4 months in, solo building an AI tools directory — here's what I've learned about the market

I've been building YourAIFinder for 4 months while working

full-time in B2B sales at a SaaS company.

The product: an AI tools directory tracking free tiers, verified

pricing, and honest reviews across 500+ AI tools.

A few things I've learned that surprised me:

The free tier war is more intense than most people realise.

TRAE AI gives you Claude 4 and GPT-4o at zero cost. Windsurf

gives unlimited completions. GitHub Copilot Free gives 2,000

completions permanently. These companies are in a land-grab for

developer loyalty and developers are winning right now.

Most AI tool information online is dangerously stale.

Gemini Code Assist shut its individual free plan June 18, 2026.

Most articles still recommend it. GitHub Copilot paused student

plan sign-ups April 20, 2026. Guides written before that date

are actively misleading people.

Content is the real moat, not the code.

Anyone can build a directory. The actual defensible asset is

showing up every week to verify that what was true last month is

still true today.

Currently at:

- 500+ tools listed

- 941 indexed pages

- ~300 impressions/day in GSC

- 110+ countries reached

- 55 blog posts published

Still pre-revenue. Building in public.

The directory is at youraifinder.com — would genuinely value

feedback from this community on positioning, monetisation, or

anything else.

What's the hardest part of building a directory you've found?