps. Performance is a feature, not an afterthought. If it's not fast, we're not done.

Keep improving

Ongoing

We're a growing studio with a lot more ideas than hours in the day. More apps are coming — on iOS, Android, and wherever people need great software.

Explore more

Want to try our apps?

Our apps are available on the App Store. No account required, no strings attached.

Browse Apps Get Support