Running a bootstrapped empire of 24+ SaaS products and directories
Unicorn Platform, SEObot, ListingBott +20$3M/yr
🏆 Collection · 70 makers
Indie Hall of Fame: indie makers to know in 2026
The makers who shaped the indie hacker movement. This curated list has 70 makers, including John Rush, Marc Lou and Pieter Levels.
Makers in Indie Hall of Fame
70 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
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
Serial maker of Sizzy, Benji and Tinkerer Club who teaches devs to ship
Sizzy, Benji, Tinkerer Club +6$223K in 30 days
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…
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
Vietnamese indie hacker behind TypingMind, DevUtils, and exits Black Magic and Xnapper
TypingMind, DevUtils, Black Magic +3$142K/mo
Web dev educator behind Traversy Media, plus a public lab of indie dev tools
Traversy Media, DevSheets, WebUtils +4
Serial maker behind BetaList, WIP and Startup Jobs, shipping online for 20+ years
BetaList, WIP, Startup Jobs +11
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
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
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
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
Canadian full-stack JavaScript teacher behind JavaScript30 and the Syntax podcast
Syntax, Wes Bos Courses
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
Solo founder who bootstrapped Bannerbear, an image and video automation API, to $81K MRR
Bannerbear, Redacted$81K MRR
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 dabbler who built and sold Baremetrics for $4M, now shipping AI products
Baremetrics, Maybe, Knockoff +5
CEO of Late Checkout, host of The Startup Ideas Podcast, creator of Ideabrowser
Late Checkout, Ideabrowser, The Vibe Marketer +3
Indie game designer behind Spelunky, Spelunky 2 and UFO 50, founder of Mossmouth
Spelunky, Spelunky 2, UFO 50 +3
Solo founder of Key Values, the job board matching engineers with values-aligned teams
Key Values~$300K–350K/yr
Sold FeedbackPanda, wrote Zero to Sold, built Podscan in public (acquired 2026)
Podscan, FeedbackPanda
Domain investor who turns premium .com names into businesses — and sells onions online
VidaliaOnions.com, Onions.com, RanchWork.com +3
Founder of Visualize Value: minimalist visuals, courses on leverage, and digital art
Visualize Value, Checks VV Edition, jackbutcher.md
Designer of Braid and The Witness, creator of the Jai language, head of Thekla
Braid, The Witness, Order of the Sinking Star +2
Co-founder of Tiny and MetaLab, buying and holding wonderful internet businesses
Tiny, MetaLab, Dribbble +1
Solo founder who bootstrapped Chatbase from a student project to $10M ARR
Chatbase$864K MRR
Founder of Laracasts, the bootstrapped video school for Laravel and PHP
Laracasts, Rosette, Laravel Mix
Product Hunt Maker of the Year 2018 behind Sheet2Site, Web3 Jobs and SearchConsole.ai
SearchConsole.ai, Applicant AI, Web3 Jobs +5
PSPDFKit founder turned creator of OpenClaw, the open-source personal AI agent
OpenClaw, PSPDFKit (Nutrient), CodexBar +2
Co-founder of Noko (Freckle) and Stacking the Bricks, creator of 30x500 and Sales Safari
Noko (formerly Freckle), 30x500, Stacking the Bricks
JavaScript educator behind Epic React, Epic Web and Testing JavaScript
Epic React, Epic Web, Testing JavaScript +2
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
Full-time open-sourcer maintaining 1,000+ npm packages and dozens of indie Mac apps
Supercharge, Dato, Gifski +6
The startup meme king: co-founded Logology, runs LaunchDay, wore a 26-sponsor wedding suit
LaunchDay, Logology, How to Dominate Twitter/X
Indie iOS developer of Overcast, previously Instapaper and Tumblr
Overcast, Unforgetful, Instapaper +1
Bootstrapper behind HelpSpot since 2005, LaraJobs and the Mostly Technical podcast
HelpSpot, LaraJobs, Outro +2
Solo developer of Stardew Valley, now making Haunted Chocolatier
Stardew Valley, Haunted Chocolatier
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
Former Apple engineer running Red Sweater Software, maker of MarsEdit
MarsEdit, FastScripts, Black Ink +2
Non-technical builder who sold Makerpad to Zapier and now runs Ben's Bites
Makerpad, Ben's Bites
iOS indie developer behind Apollo for Reddit, Pixel Pals and Juno
Apollo for Reddit, Pixel Pals, Amplosion +2
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
Creator and composer of Undertale and Deltarune
Undertale, Deltarune
Independent iOS developer behind Widgetsmith, Pedometer++ and Sleep++
Widgetsmith, Pedometer++, Sleep++ +1
Creator of Minecraft, sold Mojang to Microsoft for $2.5B; now making Levers and Chests
Minecraft, Levers and Chests
Solo designer of Papers, Please and Return of the Obra Dinn
Papers, Please, Return of the Obra Dinn, Mars After Midnight +1
Co-founder of Indie Hackers, now building the Hatch AI workspace
Indie Hackers, Hatch
Founder of Flying Meat, two-decade indie Mac maker of Acorn and Retrobatch
Acorn, Retrobatch, VoodooPad +1
Canadian game designer behind Celeste and TowerFall, co-founder of Extremely OK Games
Celeste, TowerFall, Celeste Classic +2
Vietnamese developer who made Flappy Bird, then pulled it at the height of its fame
Flappy Bird, Swing Copters, Flappy Birds Family +2
Veteran Mac developer who created NetNewsWire and MarsEdit
NetNewsWire, MarsEdit, Vesper
Author of Company of One and co-founder of Fathom Analytics (retired 2024)
Fathom Analytics
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Indie Hall of Fame FAQ
Who is in the Indie Hall of Fame collection?
70 indie makers are in this collection, including John Rush, Marc Lou, Pieter Levels, Julia Evans and Adam Wathan.
What qualifies a maker for Indie Hall of Fame?
The makers who shaped the indie hacker movement.
What do makers in Indie Hall of Fame build?
The most common categories are Creators & Writers (34), Educators & Course Creators (31) and SaaS Founders (26).
Know a maker who belongs on this list? Submit a maker to IndieMakerList →