Ask HN: What is your one-person-SaaS project?

19 points by laksmanv 8 months ago | 25 comments
  • rozenmd 8 months ago
    Mine is OnlineOrNot: https://onlineornot.com

    What started as a week long project to experiment with uptime checking with Next.js and AWS Lambda turned into a multi-year project (approaching 4 years now).

    It now covers a much wider use case (status pages, uptime monitoring for websites, APIs and cron jobs).

    I'm thinking of hiring folks to grow it more, but the workload is still under two hours a day, before work.

    I wrote about the journey to get here, if you're curious:

    2018: https://maxrozen.com/2018/12/31/2018-review-starting-an-inte...

    2019: https://maxrozen.com/2019/12/29/2019-further-reflections-try...

    2020: https://maxrozen.com/indiehacking-3-year-review

    2021: https://maxrozen.com/2021-strangers-paid-my-macbook

    2022: https://maxrozen.com/2022-just-keep-shipping

    2023: https://maxrozen.com/2023-focus-single-product-pays-off

    • satvikpendem 8 months ago
      Just read all of the posts, great story and very useful to understand the time involved to become actually profitable for indie hackers, it's not an overnight or even one year success like many people might erroneously believe. Somewhat related, would you be able to share rough financials for your products? I had looked into making and selling an uptime monitoring app as well, initially made for my own sites, but I found that even making 10k USD MRR seems very difficult compared to other types of products, probably due to the vast amount of competition in the space.
    • habosa 8 months ago
      I’ve got two!

      The first is CodeApprove (https://codeapprove.com) which is my attempt to bring the best code review experience to teams on GitHub. It’s heavily inspired by the excellent tooling I saw within Google (Critique, for Googlers out there). Been running this solo for 4+ years and I have a very modest base of paying customers.

      The second is GitGuard (https://gitguard.dev) which is a flexible rules engine for GitHub PRs. Basically a supercharged version of GitHub’s branch protections and code owners tools that uses a super simple “language” (basically a Boolean logic builder) to let you define your team’s approval policies in a very flexible way. Ex: “if the PR contains over 10 files or 200 lines and doesn’t contain any test files, require approval from someone in the tech-lead group”

      • CharlieDigital 8 months ago
        I have two:

        - CodeRev.app (https://coderev.app): a free, open source tool to help teams that want to organize code reviews as part of the interview process.

        - Turas.app (https://turas.app): A PWA and Chrome Extension[0] that helps well-organized travelers plan their trips using Google Maps

        Both have been works of passion (the latter used personally to plan all of my own trips).

        [0] https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/turasapp/lpfijfdbgo...

        • losdanielos 8 months ago
          Here's my long-term project:

          https://www.codelantis.com

          It's a code review application that helps you understand/review/discuss GitHub pull requests (or GitLab merge requests).

          It's not a simple AI wrapper, but focuses on the humans in the process ;)

          • XCSme 8 months ago
            I am building website analytics. I wouldn't call it "SaaS", because it's not a service, but a product:

            - UXWizz (https://www.uxwizz.com) - Self-hosted analytics with heatmaps, session recordings and A/B tests

            - WPLytic (https://www.wplytic.com) - Self-hosted WordPress Analaytics plugin

            • rudasn 8 months ago
              It's not a saas but a tool to create, manage and share wireguard configs.

              You define networks, add devices, label them, and create access rules based on those labels so that working with addressess and allowed ips is more user friendly.

              Then you can create invites so that sharing the configs with the right people or machines also becomes much easier.

              https://wirehub.org

              • p0d 8 months ago
                I have been running this by myself for 15 years, https://freeperiod.co.uk, while working fulltime (with my employer's knowledge).

                September is busy as there is a bit of work to do for the new school year.

                The key learning for me is that people will pay you to solve a problem and that problem does not need to be rocket science.

                • seanwilson 8 months ago
                  I run a browser extension that crawls websites for SEO problems:

                  https://www.checkbot.io/

                  I'm working on an MVP for a tool for creating WCAG accessible color palettes as well:

                  https://www.inclusivecolors.com/

                  • umen 8 months ago
                    Do you make a living from this extension?
                  • anttiai 8 months ago
                    I’m building Streamrun, a platform for live streamers to do things that are not possible directly on their devices, like switching RTMP input mid-stream, adding HTML overlays to GoPro streams, or ensuring uninterrupted stream out in poor network conditions.

                    https://streamrun.com

                  • mircerlancerous 8 months ago
                    Universal form, checklist, or evaluation. The app is mostly ready at an MVP level, so need to think about what the server side looks like.

                    https://offthebricks.com/Apps/FormX/index.htm

                    • laksmanv 8 months ago
                      Interesting! What makes it universal?
                      • mircerlancerous 8 months ago
                        Take a look and you'll see. You create forms in-app, using a variety of pre-configured i put types; basics like text and options are obviously supported, but also more interesting types like photos with markup, and signatures. After you're done filling in data on your form, the app generates a nice printable version. For the server side I envision filling out editable PDFs with the data from the form, meaning you can create government compatible reports as well.
                    • xrymbos 8 months ago
                      https://hanzimatic.com

                      It is a website that helps you learn Chinese vocabulary in context. You can upload articles, novels, etc. and it will generate flashcards with full audio based on your current level of knowledge.

                      • joshagilend 8 months ago
                        Superaffective AI, an AI startup in the SF Bay

                        Online at https://superaffective.ai

                        Open source code on GitHub at https://github.com/joshagilend

                        • satvikpendem 8 months ago
                          Curious about the name, what does it "affect?"
                        • simantel 8 months ago
                          After realizing I spent 10% of my work week in agile meetings, I built https://teaminal.com to let us do those rituals asynchronously.
                          • kentich 8 months ago
                            https://meetingglass.com - Easy long video meetings with the ability to hide behind virtual frosted glass.
                            • 2024user 8 months ago
                              "Video is mutual"

                              That's a good idea. Should be built into teams etc.

                            • thookipodu 8 months ago
                              Kurivei (https://kurivei.com) a biology test preparation site for Indian students. At MVP level as of now.
                              • cranberryturkey 8 months ago
                                https://fastest.engineer
                              • purple-leafy 8 months ago
                                I have a few:

                                - a personal ad blocker

                                - an LLM UI design copilot

                                - a salary transparency tool

                                Next one isn’t a SaaS, but working on a single player web game

                                • crush_robo_1536 8 months ago
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