If you build a SaaS product, you have probably posted on Indie Hackers or thought about it. Founders Today is a newer community that overlaps with it in some ways and differs in others. The short version: Indie Hackers is better for long, open stories about building a business, and Founders Today is better for a launch page that stays listed and for quick feedback in a feed. Most SaaS founders get more from using both, for different jobs, than from picking one.
This guide compares them on what SaaS founders actually need: useful feedback, a launch, access to buyers, and a post that does not vanish in a day. It also says where each one falls short, including Founders Today, which is younger and smaller. If you landed here looking for an Indie Hackers alternative, start with what is actually missing for you. The answer changes which platform helps.
Founders Today vs Indie Hackers at a glance
| Indie Hackers | Founders Today | |
|---|---|---|
| Format | Forum threads, groups, interviews, and a podcast | A feed of launches, discussions, and opportunities |
| Strongest at | Open revenue stories and long build logs | Launch pages that stay listed, and fast builder-to-builder talk |
| Product pages | Product pages with milestones and updates | Launch pages with media |
| Launch day | No ranked launch day: you post and engage | A launch system, currently in beta |
| Extra reach | Podcast and newsletter | Publisher widgets and a weekly newsletter feature |
| Track record | Running since 2016, bought by Stripe in 2017, independent again since | Newer, still early |
| Cost to join | Free | Free |
The Indie Hackers column comes from its own product pages, podcast, and press coverage. The Founders Today column comes from Founders Today's own pages. Both sites change, so check them for anything new before you decide.
What Indie Hackers is best at
Indie Hackers started in 2016 as a place where founders share real revenue numbers and explain how they got there. Stripe bought it in 2017, as TechCrunch reported at the time, and it later returned to independence. Today it is a mix of forum threads, topic groups, interviews, a podcast, and product pages where you can post milestones and updates.
For a SaaS founder the strongest part is the culture of showing numbers. A post that says you went from 12 to 40 paying customers and shows what changed fits the site better than a polished announcement. If you can share your MRR, your churn, a pricing test that failed, or an acquisition channel that cost more than it returned, you are speaking the local language, and people tend to reply in kind.
The archive is the other asset. Years of interviews and build logs mean you can research how someone in your niche reached their first thousand dollars a month before you write a word of your own. Few communities have that depth.
The limits are mostly about format. It is a forum, so a thread gets most of its attention in the first day or two. If you cannot share revenue yet, you have less to talk about. And a bare link with no story or question attached gets ignored.
What Founders Today is best at, and where it is still early
Founders Today is a feed with launches, discussions, opportunities, and toolkits, plus a member directory where you can follow people and message them. For a SaaS founder the useful pieces are the launch page, which stays listed instead of rotating off a one-day leaderboard, and the discussion feed, where a short question can get answers without a long essay first.
It also runs distribution outside the feed. The publisher program places product widgets on partner blogs, and a weekly tools list goes out through newsletter partners. Treat those as channels to measure, not guarantees. Put a tracking link on your launch page and see what actually arrives.
It is fair to say what is not there yet. Founders Today is younger and smaller than Indie Hackers. The launch system is in beta, and push notification partnerships are still being built. There is no deep archive of revenue case studies like the one Indie Hackers has built over years. If archive depth and brand recognition are what you want, that is a real gap, and you should weigh it honestly.
Founders Today vs Indie Hackers on what SaaS founders care about
Getting useful feedback
Feedback quality depends more on how you ask than on where you ask. Both communities respond to specific questions: is this pricing page clear, which step of onboarding lost you, would you pay this much for this. The difference is format. Indie Hackers threads suit longer replies from people who have run a business, so a detailed critique usually comes from there. A feed suits quick reactions, so five fast opinions on a landing page are easy to collect on Founders Today.
Whichever you use, ask one question per post and say what you plan to change based on the answers. People reply more when they can see their reply will matter.
Launching a product
Indie Hackers gives you a product page and a post. There is no ranked launch day, so your launch is whatever you make of the post and the conversation under it. That suits founders who like to tell a story and stay in the comments for a couple of days.
Founders Today gives you a dedicated launch page with images and media that stays listed after launch week, plus the distribution described above. That suits founders who want a page to point people to long after the post has aged.
Either way, prepare assets first: a one-line description, three screenshots, a short demo, and one clear call to action. If you are comparing launch options more widely, the Product Hunt alternative page and the list of free startup launch platforms with active communities cover the rest of the field.
Reaching buyers, not just builders
Be honest about who is reading. Both audiences are mostly builders. If you sell to developers, indie founders, or other SaaS teams, you are posting in front of possible buyers, and either platform can send real signups. If you sell to dentists, recruiters, or HR managers, these communities will give you feedback, credibility, and links, but your buyers are somewhere else.
In that case use founder communities to sharpen the product and the pitch, then spend your selling time where your buyers gather. The best SaaS founder communities list and the SaaS community page can help you find those other rooms.
Founders Today's publisher widgets are the one feature aimed at readers outside the founder crowd, since they sit on third-party blogs. Whether that reaches your buyers depends on which blogs carry them, so ask which ones before you count on it.
How long your work stays visible
Every feed and forum pushes old posts down. On Indie Hackers a thread is live for a day or two, then lives on mostly through search and your product page. On Founders Today the launch page stays listed, but a feed post ages the same way. Plan a follow-up update a week or two later instead of relying on one post.
Credibility and track record
Indie Hackers has history. People know the name, the press has covered it, and a profile there carries weight with some audiences. Founders Today is newer, so its name means less outside its own members. For a SaaS founder, credibility mostly comes from what you show anyway: a clear product, real numbers, and steady updates over months.
Community culture and tone
Indie Hackers leans toward long, personal, number-heavy posts, and a lot of members share what they earn. Founders Today leans toward shorter posts, quick questions, launches, and discussion threads about tools and news. Neither tone is better, but copying the wrong one costs you replies. A three-paragraph business update with figures reads as normal on Indie Hackers and a little heavy in a feed, while a one-line question can look thin on a forum. Read ten recent posts that got plenty of replies on each platform before you write yours, and match the length and the level of detail.
Time cost
Both are free to join, so the real cost is your time. Fifteen minutes a day of useful replies on one platform beats a big post on two. If you have to choose, pick the one where your likely users already spend time.
Which one fits your stage
Idea stage. You need to know if the problem is real. Post a question about the problem, not a pitch for your solution. Ask how people handle it today and what they pay for. Both communities work for this only if the people answering could be your users.
Pre-launch. You need a handful of people who will try the product on day one. Spend a few weeks commenting on other people's posts before you post your own. People check profiles, and a profile with nothing but your own link looks like an ad.
Launch week. You need a page to point to and some people who see it. This is where the two differ most: Indie Hackers for the story, Founders Today for a page that stays listed. Doing both in the same week is fine as long as the posts are different.
First 100 users. Feedback matters more than traffic here. Ask specific questions, like which onboarding step confused someone, and answer every reply. Write down what you hear and what you changed.
B2B pipeline. Use both for credibility and early adopters if your buyers are founders or developers. If they are not, treat both as places to learn, not places to sell.
Three examples of how this plays out
These are made-up scenarios to show the decision, not case studies.
A developer tool. Say you built an API monitoring tool. Your buyers are developers, so both communities sit close to your audience. Post a build log with real numbers on Indie Hackers, then launch on Founders Today so you have a page that keeps listing. Either one can send trial signups, and you can compare them with separate tracking links.
Vertical software for non-founders. Say you built scheduling software for physiotherapy clinics. Founder communities will critique your pricing and onboarding well, but clinic owners are not reading them. Take the feedback, then bring the product to clinic groups, professional associations, and local forums where the buyers are.
A small solo micro-SaaS. Say you make a few hundred dollars a month. Indie Hackers still welcomes small numbers if you are specific about how you got them, and a launch page gives you something to link from your profile everywhere else. You do not need big revenue to be useful in either place. You need a clear story and the patience to reply to people.
How to tell if it is working
Pick three numbers and check them every Friday for a month: signups from each tracking link, replies that included a specific suggestion, and visits to your product or launch page. Replies like 'nice work' feel good but do not change your product. Replies that name a problem do. If a platform gives you suggestions you act on, it is working, even when signups are small. If it gives you neither signups nor suggestions after a month of steady posting, change the format of your posts before you leave.
A four-week plan for using both
Week 1. Set up your profile and product page on both. Write one plain sentence on what you do and who it is for. Spend about 15 minutes a day replying to other people's posts.
Week 2. Share one specific lesson from your build, with a number in it. For example, what you changed after a user interview and what happened next.
Week 3. Ask one pointed question you really need answered, such as whether your pricing page is clear. Reply to every answer, even short ones.
Week 4. Launch. Put the full launch page on Founders Today. On Indie Hackers, tell the story of the launch as a post and link to your product page instead of pitching.
Two rules for all four weeks. Never paste the same post in both places, because the formats reward different things. And use a separate tracking link for each community, so after 30 days you can see which one sent signups and not just visits.
Mistakes that waste a post
- Posting a link with no story or question attached.
- Asking for upvotes instead of asking for feedback.
- Posting once and disappearing, instead of staying in the comments while the post is live.
- Making claims without numbers, like 'growing fast' with no figure behind it.
- Treating a founder audience as your buyers when your product is for someone else.
- Judging a platform after a single post. Give each one a month of steady replies first.
Which one should you start with?
- You can share revenue and want long-form credibility: start with Indie Hackers.
- You are about to launch and want a page that keeps listing: start with Founders Today.
- You sell to non-founders: use both for feedback, then put your selling effort where your buyers are. The list of free places to promote your startup is a good next step.
- You have no product yet: neither. Talk to ten people who have the problem first. The guide to networking platforms for new founders can help you find them.
For a direct side-by-side with feature rows, see the Founders Today vs Indie Hackers comparison page.
FAQ
Is Founders Today an Indie Hackers alternative or a replacement? Neither, exactly. They do different jobs. Indie Hackers is stronger for long-form transparency and has a much deeper archive. Founders Today is built around launches and a feed. Many founders will want both.
Can I post the same thing on both? You can, but it works badly. Rewrite it for each format. A long build log suits a forum thread. A short update with a link to your launch page suits a feed.
Which is better for B2B SaaS? Neither is a buyer channel by default. If your buyers are founders or developers, both can send signups. If they are not, use both for feedback and credibility and sell elsewhere.
Do links from either community help SEO? Check the link attributes yourself before counting on it. Even where a link is followed, a community post is worth more as a place to get feedback and early users.
How long before I see results? Give each platform a month of steady replies and one launch post, and track signups per link. One post is not enough to judge either.
Is it free? Both are free to join as of writing. Check each site for current plans.
Pick one thing you want feedback on this week, write it as a question with one number in it, and post it where your users spend time. If you have a SaaS ready to show people, you can submit your launch on Founders Today for free.
Top comments (2)
Nice comparison. I have found the community you pick matters less than showing up every week with something useful. Which one brought you better feedback early on?
Useful comparison. Have you seen either one actually send paying customers, or is it mostly other founders reading?