Running a bootstrapped empire of 24+ SaaS products and directories
Unicorn Platform, SEObot, ListingBott +20$3M/yr
☁️ 149 makers · 82 products
Best SaaS Founders in 2026
Solo and tiny-team founders running subscription software businesses. This list features 149 indie makers in this space, led by John Rush, Marc Lou and Pieter Levels, ranked by profile depth, audience and reported revenue.
Top SaaS founders
149 makers, ranked.
French solopreneur from Bali behind TrustMRR, DataFast, ShipFast and 30+ startups
TrustMRR, DataFast, CodeFast +7$98K/mo
Solo maker behind Photo AI, Nomads.com, Remote OK, Interior AI and the MAKE book
Photo AI, Vibe Jam, Interior AI +5~$219K/mo across products
Built and sold Tweet Hunter and Taplio; now runs a $1M/month AI portfolio led by Revid
Revid, Outrank, SuperX +6~$1M/mo across products
patio11: Bingo Card Creator, Appointment Reminder, Stripe Atlas and Bits about Money
Bingo Card Creator, Appointment Reminder, Starfighter +2~$275K/yr sales, ~$200K pro…
Vietnamese indie hacker behind TypingMind, DevUtils, and exits Black Magic and Xnapper
TypingMind, DevUtils, Black Magic +3$142K/mo
Self-taught Canadian solo builder of Post Bridge and a string of consumer apps
Post Bridge, Lovelee, Curiosity Quench +4$48.9K MRR
Serial maker behind BetaList, WIP and Startup Jobs, shipping online for 20+ years
BetaList, WIP, Startup Jobs +11
Founder of Kit (ConvertKit), bootstrapped from a failing side project to $1M+ MRR
Kit (formerly ConvertKit)$1.19M MRR
Ex-Cisco engineer who built Testimonial.to and grew acquired PDF.ai into a top AI PDF tool
Testimonial.to, PDF.ai, Chat.sh +5$1.3M ARR
Coined micro-SaaS, sold Storemapper, then founded Calm Company Fund for bootstrappers
Storemapper, Calm Company Fund (formerly Earnest Capital), BK UP~$40K MRR
MicroConf co-founder, Bluetick founder and author of The Single Founder Handbook
Bluetick, MicroConf, FounderCafe +1Five-figure MRR
Founder of SavvyCal; co-founded Drip, which sold to Leadpages
SavvyCal, Drip, Codetree +2$20K MRR
Co-founder of lemlist, bootstrapped from $1K to tens of millions in ARR
lemlist, lemwarm, lemcal +3~$40M ARR
Founder and CEO of Ghost, the open source, non-profit publishing platform
Ghost, AlcoveGhost: ~$11.1M ARR
Co-founder and CEO of Transistor.fm, the bootstrapped 'calm company' for podcast hosting
Transistor.fm, MegaMaker, Marketing for Developers +2
Designer and co-founder of Typefully; previously built and sold Mailbrew
Typefully, Mailbrew, Boxy Suite +3Typefully: ~$2M ARR
Solo founder who bootstrapped Bannerbear, an image and video automation API, to $81K MRR
Bannerbear, Redacted$81K MRR
Co-founder of Elephas and Voibe, runs Superframeworks and Indie Masterminds
Elephas, Voibe, OutlierKit +2$150K/yr
Serial dabbler who built and sold Baremetrics for $4M, now shipping AI products
Baremetrics, Maybe, Knockoff +5
Greek design engineer running bootstrapped tools MagicPattern, BrandBird and SuperMotion
MagicPattern, BrandBird, SuperMotion +3~$6.5K MRR across three pro…
Serial bootstrapper behind Audience Ops, Clarityflow and Builder Methods
Builder Methods, Agent OS, Clarityflow (formerly ZipMessage) +2
SEO-first serial maker behind GenPPT, LinkDR, AI SEO Tracker and MagicSpace
GenPPT, LinkDR, AI SEO Tracker +5$8.1K MRR
Ex-LEGO engineer building a bootstrapped SaaS portfolio: FeedHive, Aidbase, LinkDrip
FeedHive, Aidbase, LinkDrip +2$400K ARR
French developer-designer behind the Uneed launch platform and Writizzy
Uneed, Uneed Residency, Writizzy$134K in 2025
Brazil's self-styled first digital nomad, serial AI app builder and Dolafy co-founder
Dolafy, Ready For Mars, Viralist.ai +3
Solo founder of Key Values, the job board matching engineers with values-aligned teams
Key Values~$300K–350K/yr
Co-founded Senja to $800K ARR; now building Ferndesk, self-updating AI help docs
Ferndesk, Senja$5K MRR
Sold FeedbackPanda, wrote Zero to Sold, built Podscan in public (acquired 2026)
Podscan, FeedbackPanda
Italian developer in Taipei who built Makerkit, the B2B SaaS starter kit
Makerkit, Formtoro, ngx-chips$8,606 in a month
Solo founder of ScreenshotOne, a screenshot API for developers and AI agents
ScreenshotOne, How Browsers Work, Open Graph Examples & Debugger +1~$36K MRR
Bootstrapped founder of SignWell e-signatures and Bidsketch proposals
SignWell, BidsketchSeveral million ARR
German founder of supastarter, the SaaS starter kit for Next.js, Nuxt and TanStack
supastarter, supatools, Outbid +1$12K/mo
Co-founder of Tiny and MetaLab, buying and holding wonderful internet businesses
Tiny, MetaLab, Dribbble +1
Software engineer turned solopreneur behind BlackTwist and Shipped.club
BlackTwist, Shipped.club, Latentcam +3$2.5K/mo
Solo founder who bootstrapped Chatbase from a student project to $10M ARR
Chatbase$864K MRR
Developer turned indie hacker on a public $1M revenue journey
iCodeThis, Content Copilot, Indie Action$445K lifetime across proje…
Solo founder of Postiz, the open-source agentic social media scheduler
Postiz, agent-media$250K MRR
Co-founder of Noko (Freckle) and Stacking the Bricks, creator of 30x500 and Sales Safari
Noko (formerly Freckle), 30x500, Stacking the Bricks
French solo maker of Capgo, open-source live updates for Capacitor apps
Capgo, Naturopia$30K MRR
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
Founder of Buttondown, the bootstrapped newsletter platform he started at Stripe
Buttondown, Spoonbill~$15K MRR
Founder of Trends.vc, the market research newsletter and Trends Pro community
Trends.vc, HeadsUp, Multi
Co-founder of Paperform, a bootstrapped form builder grown to $3.5M+ ARR
Paperform$3.5M ARR
AI-first builder behind TrendFeed and CodeSpring, teaching non-coders to vibe code
CodeSpring, TrendFeed, ChatIQ$29K/mo
Osaka-based solo developer of Inkdrop and the Dev as Life YouTube channel
Inkdrop$10K+ MRR
Drip founder, MicroConf and TinySeed co-founder, host of Startups for the Rest of Us
TinySeed, MicroConf, Drip
Dutch founder of HeadshotPro who sold AI copywriter Headlime for seven figures
HeadshotPro, Headlime, Landingfolio +1
Co-founder of ScrapingBee, bootstrapped to $5M ARR and sold to Oxylabs
ScrapingBee, PricingBot~$5M ARR
Albanian founder who bootstrapped Publer social media management to $3M ARR
Publer, Linkie, Kibo$3M ARR
Co-founder and CEO of Userlist, host of the UI Breakfast podcast
Userlist, The UI Audit, UI Breakfast
Technical co-founder of Affilimate and creator of Blogging for Devs
Affilimate, Blogging for Devs, BFD Trends +1
Polish engineer-turned-indie hacker behind Visualizee.ai AI renders
Visualizee.ai, VizTunr, Morga.ai +3$8.2K MRR
Founder of RightMessage and Double Your Freelancing, author of This Is Personal
RightMessage, Double Your Freelancing, Planscope
Lisbon-based serial SaaS builder behind Podawaa and HumanInbox, with three exits
Podawaa, HumanInbox, PimpMySaaS +1$66K MRR
Bootstrapper behind HelpSpot since 2005, LaraJobs and the Mostly Technical podcast
HelpSpot, LaraJobs, Outro +2
Co-founder of Senja, bootstrapping a testimonial tool in public to $1M ARR
Senja$1M ARR
Solo developer of Photopea, the free browser-based Photoshop alternative
Photopea~$200K/mo
Slovakia-based 'Coding Dinosaur' who has shipped 200+ web projects
Featurenest, Download3000, Colorion +3
Creator of Plausible, the open source and privacy-first Google Analytics alternative
Plausible Analytics$1M+ ARR
Co-founder of ScrapingBee and author of The Java Web Scraping Handbook
ScrapingBee$5M+ ARR
Software engineer and sole owner of Fathom, the privacy-first Google Analytics alternative
Fathom Analytics, Serverless Laravel, SingleStore for Laravel
Solo founder who bootstrapped Unicorn Platform to $16K MRR and sold it for $800K
Unicorn Platform, saas.page, Paracast +1
Australian founder of the Bento email platform, building from Fukuoka, Japan
Bento, PostShiba, Tatami +1
Co-founder of GrowSurf, bootstrapped referral and affiliate software
GrowSurf$24K MRR
Chennai ex-Zoho maker building Guidejar in public to $5K MRR, with two small exits
Guidejar, Cold DM, Support Guy$5K MRR
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
Ex-CTO turned solopreneur behind the SaaS Pegasus Django boilerplate
SaaS Pegasus, Place Card Me, Scriv +2
Ex-DoorDash staff engineer building Watchdog AI moderation and flightschools.fyi
Watchdog, flightschools.fyi, Hackayork +1$444 MRR
Pilot turned developer, co-founder of Oscar Stories and the RUN LABS AI studio
Oscar Stories, Branding5, Intellipaper (FragDasPDF) +4
Co-founder of Oscar Stories, Branding5 and the Vienna startup studio RUN LABS
Oscar Stories, Branding5, Intellipaper (FragDasPDF) +4
Paris-based solo founder of Hyperping, bootstrapped uptime monitoring and status pages
Hyperping$11K MRR
Colombo-based Elixir developer bootstrapping WallStRank and imgDeliver; exited from inkl
WallStRank, imgDeliver, phoenix-diff +2
Co-founder and CEO of Geocodio and author of Deploy Empathy
Geocodio
London indie founder of Hovercode; built and sold Page Flows
Hovercode, Page Flows, Linkjar +3
Co-founder and CTO of Userlist; co-host of the Slow & Steady podcast
Userlist, Stage CMS
Founder of Velora, Heights Platform for course creators, and LatchLoop AI agents
Heights Platform, LatchLoop, Velora
Sold bootstrapped privacy startup Removaly to DuckDuckGo, now runs Sabbath Ventures
Removaly, Bible Answers AI, Ruth & Boaz
Australian engineer in France running OnlineOrNot, a self-funded uptime monitoring SaaS
OnlineOrNot
London-based indie SaaS maker behind Pop Invoice and the Indie and Profitable newsletter
Pop Invoice, Bunni AI, Hey New +1
Indian solo founder of SiteGPT; sold Notion-blog tool Feather for $250K
SiteGPT, Squad, Feather
Ads-first indie hacker who sold Talknotes for $200K, now building AdKit
AdKit, Talknotes
Bootstrapper who grew and sold Fomo, now building the TRMNL e-ink dashboard
TRMNL, Fera, Fomo
Multi-exit engineer behind Zero BS CRM, now building a 100% AI-run business
Profit Swarm, Strew, Zero BS CRM (Jetpack CRM)
ISO 27001 consultant building ISMS Copilot, heyGRC and Aevral without investors
ISMS Copilot, heyGRC, Aevral +1
Cebu-based bootstrapped founder of FontVisual, a font preview tool for crafters
FontVisual, Where to Find VA
Agency veteran building a holding company of AI products, incl. TranscriptAPI and CRHQ
TranscriptAPI, Recapio, CRHQ +1
Self-taught engineer who co-founded and sold Nextsale, now shipping Aikeedo and Keyplar
Keyplar, Aikeedo, Nextsale +1
Paris designer, CPO and co-founder of book social network Hardcover
Hardcover, LOOT, June
Solo founder of Typebot, the open, self-hostable chatbot builder
Typebot
Indie hacker from India who exited CursorClip and now builds TraceSig
TraceSig, CursorClip
Serial bootstrapped SaaS founder: Mailparser, Docparser and now Refiner
Refiner, Docparser, Mailparser
PostHog product engineer who built and sold BizPlanner AI; now building HandbookHub
HandbookHub, Runopolis, BizPlanner AI +1
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
One-person studio Amphibian Digital, maker of FrogDR and ramen.tools
FrogDR, ramen.tools, twelve.tools +1
Young builder who made and sold the AI slide maker GenPPT, now running CIYA
GenPPT, CIYA
Bootstrapped founder of CustomGPT.ai and co-founder of the Chitika ad network
CustomGPT.ai, Chitika
Canadian developer building a portfolio of niche directories, AI tools and SaaS
aitools.fyi, Amazing Newsletters, Invoice Mama +2
South African Elixir developer building Mailcast email forwarding and Sitesure monitoring
Mailcast, Sitesure
Medical doctor turned self-taught full-stack developer and SaaS maker
Evotik, EmailCheckerAI
Wrocław frontend engineer and serial maker who sold the InGastro job board for $13.5K
CMS Brew, Kavalerka.pl, Madeira Flight Risk +1
Wroclaw-based engineer who built and sold Bluesky Meter and Bluesky Stash
Bluesky Meter, Bluesky Stash, Listing Cat +1
Ukrainian engineer and lecturer building Testinel for Selenium and Playwright test triage
Testinel, CIPerf, Design and Test Lab
UX designer who co-founded Nusii proposal software and now runs Beyond the Pixel
Nusii, Beyond the Pixel
Rabat-based solo maker of WittyReply and Surf Forecast Menubar
WittyReply, Surf Forecast Menubar, Eksodos
Berlin-based product manager building AddressHub and RunBatch infrastructure products
AddressHub, RunBatch
Founder of ChaiBuilder, an open-source visual website builder for React and Next.js
ChaiBuilder, chaicore, Chai Studio
Author of Company of One and co-founder of Fathom Analytics (retired 2024)
Fathom Analytics
Founder of EmailGuard and EmailBison, deliverability tools for cold email teams
EmailBison, EmailGuard
Solo founder of Readbetter, which sends newsletters and articles to Kindle
Readbetter, NotionReads
Hanoi-based product manager and nights-and-weekends maker of SmartGantt and FeedbackGlow
SmartGantt, FeedbackGlow, BskyUtils
Spanish co-founder of Orbe, a geolocation and Shopify Markets app for global stores
Orbe, Mushdesk
Solo founder of Snowball, an AI-assisted growth platform for X creators
Snowball
Jeddah-based software engineer building Allyment, a social memory app for new contacts
Allyment
Berlin developer building dectus for YouTube sponsorships and FZManager
dectus, FZManager
Amsterdam maker of IndieHackerStacks and SignalScoop
IndieHackerStacks, SignalScoop
LA-based engineer at Anyscale behind brew.fm and the tennis app Doyouplay
brew.fm, Doyouplay
Software and product engineer building Clipifai, a documents-to-audiobook app
Clipifai, Ascend
Cognitive scientist turned founder, co-created the ReviewLab peer feedback platform
ReviewLab
Teen maker behind ShipMyBlog, an automated AI blogging platform for SaaS
ShipMyBlog
Co-founder of PlaceKit, the geocoding API that succeeded Algolia Places
PlaceKit
Full-stack developer running SendtoReader, which delivers newsletters to Kindle
SendtoReader
Berlin indie hacker and no-code developer running DocsAutomator
DocsAutomator
South African full-stack engineer building SwiftBooked and Muze Studios
SwiftBooked, Muze Studios
Technical founder of Sweep Certificates, business software for UK chimney sweeps
Sweep Certificates
wordsnapper.com
Wordsnapper, Tdeeme
adultscoloringpage.com
Adultscoloringpage, Temitopeomoniyi
crossmyapp.com, discover apps and websites to promote your indie project or offer promotion spots.
Crossmyapp
leanlaunchpad.co, Build Your Startup FastRight :
Leanlaunchpad, Ministryofgoodtech
trackmention.com
Trackmention
sharing valuable tips and the process of building saas
Calendly
rotaboxes.com
Rotaboxes, Dailyfactorfiction, Juicytimer +2
faveflow.com
Faveflow
Business systems architect, software engineer, entrepreneur.
building the world's most independent video hosting platform
Origits
Project portfolio: https://clapham.io
Quit corporate to join a startup, quit the startup to create my own 😼
Foundermentoring
newsletter.simpleaws.dev, stop copying cloud solutions, start understanding them
Newsletter
getsalemaker.com
Getsalemaker
appsyoda.com, resources to build and scale modern web apps
Appsyoda
youtilitics.com - get stats & alerts from your utilities
Youtilitics
Building https://www.rightidea.co
Rightidea
Automated accessibility testing to EN 301 549 standards for mobile applications.
Turning ideas into products.
Helping real estate investors find the most profitable investments
I have not started to post yet, but would like to start soon.
Software dev looking for people to work with 🫡🚀
Last.fm and Spotify stats client
Products by SaaS founders
82 products in this category.
Filmgrail
filmgrail.com
Cinema SaaS platform serving 10M+ moviegoers worldwide.
by John Rush
Indie Page
indiepa.ge
Single page that showcases all of a maker's startups and their revenue.
TrustMRR ↗by Marc Lou
Glink
glink.so
Feedback boards, roadmaps, changelogs and discussions to keep users in the loop.
by Kitze
Makes custom printable bingo cards for teachers; his first product and public marketing testbed. Sold in 2015.
by Patrick McKenzie
SaaS that sends appointment reminder calls, texts and emails for professional services businesses. Sold in 2016 via FE International.
by Patrick McKenzie
Trademarc
trademarc.com
Daily trademark monitoring across app stores and registries.
by Marc Köhlbrugge
Chat.sh
chat.sh
Help center that answers customer questions directly, citing the pages it used.
by Damon Chen
Sends Intercom ratings to Slack instantly.
by Damon Chen
Store locator app that lets e-commerce brands add a map of their retail stockists to their website.
~$40K MRR at saleby Tyler Tringas
Web hosting for musicians, sold together with CD Baby in 2008.
by Derek Sivers
Transistor.fm
transistor.fm
Podcast hosting and analytics platform for indie podcasters, businesses and private podcasts, co-founded with Jon Buda.
by Justin Jackson
M
Meeps
meeps.app
Platform for membership sites, built in collaboration with Josh Anderton.
by Justin Jackson
Related categories
🤖 AI Builders📣 Marketing & SEO Tools🎓 Educators & Course Creators✍️ Creators & Writers🛠️ Developer Tools🫂 Community Builders⚡ Productivity Tools🗂️ Directory Makers📊 Analytics & Data🎨 Design Tools
Top countries for SaaS founders
SaaS Founders FAQ
Who are the most popular indie SaaS founders?
The best-known SaaS founders on IndieMakerList are John Rush, Marc Lou, Pieter Levels, Thibault Louis-Lucas (Tibo) and Patrick McKenzie. In total 149 makers are listed in this category.
What products do indie SaaS founders build?
Notable products include Filmgrail by John Rush, Indie Page by Marc Lou, Glink by Kitze, Bingo Card Creator by Patrick McKenzie and Appointment Reminder by Patrick McKenzie. 82 products are listed in this category.
How much do indie SaaS founders earn?
Publicly reported revenue varies widely. Examples: John Rush ($3M/yr), Marc Lou ($98K/mo (July 2026)), Pieter Levels (~$219K/mo across products) and Thibault Louis-Lucas (Tibo) (~$1M/mo across products). Figures are self-reported and sourced from public posts.
Where are indie SaaS founders based?
The most common countries in this category are United States (18), France (11) and Germany (8).
How do I get listed as one of the SaaS founders?
Submit your profile via the Submit page. Listings are free and reviewed before publishing.
Know one of the best SaaS founders we're missing? Submit a maker to IndieMakerList →