What Is The Dodo Developer Newsletter from Ben Dodson?

Updated

The Dodo Developer is a monthly newsletter written by Ben Dodson, a UK-based freelance Apple app developer and consultant. It covers the apps he is building, the tools he is making, and the interesting things he has learned along the way. According to his site, it has over 4,500 free subscribers, and you can either read previous issues or subscribe directly from bendodson.com.

What you get each month

The newsletter is a first-person account of an active developer's work rather than a general Apple news digest. Based on the description on the site, each issue centres on:

  • Apps he is building — progress and decisions on his own products and client work.
  • Tools he is making — utilities and internal tooling he develops along the way.
  • Things he has learned — practical lessons picked up while shipping software.

If you want to follow how a senior native Apple developer actually works through problems, this is the angle the newsletter takes.

Who it is for

The newsletter suits readers who already have some context on Apple development or product work:

  • iOS, iPadOS, macOS, tvOS, watchOS, or visionOS developers who want a working developer's perspective.
  • Founders and product people who commission or manage native Apple apps.
  • Anyone following Ben Dodson's apps and wanting updates between project launches.

It is not positioned as a beginner tutorial series or a breaking-news feed.

How to read past issues or subscribe

Both actions are available from the bendodson.com homepage:

  1. Go to bendodson.com.
  2. In the The Dodo Developer section, choose View previous newsletters to browse the archive, or use the Subscribe option to sign up.
  3. The site states the newsletter is free and has more than 4,500 subscribers, so no payment step is described.

Context: who is behind it

Ben Dodson has been building native Apple apps since the App Store launched in 2008 and works across iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, Apple Watch, and Vision Pro. His own apps include WallaBee, Highlights, Music Library Tracker, and Browser Note, and he has shipped apps for clients such as UKTV Play, Channel 4 Horse Tracker, NBC, Natural Cycles, and L'Oréal. That background is what the newsletter draws on — it is a working developer's log, not a curated industry roundup.

Quick answers

Question Answer
What is it? A monthly newsletter by Ben Dodson
What does it cover? Apps he's building, tools he's making, lessons learned
How often? Monthly
Cost Free, per the site (4,500+ subscribers)
Where to subscribe bendodson.com, in The Dodo Developer section
Can I read old issues? Yes — "View previous newsletters" link on the site

If your goal is simply to keep up with Ben Dodson's work between releases, subscribing is the most direct route; if you want to judge the tone first, start with the previous newsletters archive.