Dev tools · alternatives · 2026
24 alternatives to Side project passed $2.5k/mo revenue after 2 years (Phoenix and Vue)
Several years ago, I had a client whose salespeople were using Excel to generate sales proposals. This was inefficient and the resulting documents looked awful, so I developed a new process for them using a no-code platform. It featured a web form that was tied to a workflow engine, and a fancy PDF got emailed to the customer to sign. When the client loved the solution, I knew I was on to something. However, the no-code platform wasn't very customizable, so I decided to rebuild the process as a SaaS product. The client's CTO wanted in and we became cofounders. Today, we passed the…
This is a SaaS proposal generation tool built with Phoenix and Vue that helps sales teams create professional documents efficiently. It combines web forms with a workflow engine to streamline the proposal process… Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes. Side project passed $2.5k/mo revenue after 2 years (Phoenix and Vue) launched in 2021; newer entries below may have overtaken it.
- 1
Tapflow 2.0▲1,125We built Tapflow for devs, designers, PMs, and tech folks who’ve been sitting on internal docs, templates, and systems — but never productized them. Upload a PDF, notes, or workshop deck, and Tapflow drafts a structured product (with chapters, teaser and pricing plans). It’s good for AI kits, onboarding guides, design systems, and frameworks. You can sell through Stripe, LemonSqueezy, or PayPal. Real-time collaboration is in early beta. No site builder, no LMS — clean design and just focused tools to ship. Fully bootstrapped and just launched on PH today →…
2025 · tapflow.ai · its alternatives →
- 2A1
Back in 2010 I had an idea for a service that would allow people to easily create semi-permanent email aliases so that they could give an email address to people and websites without revealing their real email address. These aliases will continue to work indefinitely unless you choose to block them. My brother and I spent a few months building the initial version and launched the website in July 2010. For the first year we had about 50 signups per month, by 2013 this had increased to 1500 and it's currently around 3500 per month. Similarly, our revenue grew consistently but slowly - doubling…
2020 · its alternatives →
- 3MN
Hi guys, I've created an open source web builder framework (https://grapesjs.com) years ago, which I'm still maintaining, and now I'm excited to publish a side project based on it, Grapedrop (https://grapedrop.com). It's a simple web page builder which allows you to design and publish your web pages very quickly. The project is still in beta with a lot of stuff to improve but I'd really like to share it and hear what people think about it and maybe also get some constructive feedback.
2018 · its alternatives →
- 4
Mirage▲227Turn your SaaS into a clickable demo in 90 seconds.
Jul 2026 · usemirage.io · its alternatives →
- 5
No-Code Plattform zur schnellen Digitalisierung und Automatisierung von Unternehmensprozessen. Flexibel, skalierbar und ohne Programmieraufwand.
2016 · saas.do · its alternatives →
- 6AL
Hey HN, I'm a bootstrap SaaS founder that trying to grow my micro SaaS. I've been doing pivot many times and this may be the last straw. I realized that marketing and sales are key in building business but cold outbound is suck! So I built a tool to help SaaS founders identify unhappy customers from their competitors to pitch their SaaS. This feature is specifically requested by Peer - Cal.com CEO from my interaction with him here - https://x.com/heykaiyo/status/1821216800610382013 I hope this small tool would be helpful. Would love your feedback pls. Anyone…
2024 · loom.com · its alternatives →
- 7IW
Hello HN, I spent my career writing software until about 7 years ago in which practically by accident I wound up in a technical sales role. Through determination and a lot of practice (2,000+ technical sales calls and counting) I managed to get pretty good at it, and along the way played a critical role in closing deals with Fortune 10 companies, Ivy league universities, non-profits, Federal government agencies, and many other organizations. At some point along the way I started compiling various notes and observations regarding what it takes to create a truly great technical sales…
2025 · its alternatives →
- 8A9
After analyzing 9 years of HN side project posts, I found some counter-intuitive patterns about what makes projects profitable. Three things that stood out: 1. B2B dominates: 73% of $500+/month projects target businesses, not consumers 2. Speed matters more than polish: Average 47 days from launch to first sale. Most started charging with 3-5 core features. 3. Pricing cluster: 87% price between $20-49. Low enough for impulse purchase, high enough to be sustainable. I compiled this into a dataset of nearly 700 projects with tech stack, pricing, and timeline data. Built it because I was…
Feb 2026 · its alternatives →
- 9
hey hn, I have wasted too much time in my career creating PDF generation systems for invoices, quotes, activity summary, etc... I created this product so that I never waste my time on that again I hope I can help folks with this product, what do you think?
2024 · transactional.dev · its alternatives →
- 10
Hi, I'm Luke. A few days ago, I published my e-book called "How I Made My First Sales in 14 Days." All the knowledge I put there comes from: - my own product, Pages.Report - many networking calls with much more experienced founders - analyzing indie hacker projects I would love to hear some feedback from you.
Nov 2025 · lukcode.com · its alternatives →
- 11
Hi HN! I built a super lightweight invoicing platform for solo developers, freelancers, and one-person businesses. Most invoicing software costs $20–$40/month and is packed with features you don’t need. Mine is $20/year and focuses on the essentials: • Create invoices in seconds • Send invoices by email • Automatic email reminders • Recurring invoices • Simple dashboard for paid/unpaid tracking • No team features, no CRM, no bloat I built this because I freelance occasionally, and every invoicing tool I tried either felt bloated, overly enterprisey, or was way too expensive…
Dec 2025 · sidepay.app · its alternatives →
- 12IM
I'm gauging interest for a service that would help connect devs/designers/copywriters with folks who have short term projects (a few days or weeks of work). The projects would range in value, but should ideally be at least a few $100. Through Forrst, there are already thousands of such people available to work, it's just a matter of if this is interesting to the other side. If it is, would you leave your info? Thanks a ton. Form: https://kylebragger.wufoo.com/forms/short-term-project-matchmaking/
2011 · kylebragger.wufoo.com · its alternatives →
- 13ND
Greetings HN, I'm Nikita. I created a platform https://welovenocode.com where, at 1/10th of the cost, you can employ a no-code developer to create an MVP for your startup. The idea came from my experience four years ago with outsourcing firms. I tried to order a few designs, but they still took far more time and money than I had ever expected. Possibly because benefits have been messed up and agencies make more money for longer to suck up my project. No-code tools such as Airtable, Webflow, and Bubble began showing up at that time. I played with them, but since both…
2021 · its alternatives →
- 14
Tl;DR Save 60% of development effort building your SaaS and enterprise apps using our open-source platform, demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gob4j072Isg Hi friends, It's a bit surreal writing a Show HN post, being a HN member since 2012, but I'm still excited to be here. We are Arek and Michal (hn: mgl), and we have published Openkoda - an open-source low-code platform for the rapid development of SaaS and enterprise applications. OUR STORY We met at the university and spent the next 10 years building high-performance applications for finance, eCommerce and travel…
2024 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 15
From side project to $100K ARR - Actionable insights weekly
Jun 2026 · superframeworks.com · its alternatives →
- 16
Client proposals in minutes - one HTML file, no subscription
Jun 2026 · trekwild.gumroad.com · its alternatives →
- 17PA
Hey HN! I'm an indie hacker who builds SAAS products in my free time. I've got a friend who runs a small consulting firm and said this would be a useful tool for them so i thought why not release it as a standalone online tool for everyone. Basically the premise is, you enter some information about your services (or we just scrape your website and figure it out). Then you enter a description of the client brief, tweak the outline, and out comes a unique tailored proposal that you can tweak with AI. That's pretty much it! Would love to hear your thoughts. Thank you.
2023 · pitchpower.ai · its alternatives →
- 18IB
2019 · seedform.app · its alternatives →
- 19
Hey HN, I built this as a free side tool for ChampSignal (my main product, a competitive intelligence platform). I made this because I noticed many people were searching for it on Google. You paste your website URL, it scrapes it, figures out what you do, who you serve, and what makes you different – then generates a mission statement draft. You can tweak the inputs and regenerate until it feels right. It uses GPT-5.1 with web search to analyze your site. No signup, no paywall. I'm just hoping it drives some traffic to my main product :D A few notes: - If you don't have a website yet,…
Dec 2025 · champsignal.com · its alternatives →
- 20WB
Hey HN: Kaveh here, founder of https://www.usage.ai/ We help companies drive down AWS, GCP, and Azure spend. Why? Because the way it's done now is a pain. DevOps and Software Engineers end up spending time managing costs rather than focusing on business problems. I have been building Usage AI for almost 4 years now (4 year anniversary in 1 month from now!) with an incredible group of founding people. We started as a product just to help lower AWS EC2 costs, and now we do all major AWS services (such as RDS, OpenSearch, ElastiCache, and Redshift with more on the way) and other…
2024 · its alternatives →
- 21MA
Hi there, So a buddy a couple of days ago came up with the idea for a new SaaS product regarding gpt and image generation. We did a quick MVP that barely works, it breaks almost 50% of the time but we still wanted to validate the idea before going all in. We have almost 1k followers on Twitter together. Did a quick post describing the idea with a stripe link in the comments with a 5$ value, no landing page, and no shipped product. In exchange, the buyers become beta users. Around 30 mins later we got our first sale next 30 mins another 5$ and so on. Do we consider the idea validated? The…
2023 · its alternatives →
- 22
- 23
Helios▲5I'm 15 and built this solo. Freelancers typically juggle 5-6 disconnected tools to run what is essentially a one-person business. Helios puts CRM, contracts, invoices, proposals, time tracking and client outreach in one place. Free tier available, no card required. Pro is £29/mo founding rate. Also built three free tools that don't need an account: rate calculator, invoice template, and proposal template — helios.today/tools Built on React, Node.js, Supabase and Stripe. Currently pre-revenue and would genuinely appreciate brutal feedback.
May 2026 · helios.today · its alternatives →
- 24
We're building a SaaS license management tool and kept hearing the same story: "We know we're wasting money on unused licenses, but we don't know how much." So we built a dead-simple calculator. One slider (employee count) → three estimates: • Total SaaS apps (~13 per employee) • Annual waste (~$250/employee on ghost accounts, unused seats) • IT time burned on manual tracking The ratios come from industry research + early customer data. Curious if HN folks are seeing similar patterns at their companies - are we close? Way off? (Also: feedback on the calculator UX welcome. Tried to make…
Jan 2026 · licenselogic.co · 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 →