French solopreneur from Bali behind TrustMRR, DataFast, ShipFast and 30+ startups
TrustMRR, DataFast, CodeFast +7$98K/mo
🎓 90 makers · 85 products
Best Educators & Course Creators in 2026
Makers who teach — courses, books, cohorts and communities for builders. This list features 90 indie makers in this space, led by Marc Lou, Julia Evans and Adam Wathan, ranked by profile depth, audience and reported revenue.
Top educators & course creators
90 makers, ranked.
Montreal developer behind Wizard Zines, illustrated guides to computing fundamentals
Wizard Zines, Mess With DNS, Memory Spy +2$101,558 in 2018
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
patio11: Bingo Card Creator, Appointment Reminder, Stripe Atlas and Bits about Money
Bingo Card Creator, Appointment Reminder, Starfighter +2~$275K/yr sales, ~$200K pro…
Physicist turned permissionless entrepreneur, co-founder of Sales.co
Sales.co, Founder Flywheel, Opportunities.so +5$90K/mo
SaaS marketer behind Swipe Files, Conversion Factory and the top AI marketing skills repo
Conversion Factory, Swipe Files, Marketing Skills +5$1M ARR
Productivity YouTuber behind Ultimate Brain, Notion tutorials and the Flylighter clipper
Ultimate Brain, Creator's Companion, Flylighter +2$1M in Notion template sales
One-person business writer behind The Art of Focus and co-founder of the Eden content app
Eden, The 2 Hour Writer$1M-$1.5M/yr
Web dev educator behind Traversy Media, plus a public lab of indie dev tools
Traversy Media, DevSheets, WebUtils +4
TypeScript and AI engineering educator behind Total TypeScript and AI Hero
AI Hero, Total TypeScript, ts-reset +3
Founder of Starter Story, the founder case-study brand acquired by HubSpot in 2026
Starter Story, Starter Story Build$1M/yr
Founder of Kit (ConvertKit), bootstrapped from a failing side project to $1M+ MRR
Kit (formerly ConvertKit)$1.19M MRR
Founder of Gumroad and author of The Minimalist Entrepreneur
Gumroad, Flexile, Helper$17.8M/yr
Coined micro-SaaS, sold Storemapper, then founded Calm Company Fund for bootstrappers
Storemapper, Calm Company Fund (formerly Earnest Capital), BK UP~$40K MRR
Creator of Livewire, Alpine.js and Flux UI, funded by sponsors and component sales
Livewire, Alpine.js, Flux +2$112K/yr from GitHub Sponso…
MicroConf co-founder, Bluetick founder and author of The Single Founder Handbook
Bluetick, MicroConf, FounderCafe +1Five-figure MRR
Ex-Amazon engineer who popularized the small bets portfolio approach
Small Bets, Userbase, Single Server +1$210K profit in 9 months
Doctor-turned-YouTuber, author of Feel-Good Productivity and Part-Time YouTuber Academy
Part-Time YouTuber Academy, Superfocus, 6med$4M+ in 2022
Solopreneur who passed $10M in revenue with a one-person business
The LinkedIn Operating System, The Content Operating System, The Saturday Essay$10M+ total revenue
Canadian full-stack JavaScript teacher behind JavaScript30 and the Syntax podcast
Syntax, Wes Bos Courses
Co-founder of Academind, bestselling coding instructor with 3.5M+ students
Academind, AI Enhanced Dev, Business Headshots AI
Musician who accidentally built CD Baby, sold it for $22M, and writes books on how to live
CD Baby, HostBaby, Wood Egg
Co-founder and CEO of Transistor.fm, the bootstrapped 'calm company' for podcast hosting
Transistor.fm, MegaMaker, Marketing for Developers +2
Canadian CSS educator with 1,000+ YouTube videos and The Cascade course platform
The Cascade, CSS Demystified, Kevin Powell YouTube channel
Co-founder of Elephas and Voibe, runs Superframeworks and Indie Masterminds
Elephas, Voibe, OutlierKit +2$150K/yr
Founder of Smart Passive Income, author of Will It Fly? and Superfans, Pokémon YouTuber
Smart Passive Income, SwitchPod, Deep Pocket Monster
Solo designer running Designjoy, a $1M+/yr one-person design subscription
Designjoy, Productize Yourself, GatherOS +1$100K MRR
Serial bootstrapper behind Audience Ops, Clarityflow and Builder Methods
Builder Methods, Agent OS, Clarityflow (formerly ZipMessage) +2
Ex-Uber engineering manager who writes The Pragmatic Engineer newsletter
The Pragmatic Engineer, The Software Engineer's Guidebook, The Pragmatic Engineer Podcast
Top-rated Udemy instructor teaching JavaScript, React, Node.js and CSS to 2M+ students
jonas.io, The Complete JavaScript Course, The Ultimate React Course
Syntax podcast co-host and creator of Level Up Tutorials
Level Up Tutorials, Syntax, Phases +1
Founder of Creator Science, teaching creators to build businesses through experiments
Creator Science, The Lab, CreatorHQ +1
Creator of Hacking with Swift, the free Swift and SwiftUI learning site
Hacking with Swift, Hacking with Swift+, Kickstart +2
Sold FeedbackPanda, wrote Zero to Sold, built Podscan in public (acquired 2026)
Podscan, FeedbackPanda
Hong Kong educator who taught building in public, now building AI learning tools for kids
Public Lab, Chatty Bestie, AlphaStage
Founder of Visualize Value: minimalist visuals, courses on leverage, and digital art
Visualize Value, Checks VV Edition, jackbutcher.md
Warsaw-based author of The Product Compass, a top AI and product management newsletter
The Product Compass$126K ARR
Founder of Laracasts, the bootstrapped video school for Laravel and PHP
Laracasts, Rosette, Laravel Mix
Developer turned indie hacker on a public $1M revenue journey
iCodeThis, Content Copilot, Indie Action$445K lifetime across proje…
Co-founder of Noko (Freckle) and Stacking the Bricks, creator of 30x500 and Sales Safari
Noko (formerly Freckle), 30x500, Stacking the Bricks
Author of The Mom Test and Write Useful Books, building beta-reading software for authors
The Mom Test, Write Useful Books, The Workshop Survival Guide +1
Dutch no-code maker of Startup Stash who built and sold five curation products
Startup Stash, StartupWatching, Road to Scale +2
JavaScript educator behind Epic React, Epic Web and Testing JavaScript
Epic React, Epic Web, Testing JavaScript +2
Designer behind Design+Code, teaching designers to code, now building the AI builder Aura
Design+Code, Aura, Spring +2
AI-first builder behind TrendFeed and CodeSpring, teaching non-coders to vibe code
CodeSpring, TrendFeed, ChatIQ$29K/mo
Drip founder, MicroConf and TinySeed co-founder, host of Startups for the Rest of Us
TinySeed, MicroConf, Drip
Neuroscientist and founder of Ness Labs, author of Tiny Experiments
Ness Labs, Ness Labs Membership, Tiny Experiments
Copywriting teacher behind Marketing Examples and its 130K-reader newsletter
Marketing Examples, Copywriting Examples
Creator and voice of Fireship, the fast-paced coding YouTube channel, merged with ui.dev
Fireship, Fireship PRO, Bytes
Technical co-founder of Affilimate and creator of Blogging for Devs
Affilimate, Blogging for Devs, BFD Trends +1
Directory website builder and SEO teacher behind Ship Your Directory
Ship Your Directory$2K+/mo
German indie dev and YouTuber behind Islanders, Will You Snail? and Thronefall
Thronefall, Will You Snail?, Islanders +1
Developer-educator behind Mastering Postgres, High Performance SQLite and Solo
Database School, Solo, Screencasting.com +1
Founder of RightMessage and Double Your Freelancing, author of This Is Personal
RightMessage, Double Your Freelancing, Planscope
Ex-Uber engineer who built NamasteDev, India's popular 'Namaste' coding courses
NamasteDev
WeddingLovely founder, Hello Web books author, GM at TinySeed and MicroConf
WeddingLovely, Hello Web App, Hello Web Design
Designer behind Refactoring UI, Heroicons and Tailwind's look, now at Shopify
Refactoring UI, Tailwind Plus (formerly Tailwind UI), Heroicons +1
Jaipur-based coding YouTuber behind Chai aur Code and ChaiCode cohorts; LCO founder
ChaiCode, LearnCodeOnline
Co-founder of CodePen, ShopTalk Show co-host, ran CSS-Tricks 2007-2022
CodePen, CSS-Tricks
Builds and teaches AI coding; creator of Chatbot UI and founder of Takeoff
Takeoff / MagicLearn, Chatbot UI, Mckay's App Template +1
AI-first builder running the IgnytLabs MVP agency, a community and an AI newsletter
IgnytLabs, AI MVP Builders, The AI Head Start
Learn-in-public advocate, Coding Career Handbook author and Latent Space host
Latent Space, AI Engineer, smol.ai
Solo founder who bootstrapped Unicorn Platform to $16K MRR and sold it for $800K
Unicorn Platform, saas.page, Paracast +1
Creator of the Notion Mastery course and co-founder of Oki Doki
Notion Mastery, Oki Doki
Polish Kotlin educator, founder of Kt. Academy and author of Effective Kotlin
Kt. Academy, Advanced Compose
Brazilian programming YouTuber, ex-Pagar.me CTO, creator of curso.dev and TabNews
curso.dev, TabNews, cep-promise
Writer and co-founder of Ship 30 for 30, author of The Art & Business of Online Writing
Ship 30 for 30, Premium Ghostwriting Academy, Typeshare
Founder of Indie Hackers, the community and podcast that named the movement
Indie Hackers
Creator of Doing Content Right and Internet Pipes, former a16z podcast host
Internet Pipes, Doing Content Right, Doing Time Right +1
Freelance designer teaching practical UI design through Learn UI Design
Figtree
Barcelona developer-streamer teaching programming and AI in Spanish via midu.dev academy
midu.dev academy, Midudev Tools
AI creator and vibe coder who co-founded Vibecode and now builds Agent Native
Vibecode, Agent Native
Founder of Paperbell coaching software; bootstrapped and sold MeetEdgar
Paperbell, MeetEdgar
Belfast founder of Gravity SaaS boilerplate, Alertly and the Zero To Paid course
Gravity, Alertly
Montreal developer-educator behind CSS for JavaScript Developers and The Joy of React
CSS for JavaScript Developers, The Joy of React, Whimsical Animations
Ex-CTO turned solopreneur behind the SaaS Pegasus Django boilerplate
SaaS Pegasus, Place Card Me, Scriv +2
Former BlackRock trader who co-founded Ship 30 for 30 to teach online writing
Ship 30 for 30, Premium Ghostwriting Academy
Co-founder and CEO of Geocodio and author of Deploy Empathy
Geocodio
Founder of Velora, Heights Platform for course creators, and LatchLoop AI agents
Heights Platform, LatchLoop, Velora
Ex-big-tech data engineer who built DataExpert.io into a $4.7M+ education business
DataExpert.io$56K MRR + cohorts
Bootstrapper who built and sold TinyPilot, now writing Refactoring English
TinyPilot, Refactoring English, Zestful +3
Australian engineer in France running OnlineOrNot, a self-funded uptime monitoring SaaS
OnlineOrNot
Community builder who founded Ministry of Testing and runs Rosieland
Ministry of Testing, Rosieland
Design engineer behind Intent UI (formerly justd), an open-source React component library
Intent UI, Intent UI Design, Intent UI Icons +1
Ukrainian engineer and lecturer building Testinel for Selenium and Playwright test triage
Testinel, CIPerf, Design and Test Lab
Author of Company of One and co-founder of Fathom Analytics (retired 2024)
Fathom Analytics
Paid ads expert and CTO at Nanos AI who coaches indie makers through AdsForMakers
AdsForMakers
Micro SaaS maker behind Easy Dictation for English listening practice
Easy Dictation, Type Snapper
votejar.io, voteJar is the easiest way to learn from your customers and build the right product.
Votejar
Learning and sharing the craft of high-quality software engineering.
Products by educators & course creators
85 products in this category.
CodeFast
codefa.st
Course that teaches founders to code and ship their own web apps in weeks.
Wizard Zines
wizardzines.com
Illustrated programming zines and posters explaining computing fundamentals, sold as PDFs and in print.
by Julia Evans
Refactoring UI
refactoringui.com
Design book and video course for developers, co-written with Steve Schoger.
~$600K in 2020by Adam Wathan
T
Test-Driven Laravel
testdrivenlaravel.com
Video course on building a real Laravel application test-first.
by Adam Wathan
Swipe Files
swipefiles.com
SaaS marketing newsletter, community and courses with 27,000+ subscribers.
by Corey Haines
Coding for Marketers
codingformarketers.com
Guide to using AI coding tools and the terminal as a marketer.
by Corey Haines
The 2 Hour Writer
2hourwriter.com
Course teaching a daily writing system for building an audience and a one-person business.
by Dan Koe
Traversy Media
traversymedia.com
Project-based web development course library with single-course and membership access.
by Brad Traversy
D
Domain Book
getdomainbook.com
Guide on how to get great domain names.
by Marc Köhlbrugge
Course teaching programmatic SEO with real-world examples, which he built and later sold.
by Ian Nuttall
Total TypeScript
totaltypescript.com
Exercise-driven professional TypeScript training covering generics, type transformations and advanced library patterns.
by Matt Pocock
Starter Story Build
build.starterstory.com
Live online accelerator that teaches people to come up with an idea and ship an AI-built app with users and payments in days.
by Pat Walls
Related categories
✍️ Creators & Writers☁️ SaaS Founders🤖 AI Builders🫂 Community Builders🛠️ Developer Tools🌱 Open Source Makers🎨 Design Tools📣 Marketing & SEO Tools📦 Productized Services⚡ Productivity Tools
Top countries for educators & course creators
Educators & Course Creators FAQ
Who are the most popular indie educators & course creators?
The best-known educators & course creators on IndieMakerList are Marc Lou, Julia Evans, Adam Wathan, Patrick McKenzie and Jakob Greenfeld. In total 90 makers are listed in this category.
What products do indie educators & course creators build?
Notable products include CodeFast by Marc Lou, Wizard Zines by Julia Evans, Refactoring UI by Adam Wathan, Test-Driven Laravel by Adam Wathan and Swipe Files by Corey Haines. 85 products are listed in this category.
How much do indie educators & course creators earn?
Publicly reported revenue varies widely. Examples: Marc Lou ($98K/mo (July 2026)), Julia Evans ($101,558 in 2018 (zine business)), Adam Wathan (Mid-seven figures/yr (2020)) and Patrick McKenzie (~$275K/yr sales, ~$200K profit (excl. Appointment Reminder)). Figures are self-reported and sourced from public posts.
Where are indie educators & course creators based?
The most common countries in this category are United States (34), Canada (10) and United Kingdom (9).
How do I get listed as one of the educators & course creators?
Submit your profile via the Submit page. Listings are free and reviewed before publishing.
Know one of the best educators & course creators we're missing? Submit a maker to IndieMakerList →