I’m building “SEO for AI answers” as a self-hosted product (no SaaS, no lock-in)

People are asking ChatGPT for recommendations instead of Googling.
But there’s no real “Search Console” for AI answers yet.

So I’m building Mayin.app — a self-hosted AI SEO / AI visibility platform that helps you see, measure, and improve how your brand shows up in AI-generated answers across models like ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Perplexity.

The problem that pushed me to build this

Right now:

People are searching less on Google and more inside AI tools for tools, services, and vendors
Founders and agencies have no idea whether they appear in those AI answers
There’s no clear metric like “AI visibility” or “AI share of recommendations”
Existing tools are mostly SaaS, expensive, and black boxes with API markups

You can rank on Google and still be completely invisible when someone asks:
“What are the best tools for X?” to ChatGPT or Perplexity.

What Mayin actually does

Mayin is a self-hosted AI SEO / AI visibility optimization platform.

In practice, it:

Tracks how often and where your brand is mentioned in AI-generated answers
Shows which competitors AI prefers to recommend, and in what context
Analyzes how AIs describe you (tone, positioning, sentiment)
Gives you playbooks to improve those signals (not just charts)

Think of it as Search Console + Ahrefs, but for AI answers instead of Google results.

Key features (current version)

AI visibility tracking
Track how often your brand appears in AI answers across multiple models and query sets
Multi-model support
Works with ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Perplexity (more coming)
Competitor benchmarking
See who gets recommended above you, what kind of positioning AI seems to favor, and where you’re missing from the conversation
Sentiment & context analysis
Understand how AI tools describe your brand, in what scenarios you’re recommended (or ignored), and the tone used
Actionable AI SEO playbooks
Step-by-step suggestions for improving visibility, content strategies, and clear “do this next” guidance
Unlimited projects & scans
No per-seat pricing. No artificial usage caps

Why I made it self-hosted (not SaaS)

One intentional decision: Mayin is fully self-hosted.

Shipped as a Docker image
Runs on your own server / VPS / private cloud
You control the whole environment

Benefits:

Your data never leaves your infrastructure
No vendor lock-in
No surprise shutdown risk
Feels like internal infrastructure, not another external SaaS

API control & cost transparency

Another intentional choice: you bring your own AI API keys.

You control how much you spend
You see every call that goes out
No hidden markups
No opaque usage tiers

This is mainly for teams that care about cost predictability, compliance, and keeping AI usage inside their own budgets.

Pricing model (not a subscription)

Mayin is a one-time purchase:

$999 one-time
Lifetime access to the version you buy
3 years of free updates (features + security)
After that, you can keep using your version forever
Future updates are optional

Who I’m building this for

Founders and indie hackers thinking about AI-era visibility
Agencies and growth teams managing multiple clients
SEO teams who want to go beyond “Google-first” thinking
AI consultants and B2B brands looking for early-mover advantage

Especially if you:

Don’t want another recurring SaaS fee
Care about data ownership and control
Prefer running your own tools

What makes it different

AI-first, not Google-first
Self-hosted, not SaaS
One-time payment, not subscriptions
You own the tool
You control the data
You control API usage
Built for long-term use, not churn

What I’d love feedback on

Since this is Indie Hackers, I’d really value honest feedback:

Would you track “AI visibility” alongside your usual SEO metrics?
What signals would matter most to you?
Does self-hosted + one-time pricing feel like a plus or extra friction?
What would make this a no-brainer to add to your stack?

If you’re curious, this is it:
👉 https://www.mayin.app/

If it helps, I recorded a short demo of how it works:
👉 https://www.loom.com/share/4390852df7a54194966dd0a044de5249