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Aaron Francis vs Caleb Porzio

Products, revenue & stack compared side by side.

Aaron Francis avatar

Aaron Francis

Developer-educator behind Mastering Postgres, High Performance SQLite and Solo

@aarondfrancis United States
Caleb Porzio avatar

Caleb Porzio

Creator of Livewire, Alpine.js and Flux UI, funded by sponsors and component sales

@calebporzio United States

Aaron Francis vs Caleb Porzio at a glance

Both Aaron Francis and Caleb Porzio are bootstrapped. They overlap in Educators & Course Creators and Developer Tools. Aaron is based in Dallas, United States, Caleb in Buffalo, United States. Aaron Francis has 4 products listed on IndieMakerList vs Caleb Porzio's 5. Caleb self-reports $112K/yr from GitHub Sponsors (as of 2020); Aaron hasn't shared a revenue figure publicly. They share 2 tools in their stacks: PHP and Laravel. On X, Aaron has about 64K followers and Caleb about 53K.

Side-by-side comparison

Based in
Aaron Francis: Dallas, United States
Caleb Porzio: Buffalo, United States
Started
Aaron Francis: —
Caleb Porzio: 2019 (7 yrs indie)
Revenue (self-reported)
Aaron Francis: Not public
Caleb Porzio: $112K/yr from GitHub Sponsorsself-reported, as of 2020 · source for Caleb Porzio's revenue
Products listed
Aaron Francis: 4
Caleb Porzio: 5
Product status
Aaron Francis: 4 active
Caleb Porzio: 5 active
X followers
Aaron Francis: 64K
Caleb Porzio: 53K
Categories
Aaron Francis: Educators & Course CreatorsCreators & WritersDeveloper Tools
Caleb Porzio: Open Source MakersDeveloper ToolsEducators & Course Creators
Style
Aaron Francis: duobootstrappedbuilds in public
Caleb Porzio: solobootstrapped
Courses & resources
Aaron Francis: 4
Caleb Porzio: 4

Revenue figures are self-reported by each maker and not audited; dates and scope differ. Highlighted categories are shared by both.

Top products

Aaron Francis avatarAaron Francis

Database School logo

Database School

databaseschool.com

Home of Aaron and Steve's database video courses, including Mastering Postgres and High Performance SQLite.

Solo logo

Solo

soloterm.com

Desktop app that runs and manages every dev process for your projects, with MCP integration for AI agents.

Screencasting.com logo

Screencasting.com

screencasting.com

Courses and guides on making high-quality screencasts faster.

Try Hard Studios logo

Try Hard Studios

tryhardstudios.com

Technical video production studio for developer-focused companies.

Caleb Porzio avatarCaleb Porzio

Livewire logo

Livewire

livewire.laravel.com

Full-stack framework for Laravel that builds dynamic interfaces without leaving PHP.

Alpine.js logo

Alpine.js

alpinejs.dev

Minimal JavaScript framework for adding behavior directly in HTML markup.

Flux logo

Flux

fluxui.dev

Paid, hand-crafted UI component library for Livewire applications.

See all 5 products by Caleb Porzio →

Tech stack

2 shared tools, marked with ★: PHP, Laravel. See the indie maker tech stack.

Aaron Francis avatarAaron Francis

PHP (shared) Laravel (shared)PostgreSQLSQLite

Caleb Porzio avatarCaleb Porzio

PHP (shared) Laravel (shared)JavaScriptAlpine.jsLivewire

How they build

Aaron Francis avatarAaron Francis

  • Be sincere online, no cynicism
  • Video quality is a moat for technical education
  • Teach in public to build the audience for your products

Caleb Porzio avatarCaleb Porzio

  • Make open source pay by bundling education (screencasts) with sponsorship
  • Sponsorware: release to sponsors first, open source once a goal is hit
  • Keep tools simple enough to fit in your head

Learn from Aaron and Caleb

Aaron Francis avatarAaron Francis

Caleb Porzio avatarCaleb Porzio

Aaron Francis vs Caleb Porzio FAQ

Who makes more money, Aaron Francis or Caleb Porzio?

Caleb Porzio self-reports $112K/yr from GitHub Sponsors (as of 2020). Aaron Francis' revenue is not public, so a direct comparison isn't possible.

Who has built more products, Aaron Francis or Caleb Porzio?

Aaron Francis has 4 products listed (including Database School, Solo and Screencasting.com); Caleb Porzio has 5 products listed (including Livewire, Alpine.js and Flux).

What tech stack do Aaron Francis and Caleb Porzio use?

Aaron Francis uses PHP, Laravel, PostgreSQL and SQLite. Caleb Porzio uses PHP, Laravel, JavaScript, Alpine.js and Livewire. Tools they have in common: PHP and Laravel.

Where are Aaron Francis and Caleb Porzio based?

Aaron Francis: Dallas, United States. Caleb Porzio: Buffalo, United States.

Who has been an indie maker longer, Aaron Francis or Caleb Porzio?

Aaron Francis' start year isn't listed; Caleb Porzio started in 2019 (7 years indie).

Are Aaron Francis and Caleb Porzio bootstrapped?

Yes, both are listed as bootstrapped founders on IndieMakerList.

Full profiles

Read the full story, timeline and links on Aaron Francis's profile and Caleb Porzio's profile.

More comparisons

All indie maker comparisons →