5 + 1 Indie Web Projects I Built Solo in 2026
I'm Jim Liu, an independent developer based in Melbourne. Here are six side projects I've shipped solo over the last twelve months. None of them are VC-funded, all of them live under my own domain, and most were written on nights and weekends after day-job hours.
1. OpenAI Tools Hub — honest AI tool reviews
OpenAI Tools Hub is an opinionated review site for the current wave of AI coding and writing tools: Claude Code, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, ChatGPT, Windsurf, Warp, and a few dozen more. Each review has a "how we tested" section, a pricing table pulled monthly, and a short "who should skip this" paragraph — because not every tool is worth its ticket price.
It also ships ~36 free developer tools (LLM latency comparator, Claude-skills marketplace comparison, prompt cost calculator) at openaitoolshub.org/tools. Next.js 16, Cloudflare Workers, and a heavy bias against AI-generated listicles.
2. SubSaver — save money on subscriptions
SubSaver compares subscription prices across 30+ services (Netflix, Spotify, ChatGPT Plus, YouTube Premium, NordVPN, Adobe Creative Cloud) and shows how to get them cheaper through family plan sharing, annual billing, promo codes, and verified shared plans.
The core hypothesis: most people overpay for streaming and SaaS subscriptions by 40–70%. My job is to show the math, not to sell anyone a scheme.
3. LowRiskTradeSmart — low-risk trading research
LowRiskTradeSmart focuses on covered calls, LOF premium arbitrage, and Hong Kong bond yield analysis. Its HK bond yield comparator calculates 2026 iBond, Silver Bond, and Green Bond interactive yields from HKMA data. Multi-locale (EN / zh-CN / zh-HK).
4. AlphaGainDaily — covered-call and yield ETF insights
AlphaGainDaily tracks high-yield ETFs (YBTC / BCCC / BTCI / BAGY) and the newer wave of Bitcoin covered-call funds, including the Goldman Sachs Bitcoin Premium Income ETF (filed April 14, 2026). Plain-English weekly alpha analysis, no crypto moon-speak.
5. LevelWalks — puzzle game walkthroughs
LevelWalks is my lightest project — step-by-step walkthroughs and level guides for mobile puzzle games. Aimed at casual players who want a nudge, not a full solution leaked. Fun to build, occasionally catches a small burst of Google traffic when a new game trends.
+1: PawAI Hub — free AI tools for pet owners
Separately, I also run PawAI Hub — a free hub of honest pet-care tools for dog and cat owners. It has a dog food calculator (calories by breed / weight / activity), a cat age in human years calculator that drops the "× 7" myth in favor of the actual biological curve, an AI breed identifier (photo → top 3 guesses), an emotion reader that parses body language from a photo, and a training Q&A backed by an LLM with cited sources.
Built solo in the same stack (Next.js, Cloudflare Workers, D1, R2). No signup, no dark patterns.
Why post this here?
Because I see a lot of "portfolio indie hackers" posts on DEV and I've never written one for mine. If anything here resonates — especially the "review site with downsides admitted" approach from OpenAI Tools Hub, or the D1-runtime blog pipeline powering PawAI Hub — I'm happy to write a follow-up that goes deep on stack choices and what broke. Leave a comment and I'll pick the most-requested topic.
Not looking for traffic. Just putting names to projects.
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