Creator of Tailwind CSS who built a multi-million-dollar business on open source
Tailwind CSS, Tailwind Plus (formerly Tailwind UI), Refactoring UI +4Mid-seven figures/yr
🎨 35 makers · 50 products
Best Design Tools in 2026
Makers building design assets, mockup tools, icon sets and creative software. This list features 35 indie makers in this space, led by Adam Wathan, Brett Williams and Jim Raptis, ranked by profile depth, audience and reported revenue.
Top design tools
35 makers, ranked.
Solo designer running Designjoy, a $1M+/yr one-person design subscription
Designjoy, Productize Yourself, GatherOS +1$100K MRR
Greek design engineer running bootstrapped tools MagicPattern, BrandBird and SuperMotion
MagicPattern, BrandBird, SuperMotion +3~$6.5K MRR across three pro…
Founder of Visualize Value: minimalist visuals, courses on leverage, and digital art
Visualize Value, Checks VV Edition, jackbutcher.md
Designer and serial maker behind Humaaans, Blush and Lummi, which Udemy acquired
Lummi, Blush, Humaaans +5
Designer behind Design+Code, teaching designers to code, now building the AI builder Aura
Design+Code, Aura, Spring +2
Kerala-based front-end maker of Web3Forms and Web3Templates (Astroship, Stablo)
Web3Forms, Web3Templates, Astroship +3$75.7K all-time
Dutch founder of HeadshotPro who sold AI copywriter Headlime for seven figures
HeadshotPro, Headlime, Landingfolio +1
The startup meme king: co-founded Logology, runs LaunchDay, wore a 26-sponsor wedding suit
LaunchDay, Logology, How to Dominate Twitter/X
Singapore maker who sold OpenGraph.xyz, now runs a portfolio of directory sites
OpenGraph.xyz, ClinicGeek, Dental Clinics Malaysia +4S$5K/mo
Polish engineer-turned-indie hacker behind Visualizee.ai AI renders
Visualizee.ai, VizTunr, Morga.ai +3$8.2K MRR
Solo developer of Photopea, the free browser-based Photoshop alternative
Photopea~$200K/mo
Designer behind Refactoring UI, Heroicons and Tailwind's look, now at Shopify
Refactoring UI, Tailwind Plus (formerly Tailwind UI), Heroicons +1
Slovakia-based 'Coding Dinosaur' who has shipped 200+ web projects
Featurenest, Download3000, Colorion +3
Freelance designer teaching practical UI design through Learn UI Design
Figtree
Australian product designer behind Untitled UI, the best-selling Figma UI kit
Untitled UI, Untitled UI React, Untitled UI Icons +2
London indie founder of Hovercode; built and sold Page Flows
Hovercode, Page Flows, Linkjar +3
Designer behind Starrt, the Carrd templates and tips hub, building small tools with AI
Starrt, Sparkstation, Breefing +2
Indonesian Webflow developer and solo maker of Unsection, a website section design library
Unsection, Gita design & Webflow subscription$1.4K MRR
19-year-old Pakistani maker of Efferd, premium shadcn/ui blocks for developers
Efferd$17.4K all-time
Founder of Flying Meat, two-decade indie Mac maker of Acorn and Retrobatch
Acorn, Retrobatch, VoodooPad +1
Mac developer behind retro Apple Music remotes and PDX Transit
QuickTune, Music Remote, Music MiniPlayer +2
Cebu-based bootstrapped founder of FontVisual, a font preview tool for crafters
FontVisual, Where to Find VA
Paris designer, CPO and co-founder of book social network Hardcover
Hardcover, LOOT, June
Founder of FilterGrade, a marketplace for photo and video editing assets
FilterGrade, Moloney Creative Agency
Design engineer behind Intent UI (formerly justd), an open-source React component library
Intent UI, Intent UI Design, Intent UI Icons +1
Bucharest-based product engineer building Krumzi, an AI graphic design tool
Krumzi, InstaCarousel
UX designer who co-founded Nusii proposal software and now runs Beyond the Pixel
Nusii, Beyond the Pixel
Built and sold aiwebdesigner.io, then joined Lovable in marketing and growth
aiwebdesigner.io
Data scientist and game designer making visual automation, music video and game tools
Craftar, Chimp, Lambda Games
Developer behind the Benture remote job board and the Browsynth browser synth
Benture, Browsynth
Brazilian co-founder of FloorPlan-AI, an AI floor plan and architectural concept workspace
FloorPlan-AI
Building kit.shadcnui.com and ui-lib.com to help developers code fast
Kit, Ui-lib
Product designer but also co-found tools that people actually NEED.
👉 vicked.design 🎨 Your ultimate subscription-based design partner for SaaS UX, UI and branding.
Products by design tools
50 products in this category.
U
UIgenerator
uigenerator.org
Generate and download mockup UI.
by John Rush
Premium library of professionally designed Tailwind components, templates and UI kits.
~$2M in first 5 monthsby Adam Wathan
Heroicons
heroicons.com
Free, MIT-licensed SVG icon set made by the Tailwind Labs team.
by Adam Wathan
Playgrnd
playgrnd.tools
Collection of tools Brett is building.
by Brett Williams
MagicPattern
magicpattern.design
Toolbox of 30+ generators for patterns, gradients, blobs and backgrounds with SVG and CSS export.
by Jim Raptis
BrandBird
brandbird.app
Graphics editor for screenshots, mockups and social posts aimed at SaaS founders.
by Jim Raptis
SuperMotion
supermotion.co
Turns screenshots and screen recordings into polished promo videos.
by Jim Raptis
Gradients.fm
gradients.fm
Collections of high-resolution gradient and abstract background graphics.
by Jim Raptis
Free color palette tool, sold together with Wireframer and DesignValley.
by Jim Raptis
Blush
blush.design
Customizable illustrations by artists worldwide that can be remixed in Figma and the browser.
by Pablo Stanley
Humaaans
humaaans.com
Free mix-and-match library of people illustrations.
by Pablo Stanley
Open Peeps
openpeeps.com
Free hand-drawn illustration library of people built from mix-and-match parts.
by Pablo Stanley
Related categories
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Top countries for design tools
Design Tools FAQ
Who are the most popular indie design tools?
The best-known design tools on IndieMakerList are Adam Wathan, Brett Williams, Jim Raptis, Jack Butcher and Pablo Stanley. In total 35 makers are listed in this category.
What products do indie design tools build?
Notable products include UIgenerator by John Rush, Tailwind Plus (formerly Tailwind UI) by Adam Wathan, Heroicons by Adam Wathan, Playgrnd by Brett Williams and MagicPattern by Jim Raptis. 50 products are listed in this category.
How much do indie design tools earn?
Publicly reported revenue varies widely. Examples: Adam Wathan (Mid-seven figures/yr (2020)), Brett Williams ($100K MRR (Designjoy) + $12K MRR (Productize Yourself)), Jim Raptis (~$6.5K MRR across three products) and Surjith S M ($75.7K all-time (Web3Templates)). Figures are self-reported and sourced from public posts.
Where are indie design tools based?
The most common countries in this category are United States (7), Canada (2) and Singapore (2).
How do I get listed as one of the design tools?
Submit your profile via the Submit page. Listings are free and reviewed before publishing.
Know one of the best design tools we're missing? Submit a maker to IndieMakerList →