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Adam Wathan vs Julia Evans

Products, revenue & stack compared side by side.

Adam Wathan avatar

Adam Wathan

Creator of Tailwind CSS who built a multi-million-dollar business on open source

@adamwathan Canada
Julia Evans avatar

Julia Evans

Montreal developer behind Wizard Zines, illustrated guides to computing fundamentals

@b0rk Canada

Adam Wathan vs Julia Evans at a glance

Both Adam Wathan and Julia Evans are bootstrapped. They overlap in Developer Tools and Educators & Course Creators. Adam is based in Canada, Julia in Montreal, Canada. Adam started in 2016 and Julia in 2018. Adam Wathan has 7 products listed on IndieMakerList vs Julia Evans' 5. Adam has sold 3 products. On revenue, Adam self-reports Mid-seven figures/yr (2020) and Julia $101,558 in 2018 (zine business). On X, Adam has about 302K followers and Julia about 192K.

Side-by-side comparison

Based in
Adam Wathan: Canada
Julia Evans: Montreal, Canada
Started
Adam Wathan: 2016 (10 yrs indie)
Julia Evans: 2018 (8 yrs indie)
Revenue (self-reported)
Adam Wathan: Mid-seven figures/yr (2020)self-reported, as of 2020 · source for Adam Wathan's revenue
Julia Evans: $101,558 in 2018 (zine business)self-reported, as of 2018 · source for Julia Evans's revenue
Products listed
Adam Wathan: 7
Julia Evans: 5
Product status
Adam Wathan: 4 active · 3 acquired
Julia Evans: 5 active
X followers
Adam Wathan: 302K
Julia Evans: 192K
Categories
Adam Wathan: Open Source MakersDeveloper ToolsEducators & Course CreatorsDesign Tools
Julia Evans: Educators & Course CreatorsCreators & WritersDeveloper Tools
Style
Adam Wathan: bootstrappedbuilds in publicexited
Julia Evans: solobootstrapped
Courses & resources
Adam Wathan: 5
Julia Evans: 9

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

Top products

Adam Wathan avatarAdam Wathan

Refactoring UI logo

Refactoring UI

refactoringui.com

Design book and video course for developers, co-written with Steve Schoger.

~$600K in 2020
Tailwind CSS logo

Tailwind CSS

tailwindcss.com

acquired

Utility-first CSS framework for building custom designs directly in your markup, installed 110M+ times per week.

Headless UI logo

Headless UI

headlessui.com

Unstyled, fully accessible UI components designed to pair with Tailwind CSS.

See all 7 products by Adam Wathan →

Julia Evans avatarJulia Evans

Wizard Zines logo

Wizard Zines

wizardzines.com

Illustrated programming zines and posters explaining computing fundamentals, sold as PDFs and in print.

M

Mess With DNS

messwithdns.net

Interactive playground for experimenting with real DNS records.

M

Memory Spy

memory-spy.wizardzines.com

Tool for running programs and inspecting their memory.

N

nginx playground

nginx-playground.wizardzines.com

Test nginx configurations instantly in the browser.

See all 5 products by Julia Evans →

Tech stack

No tools in common in their publicly listed stacks. See the indie maker tech stack.

Adam Wathan avatarAdam Wathan

Tailwind CSSLaravelReactVueNext.js

Julia Evans avatarJulia Evans

No stack shared publicly.

How they build

Adam Wathan avatarAdam Wathan

  • Build tools for your own projects first — Tailwind started as stylesheets reused between side projects.
  • Give away a great open-source product and sell premium resources around it.
  • Teach in public with books, courses, podcasts and live streams to build an audience.
  • Be candid about the business, including the hard parts.

Julia Evans avatarJulia Evans

  • Focus on fundamentals that will still be true in ten years.
  • It is normal not to know something basic yet; avoid gatekeeping.
  • Explain only the most important ideas, in short pages and plain language.
  • Deeply understanding the systems underneath you makes hard problems solvable.
  • Teaching computer things directly to developers can be a real business without ads or sponsors.

Learn from Adam and Julia

Adam Wathan avatarAdam Wathan

Julia Evans avatarJulia Evans

Adam Wathan vs Julia Evans FAQ

Who makes more money, Adam Wathan or Julia Evans?

Adam Wathan self-reports Mid-seven figures/yr (2020) and Julia Evans self-reports $101,558 in 2018 (zine business). By these self-reported figures, Adam Wathan's reported monthly revenue is higher. Figures are unaudited and may cover different periods or businesses, so treat them as rough indicators.

Who has built more products, Adam Wathan or Julia Evans?

Adam Wathan has 7 products listed (including Tailwind Plus (formerly Tailwind UI), Refactoring UI and Tailwind CSS); Julia Evans has 5 products listed (including Wizard Zines, Mess With DNS and Memory Spy).

What tech stack do Adam Wathan and Julia Evans use?

Adam Wathan uses Tailwind CSS, Laravel, React, Vue and Next.js. Julia Evans hasn't shared a stack. They don't list any tools in common.

Where are Adam Wathan and Julia Evans based?

Adam Wathan: Canada. Julia Evans: Montreal, Canada.

Who has been an indie maker longer, Adam Wathan or Julia Evans?

Adam Wathan started in 2016 (10 years indie); Julia Evans started in 2018 (8 years indie).

Are Adam Wathan and Julia Evans bootstrapped?

Yes, both are listed as bootstrapped founders on IndieMakerList.

Full profiles

Read the full story, timeline and links on Adam Wathan's profile and Julia Evans's profile.

More comparisons

All indie maker comparisons →