Tools indie hackers use
The tools in this record are the ones founders have already named in public: Stripe, TrustMRR, Product Hunt, coding agents, a short hosting list, and a few distribution products. This is not a complete stack, and nothing here is an affiliate link.
This page lists tools that already appear in the public record this site keeps. The rule is deliberate and narrow. If a founder named it in a post we cite, or the history of the scene does not make sense without it, it can be here. If it is a popular product nobody in that record had to mention, it is absent. Absence is not a verdict. It is the list refusing to become a catalog.
No affiliate links. No paid placement. Prices change and are not repeated here unless a cited story already printed them.
Payments
Stripe is the default card form in this culture. Indie Hackers’ Stripe years, Atlas companies, TrustMRR’s read-only Stripe key, and almost every MRR screenshot assume it. A product can charge another way. The public comparison culture is built on this one. MRR is often just “what Stripe says this month,” which is why fake screenshots and verified connections both orbit the same logo.
Proof
TrustMRR is Marc Lou’s answer to fake revenue pictures: connect Stripe, show the figure, optionally list a startup for sale. He has said the first version went up in about a day after a 28 October 2025 call-out, and that early sidebar ads made real money. It is a directory and a marketplace. It is not a census. Being absent from it is not a moral failing. Being on it is not a strategy. The verification era on the timeline is this product and the distrust that created it.
Where launches happen
Product Hunt is a launch square, started by Ryan Hoover in late 2013. It is not a tool you keep open every day. It is a page with a date on it. ShipFast’s page is 31 August 2023. A hunt can produce a crowd of other makers. It is a weak plan if those makers are not the customer. Treat it as an event, not as infrastructure.
Building
ChatGPT’s public opening on 30 November 2022 is the start of the cheap-shipping era. Karpathy’s vibe coding note in February 2025 named the loose version. Levels’ specific habit, described on his blog, is Claude Code on a Hetzner VPS: the agent edits the machine that already serves the sites. He has also said he uses Cursor and that he put money into the company. A tool you invest in and a tool you recommend are easy to blur. The stack story is about what he cancelled, not a shopping list for readers. Shipping fast is the practice. The vendor can change in a season.
ShipFast is a Next.js boilerplate: login, payments, email, the repetitive start. It was a real product in Lou’s portfolio and, by his March 2026 recap, no longer the top line after AI made setup less scarce. A boilerplate is a tool. It is also, in that era, a product sold to other indie hackers. Do not buy one because a list said “everyone uses it.”
Hosting and the short leftover list
When Levels describes what he still pays for, the names that recur are mundane: domains and outbound email at Cloudflare, object storage, backups, a VPS fleet at Hetzner, and a model API. The lesson is not “buy this host.” The lesson is that a small company can have a short vendor list, and that the interesting tools are the ones a founder managed to delete. Copying the deletions without the traffic is how people rebuild a worse scraper. Read the story before you cancel a bill you do not understand.
Distribution products named in stories
Postiz schedules social posts, open source under the app repo, paid in the cloud, and rebuilt so agents can call it. It is here because the story is a tool becoming infrastructure, not because a scheduler is mandatory. The hub is enough if you do not need the checkpoints.
SuperX is Rob Hallam’s paid tool for growing on X. It belongs in his business, next to a course about the same network. It is not a general indie stack item. His page keeps that scope.
DataFast is Lou’s analytics product, the $21,000 line in his March 2026 recap, his figure. Analytics is a category. This is one founder selling it to the audience that already watched him. Alternatives exist and are not listed here, because this page is not a bake-off.
What a stack does not include
A stack does not include a customer. The tools above can all be wired and the product can still make nothing. The money page is the base rate. Starting is the customer, not the repo.
Courses that teach the tools are on the courses page. If the “tool” is mostly a video, it is a course.
FAQ
What tools do indie hackers use?
Stripe for payments, a host, a domain, and something to build with. In 2026 the build tool is often a coding agent. Public stacks on this site also name TrustMRR for proof, Product Hunt as a launch square, and a handful of distribution products. There is no required kit.
Is this an affiliate list?
No. There are no affiliate links and no sponsored placements. The list is limited to tools this record has already seen in a public founder story or in the history of the scene.
Do you need a boilerplate?
No. ShipFast and its cousins sold saved setup time. By 2026 that pitch was weaker because coding agents could wire auth and payments too. A boilerplate is a convenience, not a business.