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Micro-SaaS Alternatives to BigTech/VC

151 points by raunometsa 4y ago

Hi HN I started this crowdsourced list to find small internet products made by solo developers (or tiny teams) that can be used as alternatives to BigTech/VC-funded startups. E.g. you can use Tally (by two devs, $14K MRR) instead of Typeform ($190M funding, 600+ employees) or Plausible (by two devs, $83K MRR) instead of Google Analytics. I added a link to a form where you can send me suggestions to alternatives, happy to add to the site! Thanks, Rauno

endisneigh 4y ago
What’s the rationale to use stuff by a smaller organization?
- iasay 4y ago
  I never got this. I only ever want stuff I can limp along standalone with until we find something to replace it with. I got seriously burned by a small SaaS help desk app about 15 years ago. Turns out they had three customers, no investors and were burning $20k a month on operational expenditure
- kirubakaran 4y ago
  People love underdogs. Plus smaller orgs are typically more responsive to your needs. They are less likely to kill your account with impunity.
intelVISA 4y ago
"Get MicroFounder OS to see the full list A developer's operating system to becoming a microfounder" Vexing parse
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
spaceman_2020 4y ago
Appreciate the site, but I don’t see the point of including their revenue. On the contrary, lower revenue would make me want to choose the higher revenue option - being able to make money is a sign of competence after all. Team size and age of the startup are better metrics imo.
- shreyshnaccount 4y ago
  no, it's a sign on product market fit at best and being good at marketing at worst.
  - leaflets2 4y ago
    "No"? Having found product market fit is a sign of competence. Being good at marketing is, too. Signs of.
    - shreyshnaccount 4y ago
      it just means your target market doesn't have anything better. sure it can mean competence, but it can also mean you're an early stage in a niche space (a lot of app startups where I live gain a lot of traction and backing, only to dissolve into obscurity once people realise there's a market there)
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
PaywallBuster 4y ago
The alternatives may be too small Who's gonna pick (gamble on) a SaaS that's doing < 500$??
- djbusby 4y ago
  That's exactly the kind of thing an early adopter would choose - provided the benefit-set of the product made sense. IMO this list should focus on the differentiator rather than team-size or MRR.
  - PaywallBuster 4y ago
    I'd be happy to push a "micro" SaaS doing 100k a month built by a small team as an alternative to BigTech/VC for projects I may be involved with, not so much a 500$ month PoC
iamandras 4y ago
Good site and this is a good page to see alternatives. How many new startups do you add to your site monthly?
Pandabob 4y ago
Thank's for this! I've been building a list of bootstrappers to follow on Twitter and added a bunch of these folks to said list [0]. [0]: https://twitter.com/i/lists/1553077166270709760 https://twitter.com/i/lists/1553077166270709760
open-source-ux 4y ago
Nice page! A small suggestion: use section or category names. For example, instead of 'Buffer', the category or section could be called 'Social media tools'. Same for the other sections e.g. 'Analytics', 'Cold email tools', and so on. Also, Zendesk and Freshdesk are both in the same category of help desk software but are listed separated on the page.
jwithington 4y ago
Why are there so few competitors to Zendesk I wonder?
- PainfullyNormal 4y ago
  There are more. It's not a complete list. Heck, one Zendesk alternative was created because of a comment here on HN. https://freshdesk.com/general/the-freshdesk-story-blog/ https://freshdesk.com/general/the-freshdesk-story-blog/
  - jwithington 4y ago
    Thanks for sharing!
asim 4y ago
Micro Services - https://m3o.com https://m3o.com
- adamckay 4y ago
  I don't think microservices are relevant here. This is about "micro companies" -- organisations with a very small team and (typically) bootstrapped by their founders rather than large organisations with VC funding.
  - asim 4y ago
    Raises hand. That would be me. Bootstrapped for 4 years. Eventually raised some funding. Focused on open source Dev tools and then used it to build this API platform.
taf2 4y ago
Shameless plug - CallTrackingMetrics , husband wife team - zero funding
- markdown 4y ago
  Not here. OP has a form on the site where you can submit your startup.
notlukesky 4y ago
This would be a list by many buyers, especially in the enterprise, of companies to avoid. If you want to help the indie startup it is probably better to remove their revenue numbers. Most buyers are concerned if the product they invested in will be around in a couple of years.
- alberth 4y ago
  It appears these business owners speak publicly about their revenues. So they clearly want people to know. (But totally agree on your point)
cercatrova 4y ago
See also the IndieHackers list of products sorted by revenue: https://www.indiehackers.com/products?sorting=highest-revenue https://www.indiehackers.com/products?sorting=highest-revenu...
pete_nic 4y ago
This is a great idea but the list seems incomplete. For example, where are the email marketing tools? Mailchimp / Intuit, Convetkit, SendFox, and so many more. There are many other markets / verticals not covered here.
conqrr 4y ago
Are two devs the most popular? I wonder how many Dev/PM Dev/Sales combo exist given that non overlapping skill sets can leverage each other.
- AlchemistCamp 4y ago
  A dev/sales combo is great for many products! I’d be a bit concerned that a PM in a dev/PM team wouldn’t have much to do, though.
dang 4y ago
Lists can't be Show HNs: https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html. We've taken that out of the title now.
Apreche 4y ago
The one thing that keeps me from using smaller competitors is that I don't have a guarantee they won't shut down. I need to know for sure that whatever I integrate with is going to last longer than I do. Even though there's a lot to dislike about the big players, I can rest easy knowing they will outlast me.

151 points by raunometsa 4y ago

endisneigh 4y ago

What’s the rationale to use stuff by a smaller organization?

iasay 4y ago
I never got this. I only ever want stuff I can limp along standalone with until we find something to replace it with. I got seriously burned by a small SaaS help desk app about 15 years ago. Turns out they had three customers, no investors and were burning $20k a month on operational expenditure
kirubakaran 4y ago
People love underdogs. Plus smaller orgs are typically more responsive to your needs. They are less likely to kill your account with impunity.

intelVISA 4y ago

"Get MicroFounder OS to see the full list A developer's operating system to becoming a microfounder" Vexing parse

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

spaceman_2020 4y ago

Appreciate the site, but I don’t see the point of including their revenue. On the contrary, lower revenue would make me want to choose the higher revenue option - being able to make money is a sign of competence after all. Team size and age of the startup are better metrics imo.

shreyshnaccount 4y ago
no, it's a sign on product market fit at best and being good at marketing at worst.
- leaflets2 4y ago
  "No"? Having found product market fit is a sign of competence. Being good at marketing is, too. Signs of.
  - shreyshnaccount 4y ago
    it just means your target market doesn't have anything better. sure it can mean competence, but it can also mean you're an early stage in a niche space (a lot of app startups where I live gain a lot of traction and backing, only to dissolve into obscurity once people realise there's a market there)
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

PaywallBuster 4y ago

The alternatives may be too small Who's gonna pick (gamble on) a SaaS that's doing < 500$??

djbusby 4y ago
That's exactly the kind of thing an early adopter would choose - provided the benefit-set of the product made sense. IMO this list should focus on the differentiator rather than team-size or MRR.
- PaywallBuster 4y ago
  I'd be happy to push a "micro" SaaS doing 100k a month built by a small team as an alternative to BigTech/VC for projects I may be involved with, not so much a 500$ month PoC

iamandras 4y ago

Good site and this is a good page to see alternatives. How many new startups do you add to your site monthly?

Pandabob 4y ago

Thank's for this! I've been building a list of bootstrappers to follow on Twitter and added a bunch of these folks to said list [0]. [0]: https://twitter.com/i/lists/1553077166270709760 https://twitter.com/i/lists/1553077166270709760

open-source-ux 4y ago

Nice page! A small suggestion: use section or category names. For example, instead of 'Buffer', the category or section could be called 'Social media tools'. Same for the other sections e.g. 'Analytics', 'Cold email tools', and so on. Also, Zendesk and Freshdesk are both in the same category of help desk software but are listed separated on the page.

jwithington 4y ago

Why are there so few competitors to Zendesk I wonder?

PainfullyNormal 4y ago
There are more. It's not a complete list. Heck, one Zendesk alternative was created because of a comment here on HN. https://freshdesk.com/general/the-freshdesk-story-blog/ https://freshdesk.com/general/the-freshdesk-story-blog/
- jwithington 4y ago
  Thanks for sharing!

asim 4y ago

Micro Services - https://m3o.com https://m3o.com

adamckay 4y ago
I don't think microservices are relevant here. This is about "micro companies" -- organisations with a very small team and (typically) bootstrapped by their founders rather than large organisations with VC funding.
- asim 4y ago
  Raises hand. That would be me. Bootstrapped for 4 years. Eventually raised some funding. Focused on open source Dev tools and then used it to build this API platform.

taf2 4y ago

Shameless plug - CallTrackingMetrics , husband wife team - zero funding

markdown 4y ago
Not here. OP has a form on the site where you can submit your startup.

notlukesky 4y ago

This would be a list by many buyers, especially in the enterprise, of companies to avoid. If you want to help the indie startup it is probably better to remove their revenue numbers. Most buyers are concerned if the product they invested in will be around in a couple of years.

alberth 4y ago
It appears these business owners speak publicly about their revenues. So they clearly want people to know. (But totally agree on your point)

cercatrova 4y ago

See also the IndieHackers list of products sorted by revenue: https://www.indiehackers.com/products?sorting=highest-revenue https://www.indiehackers.com/products?sorting=highest-revenu...

pete_nic 4y ago

This is a great idea but the list seems incomplete. For example, where are the email marketing tools? Mailchimp / Intuit, Convetkit, SendFox, and so many more. There are many other markets / verticals not covered here.

conqrr 4y ago

Are two devs the most popular? I wonder how many Dev/PM Dev/Sales combo exist given that non overlapping skill sets can leverage each other.

AlchemistCamp 4y ago
A dev/sales combo is great for many products! I’d be a bit concerned that a PM in a dev/PM team wouldn’t have much to do, though.

dang 4y ago

Lists can't be Show HNs: https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html. We've taken that out of the title now.

Apreche 4y ago

The one thing that keeps me from using smaller competitors is that I don't have a guarantee they won't shut down. I need to know for sure that whatever I integrate with is going to last longer than I do. Even though there's a lot to dislike about the big players, I can rest easy knowing they will outlast me.