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Seth Rose vs Simon Willison

Products, revenue & stack compared side by side.

Seth Rose avatar

Seth Rose

Dallas developer shipping open-source AI agents, MCP servers and automation tools

@TheSethRose United States
Simon Willison avatar

Simon Willison

Independent open-source developer behind Datasette, LLM and a widely read AI weblog

@simonw United States

Seth Rose vs Simon Willison at a glance

Both Seth Rose and Simon Willison are solo founders. They overlap in AI Builders, Open Source Makers and Developer Tools. Seth is based in Dallas, United States, Simon in San Francisco, United States. Seth Rose has 4 products listed on IndieMakerList vs Simon Willison's 5. Simon has sold 1 product. They share 1 tool in their stacks: Python.

Side-by-side comparison

Based in
Seth Rose: Dallas, United States
Simon Willison: San Francisco, United States
Started
Seth Rose: —
Simon Willison: 2019 (7 yrs indie)
Revenue (self-reported)
Seth Rose: Not public
Simon Willison: Not public
Products listed
Seth Rose: 4
Simon Willison: 5
Product status
Seth Rose: 4 active
Simon Willison: 4 active · 1 acquired
X followers
Seth Rose: —
Simon Willison: 241K
Categories
Seth Rose: AI BuildersOpen Source MakersDeveloper Tools
Simon Willison: Open Source MakersDeveloper ToolsAI Builders
Style
Seth Rose: solo
Simon Willison: solobuilds in publicexited
Courses & resources
Seth Rose: —
Simon Willison: 1

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

Top products

Seth Rose avatarSeth Rose

AI File Organizer Agent logo

AI File Organizer Agent

github.com

AI agent using Google Gemini to propose and carry out a plan for organizing files.

MCP Server Starter logo

MCP Server Starter

github.com

TypeScript starter template for building Model Context Protocol servers.

Fetch Browser logo

Fetch Browser

github.com

Headless browser MCP server that lets AI agents fetch web pages and run Google searches without API keys.

Simon Willison avatarSimon Willison

Datasette logo

Datasette

datasette.io

Open-source tool for exploring, analyzing and publishing data as interactive websites and APIs.

LLM logo

LLM

llm.datasette.io

Command-line tool and Python library for running prompts against many large language models.

sqlite-utils logo

sqlite-utils

sqlite-utils.datasette.io

Python library and CLI for creating and manipulating SQLite databases.

L

Lanyrd

simonwillison.net

acquired

Social conference directory he co-founded with Natalie Downe; backed by Y Combinator and acquired by Eventbrite in 2013.

See all 5 products by Simon Willison →

Tech stack

1 shared tool, marked with ★: Python. See the indie maker tech stack.

Seth Rose avatarSeth Rose

TypeScript Python (shared)Next.jsPostgreSQLDocker

Simon Willison avatarSimon Willison

Python (shared)SQLiteDjango

How they build

Seth Rose avatarSeth Rose

  • Build small, practical tools that remove busywork.
  • Prefer local-first software that keeps data on your own machine.

Simon Willison avatarSimon Willison

  • Write up everything you learn in public.
  • Build many small, composable tools and plugins.
  • Treat LLMs as tools to experiment with hands-on.

Learn from Seth and Simon

Seth Rose avatarSeth Rose

No courses, books or communities listed.

Simon Willison avatarSimon Willison

Seth Rose vs Simon Willison FAQ

Who makes more money, Seth Rose or Simon Willison?

Neither Seth Rose nor Simon Willison has publicly reported a revenue figure that IndieMakerList tracks, so it's not public.

Who has built more products, Seth Rose or Simon Willison?

Seth Rose has 4 products listed (including Clawdbot Security Check, AI File Organizer Agent and MCP Server Starter); Simon Willison has 5 products listed (including Datasette, LLM and sqlite-utils).

What tech stack do Seth Rose and Simon Willison use?

Seth Rose uses TypeScript, Python, Next.js, PostgreSQL and Docker. Simon Willison uses Python, SQLite and Django. Tools they have in common: Python.

Where are Seth Rose and Simon Willison based?

Seth Rose: Dallas, United States. Simon Willison: San Francisco, United States.

Who has been an indie maker longer, Seth Rose or Simon Willison?

Seth Rose's start year isn't listed; Simon Willison started in 2019 (7 years indie).

Are Seth Rose and Simon Willison bootstrapped?

Neither is tagged as bootstrapped on IndieMakerList; see their profiles for how each funds their work.

Full profiles

Read the full story, timeline and links on Seth Rose's profile and Simon Willison's profile.

More comparisons

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