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
🌱 42 makers · 33 products
Best Open Source Makers in 2026
Makers running sustainable businesses around open source software. This list features 42 indie makers in this space, led by Adam Wathan, Matt Pocock and Sahil Lavingia, ranked by profile depth, audience and reported revenue.
Top open source makers
42 makers, ranked.
TypeScript and AI engineering educator behind Total TypeScript and AI Hero
AI Hero, Total TypeScript, ts-reset +3
Founder of Gumroad and author of The Minimalist Entrepreneur
Gumroad, Flexile, Helper$17.8M/yr
Creator of Livewire, Alpine.js and Flux UI, funded by sponsors and component sales
Livewire, Alpine.js, Flux +2$112K/yr from GitHub Sponso…
Founder and CEO of Ghost, the open source, non-profit publishing platform
Ghost, AlcoveGhost: ~$11.1M ARR
Founder of Laracasts, the bootstrapped video school for Laravel and PHP
Laracasts, Rosette, Laravel Mix
Solo founder of Postiz, the open-source agentic social media scheduler
Postiz, agent-media$250K MRR
PSPDFKit founder turned creator of OpenClaw, the open-source personal AI agent
OpenClaw, PSPDFKit (Nutrient), CodexBar +2
French solo maker of Capgo, open-source live updates for Capacitor apps
Capgo, Naturopia$30K MRR
JavaScript educator behind Epic React, Epic Web and Testing JavaScript
Epic React, Epic Web, Testing JavaScript +2
Full-time open-sourcer maintaining 1,000+ npm packages and dozens of indie Mac apps
Supercharge, Dato, Gifski +6
Creator of TanStack: Query, Table, Router, Start and other open source libraries
TanStack Query, TanStack Table, TanStack Router +3
Designer behind Refactoring UI, Heroicons and Tailwind's look, now at Shopify
Refactoring UI, Tailwind Plus (formerly Tailwind UI), Heroicons +1
Creator of Plausible, the open source and privacy-first Google Analytics alternative
Plausible Analytics$1M+ ARR
Builds and teaches AI coding; creator of Chatbot UI and founder of Takeoff
Takeoff / MagicLearn, Chatbot UI, Mckay's App Template +1
Vietnamese builder behind UI UX Pro Max, AgentKit and GoClaw AI agent tools
UI UX Pro Max, AgentKit, GoClaw +3
Brazilian indie Mac and iOS developer behind AirBuddy and VirtualBuddy
AirBuddy, VirtualBuddy, WWDC for macOS +1
Brazilian programming YouTuber, ex-Pagar.me CTO, creator of curso.dev and TabNews
curso.dev, TabNews, cep-promise
Co-founder and CEO of Explosion, the company behind spaCy and Prodigy
spaCy, Prodigy, Ellf
ClickFunnels president, creator of Bullet Train for Rails, founded and sold Churn Buster
Bullet Train, Churn Buster, The Rails SaaS Conference
Developer behind DevHunt, Float UI, RapidForms and Wrapifai
DevHunt, Float UI, RapidForms +2
Co-founder of open-source finance app Midday (acquired by Ramp) and Cursor Directory
Midday, Cursor Directory, Languine
Creator of Umami, the open-source, privacy-focused Google Analytics alternative
Umami, Flight, Sparrow +1
Bootstrapper who built and sold TinyPilot, now writing Refactoring English
TinyPilot, Refactoring English, Zestful +3
Brazilian indie developer behind Public APIs, Dev Resources and the Linkero page builder
Public APIs, Dev Resources, Linkero +1
Mac indie developer behind Rectangle, Rectangle Pro, Superkey and Hyperkey
Rectangle, Rectangle Pro, Superkey +7
Founder of Flying Meat, two-decade indie Mac maker of Acorn and Retrobatch
Acorn, Retrobatch, VoodooPad +1
Solo developer who built and sold PromptHero; now making RailsFast
RailsFast, PromptHero, Hustl +1
Designer turned builder shipping AI agent tools; works on Agent Experience at Cloudflare
inbox.dog, FormDrift, t2t +2
Solo founder of Typebot, the open, self-hostable chatbot builder
Typebot
Veteran Mac developer who created NetNewsWire and MarsEdit
NetNewsWire, MarsEdit, Vesper
Munich CPTO and founder of Add to Calendar PRO, built on their open-source calendar button
Add to Calendar PRO, Add to Calendar Button, Add to Calendar Links +1
Nomadic developer behind Saas UI, the React component library and SaaS starter kits
Saas UI, SaaS.js, Trevize +3
Bootstrapped founder of Elmo, open-source AI search visibility; ex-Airbyte first engineer
Elmo, Poach, MealByMeal +1
Design engineer behind Intent UI (formerly justd), an open-source React component library
Intent UI, Intent UI Design, Intent UI Icons +1
Founder of ChaiBuilder, an open-source visual website builder for React and Next.js
ChaiBuilder, chaicore, Chai Studio
Solo creator of PocketBase, the open source backend in a single file
PocketBase, Presentator, Hide Ratings Extension
Independent developer building Taleshape and Shaper, open-source SQL dashboards on DuckDB
Shaper
Dallas developer shipping open-source AI agents, MCP servers and automation tools
Clawdbot Security Check, AI File Organizer Agent, MCP Server Starter +1
Sofia-based cloud architect and founder of Cloudders, a Kubernetes-native uptime monitor
Cloudders
Dutch Laravel developer, founder of Alphena and maker of popular Laravel/Filament packages
Awesome Pulse, Laravel Service Generator, Filament Timesheets
Full-stack developer building WebJs, a no-build web components framework
WebJs, Recroo AI
Products by open source makers
33 products in this category.
Utility-first CSS framework for building custom designs directly in your markup, installed 110M+ times per week.
by Adam Wathan
Headless UI
headlessui.com
Unstyled, fully accessible UI components designed to pair with Tailwind CSS.
by Adam Wathan
Sessy
sessy.do
Open-source email observability for AWS SES.
by Marc Köhlbrugge
ts-reset
github.com
Open-source library that tightens TypeScript's built-in typings, such as making JSON.parse return unknown.
by Matt Pocock
Livewire
livewire.laravel.com
Full-stack framework for Laravel that builds dynamic interfaces without leaving PHP.
by Caleb Porzio
Alpine.js
alpinejs.dev
Minimal JavaScript framework for adding behavior directly in HTML markup.
by Caleb Porzio
Sushi
github.com
Eloquent array driver for Laravel, released via the sponsorware model.
by Caleb Porzio
Ghost
ghost.org
Open source publishing platform for blogs, newsletters and paid memberships, with a managed Ghost(Pro) hosting service.
~$11.1M ARRby John O'Nolan
ngx-chips
github.com
Open-source tag input component for Angular.
by Giancarlo Buomprisco
Laravel Mix
github.com
Open-source wrapper that simplifies webpack configuration, long the default asset build tool in Laravel.
by Jeffrey Way
Testing Library
testing-library.com
Open source family of libraries for testing UI the way users use it.
by Kent C. Dodds
Spring
github.com
Open-source Swift library that simplifies iOS animations.
by Meng To
Related categories
🛠️ Developer Tools🎓 Educators & Course Creators🤖 AI Builders☁️ SaaS Founders✍️ Creators & Writers💻 Mac & Desktop App Makers🎨 Design Tools📱 Mobile App Makers📊 Analytics & Data🧱 Boilerplate & Starter Kit Makers
Top countries for open source makers
Open Source Makers FAQ
Who are the most popular indie open source makers?
The best-known open source makers on IndieMakerList are Adam Wathan, Matt Pocock, Sahil Lavingia, Caleb Porzio and John O'Nolan. In total 42 makers are listed in this category.
What products do indie open source makers build?
Notable products include Tailwind CSS by Adam Wathan, Headless UI by Adam Wathan, Sessy by Marc Köhlbrugge, ts-reset by Matt Pocock and Livewire by Caleb Porzio. 33 products are listed in this category.
How much do indie open source makers earn?
Publicly reported revenue varies widely. Examples: Adam Wathan (Mid-seven figures/yr (2020)), Sahil Lavingia ($17.8M/yr (Gumroad, 2025)), Caleb Porzio ($112K/yr from GitHub Sponsors) and John O'Nolan (Ghost: ~$11.1M ARR). Figures are self-reported and sourced from public posts.
Where are indie open source makers based?
The most common countries in this category are United States (15), Brazil (3) and Canada (2).
How do I get listed as one of the open source makers?
Submit your profile via the Submit page. Listings are free and reviewed before publishing.
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