Growth · alternatives · 2026
24 alternatives to Diary of building software startup from scratch
Oh, hello. I didn't see you there. Did you ever wonder what it takes to build and launch a software product from scratch? Not a high-level summary. Not a short essay that describes a year of development. Detailed, day to day activities. A captain's log. Mistakes and pivots. Technology choices. Marketing activities. Design considerations. You might know me as the creator of SumatraPDF. I'm starting a new software product from scratch and I decided to make it an experiment of building in public. I hope to inspire others to build more software by de-mystifying the process of creation. I'm on…
A developer documents the daily process of building a new software product from conception onward. The diary covers specific decisions, technical choices, design work, marketing efforts, and mistakes encountered rather… Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes. Diary of building software startup from scratch launched in 2022; newer entries below may have overtaken it.
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Buildpad▲543Hello people of Hacker News, I’m Felix and I’ve spent the last few months building Buildpad together with my brother David. About two and a half months ago we launched Buildpad on Product Hunt and got a very positive response. Since then we’ve been constantly improving the product and grown to over 2,400 founders using the platform and 70 active paying customers. - If you’re a founder who’s wasted time building products no one wants, then Buildpad might be for you. Buildpad is an AI-guided product building platform that helps founders build products people actually want. Buildpad guides you…
2024 · buildpad.io · its alternatives →
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The guide for building large, iOS, and Android native apps - with the challenges and common solutions across the industry.
2021 · mobileatscale.com · its alternatives →
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PixelApps▲238As a founder, I've always had the hardest time building landing pages. You either buy a template and spend hours editing, or scream at Cursor to "make it beautiful". It's exhausting and waste of our time as founders. We simply need AI to generate beautiful landing pages that we can ship. I'd been working on this problem statement for a while and was able to get great results when I provided AI with a detailed design system to follow. So I ended up building a collection where I've curated 100s of design systems for AI tools to use. Now, after launch of Nano-Banana, I updated our flow to first…
2025 · pixelapps.io · its alternatives →
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2012 · bvckup2.com · its alternatives →
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Spawned▲222Build, launch, and discover products in a single platform
Feb 2026 · spawned.com · its alternatives →
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FoundersWall▲35I used to be just a blogger. Now I build internet products, still without code, using AI, design, and taste. I was building in public on X for last 2 months. And honestly, I got tired of how it became performative and started to feel fake. I shipped 2 products. Both failed to get any real traction. I kept sneaking into popular builders’ profiles, hoping to learn how they do it. One thing I kept seeing everywhere, product launch directories. I thought here is the scope. So I started building one. Same UI like the rest. Nothing special. Suddenly one day when it was half built, I realized…
2025 · founderswall.com · its alternatives →
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2013 · giveit100.com · its alternatives →
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Buildstash▲168Hey HN! We just launched open sign up on Buildstash. It's a platform for managing and sharing software binaries. I'd worked across game dev, mobile apps, and agencies - and found every team had no real system for managing their built binaries. Often just dumped in a shared folder (if someone remembered!). No system for versioning, keeping track of who'd signed off what when, or what exact build had gone to a client, etc. Existing tools out there for managing build artifacts are really focused on package repository management. But miss all the other types of software not being deployed that…
2025 · buildstash.com · its alternatives →
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Epismo Skills▲115I built Epismo because I was tired of leaving meetings thinking: “Wait, who’s actually doing this?” Too often, teams (mine included) lost sight of the goal while tasks got scattered and momentum stalled. This is my first step as a founder, and I’d love your thoughts. I just launched on Product Hunt. Would love your thoughts & feedback! https://www.producthunt.com/products/epismo
Mar 2026 · about.epismo.ai · its alternatives →
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Know what to build next without all the guesswork
2016 · baremetrics.com · its alternatives →
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Hi HN, I started a small newsletter to document what I’m learning while building projects — the decisions, mistakes, and experiments that usually stay behind the scenes. It’s not a growth hack or a polished media thing. Just short write-ups about what worked, what didn’t, and how I’m thinking through problems as I go. I’ve only published a couple of posts so far, but it’s grown to 1,000+ readers, which surprised me. Sharing here in case it’s useful to others who enjoy building in public or learning from real-world attempts rather than theory. Happy to hear feedback or ideas on what would be…
Jan 2026 · chiefletter.com · its alternatives →
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Learn to create prototypes that feel like real apps
2016 · its alternatives →
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2019 · youtube.com · its alternatives →
- 16IM
I am a non-hacker "idea guy" with zero discernible talent. Like most, the story starts with me doing things the hard way. I dreamt of a tool that would save me countless hours. Like most of my ideas, it was supposed to die in a couple of hours, but this one had some legs.... "If I needed this, surely others did too" kept looping in my head. Could I get this built? Could I build it myself? Nah...too lazy to learn how, but before I did anything, I had to promise myself one thing: No more ideas! If ideas were sit-ups, I would have a six pack instead of this tire. It was a constant mental…
2012 · readwriteweb.com · its alternatives →
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2019 · youtube.com · its alternatives →
- 18IV
Hey my name is Ivo and I'm a developer and a startup entusiast. My girlfriend was out of the coutry for the weekend and I decided to do something cool like building a startup. I've done a few startups over the years but that's the first I actually released, I would love to hear your feedback on it.
2024 · craftlynow.com · its alternatives →
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Stop building in silence. Launch in public.
Feb 2026 · reddit.com · its alternatives →
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Two years ago, I started building this site that allows people to document their learning and progress in real time. The idea is: as you learn new things, you document your progress piece by piece, creating a collection of failures, breakthroughs, and knowledge. Along the way, your friends can cheer you on, and the community can give you tips and feedback. Over time, we'll create a public collection on how different problems were solved. With each progress, the site prompts you to reflect on questions like, "If you could go back in time, what do you wish you had known?" This was my first web…
2024 · opus.cafe · its alternatives →
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- 22TI
After a sprint towards MVP, we are about to launch what I hope is our most successful project yet. This is what motivated me. http://blog.thevideosdb.com/how-thevideosdb-came-to-be/ What motivates you?
2012 · blog.thevideosdb.com · its alternatives →
- 23BA
I am a product designer by profession, and recently, I ventured into coding and started developing applications. Today, I'm excited to share a project I've been passionately working on. The concept is a voice-activated journal: just voice-record your thoughts, and the app will transcribe them into text. I built this to help those like me who struggle to build a journaling habit. Also has features that encourage habbit building like a streak/tracker and a threshold marker encouraging you to record a minimum amount. I used OpneAI Whisper to power the transcriptions which means you can…
2023 · main.d35lo6kdqvpjht.amplifyapp.com · its alternatives →
- 24MP
Hi I'm the developer of UX-App if you have any questions then fire away :) Just thought I'd give you all some background. I'm a high school teacher by day and developer by night. I was bitten by the start-up bug a few years ago and UX-App is my first product launch. In between a full time job and a 5 month old at home it has taken about 3.5 years to complete the project. I'd like to think its a unique product that holds its own against the existing competition and even has some features that no other tool has. My favorite aspect is the visual code builder which allows designers to easily…
2015 · its alternatives →
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Ranked by how close each launch is in meaning, then by votes. Prices were read from each product’s own site when checked and can change. Refine with your own description →