State of indie launches 2026
What indie makers are launching, how they price it, where it runs, what they build it with, and how much of it is still online. The dataset is all 2,638 listings in the VibeKing directory, including 2,549 imported from public directories. The other 89 were submitted by makers or added by hand.
What indie makers launch: categories
n = 2,638 listings (every listing has a category)
The largest category is AI Coding, with 26% of all listings. Each listing has exactly one category, assigned when it is added.
Free, freemium or paid
n = 1,721 listings whose own site states a pricing model (65% of the dataset; the other 917 are unknown or not yet read)
81% of listings with a known model can be used without paying (free or freemium). 19% are paid only, meaning the site states no free plan. Free trials are not recorded in this field.
Platforms
n = 2,162 listings with at least one platform stated on their site. A listing can be on several platforms, so shares add up to more than 100%.
65% are web only. 11% ship an iOS or Android app.
Build tools
Only 32 listings name the tool they built with (the field is optional on submit), fewer than the 100 this report needs before it ranks anything, so no breakdown is shown.
Detected: n = 106 listings with a builder fingerprint out of 2,423 listings scanned
Detected means VibeKing found a marker that the builder itself puts into the sites it generates or hosts, such as its analytics script, badge or hosting subdomain. It is a floor, not a market share: Cursor, Claude Code, Windsurf and Copilot leave no fingerprint in a finished site, so they can never be detected, and a site can remove a marker.
What makers build alternatives to
n = 562 listings that position themselves against a named product, naming 730 distinct products. A listing can name several. Top 15:
The share column is the share of those 562 listings that name the product. Names are matched as written on each product's own site, ignoring case.
Who they are built for
n = 2,152 listings with a one-line audience description. 1,313 of them match at least one group below; a listing can match several.
Groups are keyword matches on the audience line (for example "developers", "founders", "small businesses"), not a hand classification, so treat them as rough patterns. The share column is the share of all 2,152 audience lines.
How many are still online
n = 2,638 listings probed
89% of probed listings answered on their last check. VibeKing re-probes every listed URL on a schedule. A site that blocks the probe (401, 403, 405, 429 or 451) is not counted as offline.
Methodology
- Dataset. Every approved listing in the VibeKing directory on the date above: 2,638 listings. 2,549 of them come from a one-time import of public launch directories and nobody has claimed them, so they describe what is being launched, not who chose VibeKing. The other 89 were submitted by their makers or added by hand.
- Where the fields come from. Pricing model, platforms, audience and "alternative to" were extracted from each product's own website by a language model, and a value was kept only when it could be backed by a quote from the site text. Fields the site does not state are left empty, which is why each stat has its own n.
- Build tools. Maker-stated tools come from the optional "built with" field. Detected tools come from markers the builder injects into the sites it generates or hosts; hosting alone (for example vercel.app) is not counted.
- Live status. Each listed URL is probed on a schedule. "Intermittently unreachable" means recent probes failed but the site has not been marked offline.
- What is left out. No vote or ranking data is used. A breakdown is only shown when at least 100 listings have the field.
- Freshness. The page recomputes from the database at most every 6 hours, so numbers can move between visits.
Want to check a listing? Every product has its own page on VibeKing. Browse by category or build tool, or use the free API.