State of Indie Builders: September 2026
Full disclosure: I run WhatAreYouBuilding.AI. These numbers come only from WAYB listings, which are reviewed before they appear. It is one directory, not the whole indie world.
Headline numbers
Each line stands alone. Quote it with the link.
State of Indie Builders, September 2026 (WhatAreYouBuilding.AI) Data pulled 2026-10-10 14:32 Asia/Jerusalem from WhatAreYouBuilding.AI's public API. - New listings: 186, from 162 builders (August 2026: 341, the launch spike, not compared) - Top countries for new listings: Israel (68), United States (30), United Kingdom (10) - Bootstrapped / funded / undisclosed: 159 / 6 / 21 - Top category: AI (41 of 186) - New countries this month: Canada (4), Australia (3), China (2), Finland (2), Argentina (1), Austria (1), Bulgaria (1), Chile (1), Japan (1), New Zealand (1) Source: https://whatareyoubuilding.ai/reports/state-of-indie-builders/2026-09
Where builders are
New listings in September 2026 by the builder’s country. “Global” is not a country and is counted on its own line, as are listings with no country given.
| Country | New listings |
|---|---|
| Israel | 68 (37%) |
| United States | 30 (16%) |
| United Kingdom | 10 (5%) |
| India | 9 (5%) |
| Canada | 4 (2%) |
| Germany | 4 (2%) |
| Australia | 3 (2%) |
| Netherlands | 3 (2%) |
| China | 2 (1%) |
| Finland | 2 (1%) |
| Italy | 2 (1%) |
| Nigeria | 2 (1%) |
| Argentina | 1 (1%) |
| Austria | 1 (1%) |
| Bulgaria | 1 (1%) |
| Chile | 1 (1%) |
| France | 1 (1%) |
| Japan | 1 (1%) |
| Nepal | 1 (1%) |
| New Zealand | 1 (1%) |
| Poland | 1 (1%) |
| Sweden | 1 (1%) |
| United Arab Emirates | 1 (1%) |
- Listed as Global: 20 (11%)
- No country given: 16 (9%)
- New countries this month, meaning their first live listing was submitted in September 2026: Canada (4), Australia (3), China (2), Finland (2), Argentina (1), Austria (1), Bulgaria (1), Chile (1), Japan (1), New Zealand (1). One listing from a country is a first appearance, not a trend.
Browse them: builders in Israel, builders in United States, builders in United Kingdom.
What they’re building
By primary category, so the shares add up to 186. A listing can carry up to three categories; only the first is counted here.
| Category | New listings |
|---|---|
| AI | 41 (22%) |
| SaaS | 30 (16%) |
| Productivity | 17 (9%) |
| AI Agents | 16 (9%) |
| Dev Tools | 14 (8%) |
| Travel | 9 (5%) |
| Gaming | 8 (4%) |
| Health & Fitness | 8 (4%) |
| Marketing | 7 (4%) |
| Design | 5 (3%) |
| E-commerce | 5 (3%) |
| Content | 4 (2%) |
| Recruiting & HR | 4 (2%) |
| Social | 4 (2%) |
| Security | 3 (2%) |
| Analytics | 2 (1%) |
| Data & APIs | 2 (1%) |
| Fintech | 2 (1%) |
| Crypto & Web3 | 1 (1%) |
| Customer Support | 1 (1%) |
| No-Code | 1 (1%) |
| Real Estate | 1 (1%) |
| Sales | 1 (1%) |
Browse them: AI, SaaS, Productivity.
Bootstrapped, funded, or not saying
Funded means pre-seed, seed or Series A. A builder who did not say is counted as undisclosed, never as bootstrapped.
| Funding | New listings |
|---|---|
| Bootstrapped | 159 (85%) |
| Funded | 6 (3%) |
| Undisclosed | 21 (11%) |
- Funded, by stage: seed (4), pre-seed (2).
- Raising now: 16 (9%). Not raising: 20 (11%). Did not say: 150 (81%).
Browse bootstrapped startups, pre-seed or seed.
What moved
The five listings with the most outbound clicks gained in September 2026, counted once per person per day. This is attention on WAYB only, not traffic or growth. Any listing could move, not only new ones; 342 had a measured month, and the rest are not measured rather than zero.
- Echoes: 254 clicks gained. Turn your favorite photos into an unforgettable video gift.
- Autolyze: 107 clicks gained. AI-powered car search, pricing insights, reliability data & smarter buying.
- Dancingplate - Food AI: 90 clicks gained. AI-powered food adventures that help kids discover, taste, and enjoy new foods.
- Dial: 65 clicks gained. Phone numbers for AI agents
- Parallely: 64 clicks gained. Parallely is a visual canvas for parallel AI exploration.
Notable builders
New listings from September 2026, picked by hand, in their own words.
- Gyro - Autopilot by Jonathan Attias: Gyro automatically finds and recovers flight disruption compensation.
- Chavruta AI – Beit Midrash by Yehuda Rubin: Grounded RAG & AI study partner for the Jewish bookshelf and rabbinic library
- Publink by Shay Levy: Let your AI agent create ads, find places to run them and manage campaigns.
Month vs last month
| Month | New listings | Change |
|---|---|---|
| September 2026 | 186 | Not compared |
| August 2026 | 341 | Launch spike |
August 2026 is not comparable. The launch spike: most listings arrived in the five days after the directory opened.
How we counted
- Pulled 2026-10-10 14:32 Asia/Jerusalem from the public API, https://whatareyoubuilding.ai/api/products, every page until the total was reached.
- A listing’s month is its
created_at, which is when the builder submitted it, not when it was approved. Months are in UTC. - Builders and products are counted separately: a builder can list more than one product. 186 products came from 162 builders. A builder is their X handle, or their name when there is none.
- Rejected and removed listings are not tracked: they are deleted, not archived. Every count is of listings live on the pull date, so a month can only shrink as listings are removed later.
- August 2026 is the launch spike and is not compared with any other month.
- Small numbers are said plainly: no percentage on a base under 30, buckets under 3 are grouped as Other in charts but listed in the tables, “Global” is not a country, undisclosed funding is its own bucket, and an unmeasured value is “not measured”, never zero.
- One directory, self-selected builders, skewed to where WAYB is known. This month the largest country is Israel, with 68 (37%) of new listings.
- Uneed publishes a monthly launch report from its board. This one is about builders, from ours; the populations differ, so the totals are not comparable. Uneed’s report for September 2026.
- The counts as a CSV, aggregates only: 2026-09.csv.
Common questions
What is the State of Indie Builders report?
A monthly report from WhatAreYouBuilding.AI that counts new products listed in its directory of independent builders, by country, category and funding stage. Every listing is reviewed before it appears, and the method, pull date and counts are on the page.
How many indie products were listed on WAYB in September 2026?
186 new products were listed in September 2026, by 162 builders, from 23 countries plus 20 listed as Global. 159 were bootstrapped, 6 had raised funding and 21 did not say.
How is it different from Uneed’s State of Indie Launches?
Uneed counts products launched on its launch board in a month. This report counts builders and what they ship in a standing directory, and adds where they are and whether they are bootstrapped, funded or raising. The two measure different populations, so their totals should not be compared.
Why is there no comparison with August 2026?
August 2026 was the directory’s launch: most of its listings arrived in the five days after it opened. A launch spike is not a month like the others, so it is shown but never compared.
Are builders and products the same count?
No. A builder can list more than one product, so the report counts both. In September 2026, 186 products came from 162 builders.
Does it count rejected or removed listings?
No. Listings that were rejected or removed are deleted, not archived, so they cannot be counted. Every number here is of listings live on the pull date.
Building something independently? List it free: it is reviewed before it appears, and next month it is in these numbers.