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IndieMakerList

The Indie Maker Tech Stack

What do bootstrapped founders actually build with? This page aggregates the tools, frameworks and services listed on 170 indie maker profiles in 2026 — 177 in total — and ranks them by how many makers use each one. Click a maker to see their full stack and products.

Most used tools by indie makers

Ranked by number of makers using each tool. Open a tool to see its makers, products, revenue and common pairings.

  1. 1

    Next.js

    Used by 39 makers · Framework

  2. 2

    React

    Used by 38 makers · Frontend

  3. 3

    TypeScript

    Used by 31 makers · Language

  4. 4

    JavaScript

    Used by 26 makers · Language

  5. 5

    Tailwind CSS

    Used by 26 makers · Frontend

  6. 6

    Swift

    Used by 23 makers · Language

  7. 7

    Node.js

    Used by 17 makers · Runtime

  8. 8

    PHP

    Used by 15 makers · Language

  9. 9

    PostgreSQL

    Used by 14 makers · Database

  10. 10

    Stripe

    Used by 14 makers · Payments

  11. 11

    Supabase

    Used by 13 makers · Backend

  12. 12

    Ruby on Rails

    Used by 12 makers · Framework

  13. 13

    Laravel

    Used by 11 makers · Framework

  14. 14

    SwiftUI

    Used by 11 makers · Frontend

  15. 15

    Astro

    Used by 10 makers · Framework

  16. 16

    Claude Code

    Used by 9 makers · AI

  17. 17

    Firebase

    Used by 9 makers · Backend

  18. 18

    Python

    Used by 9 makers · Language

  19. 19

    Objective-C

    Used by 7 makers · Language

  20. 20

    Prisma

    Used by 7 makers · Database

  21. 21

    Vue

    Used by 7 makers · Frontend

  22. 22

    Cursor

    Used by 6 makers · AI

  23. 23

    OpenAI

    Used by 6 makers · AI

  24. 24

    React Native

    Used by 6 makers · Mobile

  25. 25

    SQLite

    Used by 6 makers · Database

  26. 26

    Vercel

    Used by 6 makers · Hosting

  27. 27

    AppKit

    Used by 5 makers · Frontend

  28. 28

    Bubble

    Used by 5 makers · No-code

  29. 29

    Figma

    Used by 5 makers · Design

  30. 30

    Webflow

    Used by 5 makers · No-code

  31. 31

    CSS

    Used by 4 makers · Frontend

  32. 32

    Django

    Used by 4 makers · Framework

  33. 33

    Elixir

    Used by 4 makers · Language

  34. 34

    Lemon Squeezy

    Used by 4 makers · Payments

  35. 35

    MySQL

    Used by 4 makers · Database

  36. 36

    Phoenix

    Used by 4 makers · Framework

  37. 37

    TanStack Start

    Used by 4 makers · Framework

  38. 38

    WordPress

    Used by 4 makers · CMS

  39. 39

    Airtable

    Used by 3 makers · No-code

  40. 40

    Carrd

    Used by 3 makers · No-code

  41. 41

    Cloudflare Workers

    Used by 3 makers · Hosting

  42. 42

    Docker

    Used by 3 makers · DevOps

  43. 43

    Flutter

    Used by 3 makers

  44. 44

    GameMaker

    Used by 3 makers · Game engine

  45. 45

    Go

    Used by 3 makers · Language

  46. 46

    Livewire

    Used by 3 makers · Frontend

  47. 47

    Notion

    Used by 3 makers · Productivity

  48. 48

    Polar

    Used by 3 makers · Payments

  49. 49

    RevenueCat

    Used by 3 makers · Payments

  50. 50

    Svelte

    Used by 3 makers · Frontend

  51. 51

    Unity

    Used by 3 makers · Game engine

  52. 52

    Angular

    Used by 2 makers · Frontend

  53. 53

    AWS

    Used by 2 makers · Hosting

  54. 54

    Better Auth

    Used by 2 makers · Backend

  55. 55

    C#

    Used by 2 makers · Language

  56. 56

    C++

    Used by 2 makers · Language

  57. 57

    Capacitor

    Used by 2 makers

  58. 58

    Circle

    Used by 2 makers · Community

  59. 59

    Codex

    Used by 2 makers · AI

  60. 60

    Electron

    Used by 2 makers · Desktop

  61. 61

    Ember.js

    Used by 2 makers · Frontend

  62. 62

    Expo

    Used by 2 makers · Mobile

  63. 63

    Express

    Used by 2 makers

  64. 64

    Fly.io

    Used by 2 makers · Hosting

  65. 65

    Gumroad

    Used by 2 makers · Payments

  66. 66

    Heroku

    Used by 2 makers · Hosting

  67. 67

    HTML

    Used by 2 makers · Frontend

  68. 68

    Java

    Used by 2 makers · Language

  69. 69

    jQuery

    Used by 2 makers · Frontend

  70. 70

    Kamal

    Used by 2 makers · DevOps

  71. 71

    Kotlin

    Used by 2 makers

  72. 72

    MongoDB

    Used by 2 makers

  73. 73

    Nuxt

    Used by 2 makers · Framework

  74. 74

    shadcn/ui

    Used by 2 makers · Frontend

  75. 75

    UIKit

    Used by 2 makers · Frontend

  76. 76

    VPS

    Used by 2 makers · Hosting

  77. 77

    Whisper

    Used by 2 makers · AI

  78. 78

    WidgetKit

    Used by 2 makers

  79. 79

    XNA

    Used by 2 makers · Game engine

  80. 80

    Zapier

    Used by 2 makers · No-code

More tools in the indie maker stack

Tools listed by a single maker.

Want boilerplates and starter kits? Browse indie boilerplates and developer tools, or see which makers earn the most.

Indie maker tech stack FAQ

What tech stack do indie makers use?

The most common tools among the 170 indie makers with a listed stack are Next.js (39), React (38), TypeScript (31), JavaScript (26), Tailwind CSS (26). Most favour simple, boring, well-documented tools they can run alone.

What is the most popular tool among indie makers?

Next.js is the most popular, used by 39 makers in the directory, including John Rush, Marc Lou, Adam Wathan.

How many different tools do indie makers use?

IndieMakerList tracks 177 distinct tools, frameworks and services across 170 maker profiles. 80 of them are used by two or more makers.

Where does this tech stack data come from?

Each maker's stack is collected from their own posts, interviews, open-source repositories and product pages. Click any maker to see their full profile and sources.