Making $3M+ per year with a free
product
Ivan Kuckir built a free product for fun. A few years later, he monetized it with ads. And now, Photopea is making $3M+ per year.
Here's Ivan on how he did it. 👇
Accidentally starting a business
I never planned to start a business. I just wanted to create useful (or at least interesting) pieces of software. I started by making several web games and programming libraries (IvanK.js, K3D.js, PolyK.js), monetizing them with ads.
Then, in 2012, I had the idea to spend a week or two making a web-based viewer of Photoshop PSD files. I liked the result and kept developing it, working about 10 hours each month, as I was still a student.
I didn't monetize it until 2017 — I was driven purely by a positive response from random people, and enjoyed seeing my software grow (both in features and in users).
Now, after 13 years of work, what started as a hobby project is used by about 1 million people per day. It generated $3 million in revenue in 2024.
I have several other projects, such as www.vectorpea.com and some web games, but they have 200x to 1000x less traffic (and revenue) than Photopea.
Monetizing with ads
In 2017, when Photopea was four years old and had a decent amount of visitors (5,000 a day), I started to monetize it with ads. I also allowed users to buy Premium accounts, which removed the ads.
90% of my revenue is from advertisements and 10% is from Premium accounts and licensing contracts. The revenue has always directly corresponded to the size of the user base.
The annual costs of running Photopea are around $20 for a .COM domain and around $600 for the web hosting server.
A light stack
All of the software is contained in several Javascript files. There is also the GLSL code for the GPU-accelerated computations. All the code was written by me.
As the user loads a website, the whole software (Javascript) is downloaded and ready to run on the user's device. The server is not needed after opening the website.
There are tiny bits of PHP at the server used to manage a database of users who decided to create an account, or to manage our own cloud storage, PeaDrive. But creating an account and using the PeaDrive are optional. Most users don’t use these features.
Solopreneurship for the win
I used to hate the fact that I hadn’t built a team to work with me on Photopea. It has been 13 years and I am still alone, with no idea how to turn it into a big company.
But then, I realized that I enjoy what I do. Others probably wouldn't enjoy it as much as I do, and I wouldn't enjoy telling them what I want them to do.
So now I am more comfortable with the idea of doing everything myself, as long as I am enjoying it.
I'm also glad that I never sold my product. I would not enjoy being managed by someone else, and the money I was offered was pretty low compared to my current revenue.
Organic growth
I did not have a “development phase” or a big “release”. I released Photopea almost immediately, when it had only about 1% of features that it has today. You couldn't even save your work in the first release. From then on, I released a new version at least once a month.
At the beginning, I submitted Photopea to https://experiments.withgoogle.com/, and I received about 10-20 visitors a day. Then, several blogs wrote about Photopea, which gave me another 10-20 visitors a day.
I think many users of Photopea told their friends about it or posted about it. And it grew organically over the years from there.
I also tried to post about Photopea wherever I could — Hacker News, Reddit, etc., but most of my posts were deleted as self promotion, so I don't think it had much effect in the beginning. That said, years after the release, I did some AMAs on Reddit, and those brought me a lot of new users.
Lastly, I tried to “do SEO” by changing the content and the structure of my website again and again, but it didn't do much. It took me years to get to the first place in Google Search, and it corresponded to the number of mentions of Photopea across the web, which was gradually increasing.
Get your hands dirty
My education is what allowed me to create Photopea — I would not have been able to make Photopea without it. So if you are under 25 years old, I would definitely focus on getting an education. Keep all other projects as a hobby.
Once you decide to start a business, don’t be afraid of making mistakes. You will make them anyway — a business rarely goes exactly as you plan. Instead of spending a year looking for a “perfect idea” and a “perfect business plan”, spend that year trying out multiple ideas. Get your hands dirty. You will definitely have more fun.
Also, listen to your gut. If some decision feels wrong to you, just refuse it. Don’t be afraid to say "No" to people.
Leave a Comment
This is honestly one of the most inspiring examples of true indie entrepreneurship I’ve seen.
No hype. No team. No big launch. Just consistent effort over years, driven by curiosity and usefulness - and it turned into something that now serves millions.
Your story is a great reminder that you don’t need to start with a business plan or even the intention to build a company. Sometimes the best products grow out of obsession and steady improvement.
Really appreciate the honesty around going solo too - not everyone wants to “scale” into a team, and there’s power in knowing what you enjoy.
Massive respect, and thanks for sharing this in such detail. It’s a masterclass in patience, focus, and trusting the process.
Absolutely inspiring — thank you for sharing this so openly.
What really stood out to me is how consistently you focused on creating value first, without chasing monetization or hype. The fact that Photopea grew to 1M+ daily users and $3M in revenue purely through organic traction and product-led growth is rare and powerful.Also, your insight about solopreneurship really resonates. Many founders feel pressured to scale or raise funds, but you've shown that staying lean and aligned with your own interests can lead to both fulfillment and financial success.As someone helping early-stage founders build and launch SaaS MVPs, this is a masterclass in long-term thinking, user obsession, and keeping things simple.Wishing you continued momentum —,looking forward to seeing what you build next.
Great motivation, love the honesty. Every time I post it gets deleted also. Love the perseverance!
Never thought Photopea was developed and maintained by 1 person. A simple and inspiring story
Before I start reading this post, let me tell you that I use it for mockups instead of Adobe Photoshop.
An amazing product, Ivan!
I use it. It's an absolutely brilliant piece of software. Thank you, Ivan!
I enjoyed reading how steady iteration and patience led to such massive scale. You mentioned posting early versions with just 1% of today’s features — what gave you the confidence to share so early, and how did you decide which features to tackle first?
Photopea is a really great tool ! As a solo dev who scaled a web tool to $4k MRR without a team, your story validates embracing what you enjoy – I resisted hiring and focused on fun features, boosting retention. It's freeing to own the whole stack.
What is one 'gut feel' decision that saved your project long-term?
This is real useful tool for those can not afford Adobe Photoshop any more. I almost use it for every day to resize and optimise images for my blog :). Good to know the real story.
Great insight...very impressed you were able to profit despite the time gap
Very inspiring!
Absolutely inspiring — thank you for sharing this so openly.
This resonates massively as i'm on the pursuit to build an app that at its core has to be free to use. A great insight on what is a possible monetisation method for my app in the future without having to block users with an immediate paywall.
Wow, a free product? That's incredible! I'm curious—how did you structure the freemium model to drive such impressive revenue?
amazing product
This was a great tip I've ever heard about business and marketing. The main I loved most in this story is that you don't spend time looking for a perfect idea, spend time on what you enjoy, and experiment with multiple ideas.
This is insanely inspiring 🔥
I've been building a small portfolio generator tool for freelancers and this gave me a big mindset shift — that simplicity + consistency can lead to huge outcomes.
Thanks for sharing Ivan's story 🙌
This is one of the most inspiring solopreneur stories I’ve read in a long time. Ivan’s journey with Photopea perfectly illustrates a few critical lessons for builders:
Build for passion first, monetization later. Waiting 5 years before adding ads or premium features shows incredible restraint. Most of us rush to monetize too early, often at the expense of product quality and organic growth. Ivan’s patience let the product—and its audience—mature naturally.
Organic growth compounds. The fact that Photopea grew from 10-20 visitors/day to 1M daily users without paid marketing or a team is a testament to building something truly valuable. Word-of-mouth isn’t a ‘strategy’—it’s an outcome.
Solopreneurship is valid (and powerful). Society glorifies ‘scaling teams’ and fundraising, but Ivan’s comfort with staying small—and happy—is refreshing. You don’t need to turn everything into a unicorn.
Just. Keep. Shipping. Releasing a bare-bones v1 (without even a save function!) and iterating monthly for 13 years is the ultimate antidote to perfectionism. Progress beats planning.
Own your work. His note about refusing acquisition offers—despite early doubts—is a masterclass in trusting your gut. Independence > short-term cash.
As a beginner, this is the kind of story that makes me excited to start building. It’s a reminder that success doesn’t always follow a rigid playbook—sometimes, it’s about consistency, listening to users, and enjoying the journey.
Love this project huge respect for your traction. If you're ever open to async freelance roles, feel free to reach out. I run a fully remote hiring platform.
I made some content on Photopea before actually, an awesome free tool! Could I have your permission to share some of this stuff on my website marketingideas .io?
I used your product multiple times without even knowing it was you all along Mr James!
I’ve been using Photopea daily since 2023 — fully replaced my Adobe subscription with just Photopea + Figma.
No subscriptions, no bloat. Just works. Honestly feels like the future of creative tools.
Huge respect to Ivan for pulling this off solo. One of the few tools I actually enjoy opening.
Never realized it's a solo project!
Wow, that's an awesome story! From a hobby project to $3M a year? That's insane! It's so cool that he just kept building something he enjoyed and it paid off big time.Gotta love the solopreneur life!
This is one of the most inspiring examples of what long-term focus and craftsmanship can achieve — thanks for sharing it so transparently 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏
This really impress me, I am also a developer, i am also building a typoform alternative. checkout formnestle
Very Inspiring
Absolutely inspiring — thank you for sharing this so openly.
Hello
I would love to know you more
Great story :)
If anyone is interested in details about Ivan and his project Photopea, you can check out these cool interviews (they are in Ukrainian, but you can use subtitles or an AI translator):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lT2OX_RZU_c
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4dQWNlztE0
very nice story !
I feel like young founders often lack enough experience in the real world as adults to build something meaningful.
How are you doing
This was a good read! I've been using photopea for years. It's hard to believe people are still paying for photoshop licences!
Ivan's story is nothing short of phenomenal.
How did the SEO get so good? It's the #1 result when I search "free photoshop"
His search ranking increased because his website gained credibility after being linked by other websites. This is called "backlinking" in SEO strategy
Although I expect most users search "free photo editor" .. here the result is not on first page.
Stuff like this keeps me going.
Love this! Proof that if you build something genuinely useful and focus on quality, the money will follow — even if it’s free to use. Super inspiring to see how Photopea grew through community-driven channels like HN and word of mouth. Definitely a reminder to focus on solving real problems first.....
Like my ideas, I always want to create FREE product to people and all my products support people and make life easy. Really like your product.
2
This is honestly one of the most inspiring examples of true indie entrepreneurship I’ve seen.
As someone who has launched his new SaaS recently this puts a new perspective into Pricing Tiers.
Really loved the Journey and i must say that going for a VPS rather then serverless was the most underrated business move.
Wild execution — $3M/year from a free core tool is peak leverage.
Curious how you got the first 10K users without burning out.
Subscribed — appreciate the transparency!
Brilliant job, Ivan! Go Ukraine!
It's such a rare case when people keep succeeding it in a solo journey.
Great story! What was your most difficult painpoint in your journey?
Consistently & Delusional belief on yourself.
🔥This is a masterclass in value-first growth. A few things that stand out:
Free ≠ No Revenue – You nailed the psychology behind removing friction. Giving away core functionality while monetizing upgrades/services allows virality to do the heavy lifting.
SEO + Utility = Traffic Flywheel – Products like EditPad or PDF converters don’t need login walls or aggressive upsells—they win by being exactly what users want, fast.
Low Overhead, High Margin—I love how lean this is. When hosting and dev are efficient, even free tools at scale can generate serious returns through ads, affiliate links, or premium tiers.
User Intent > Fancy Features – So many devs get distracted by polish and forget that if you quickly solve a high-intent pain point (copy/paste text, convert a file, calculate something), you're already winning.
Would love to hear:
– What was the most challenging part of scaling from a side project to real revenue?
– Any mistakes you’d avoid if starting over?
This is incredibly inspiring — thank you for sharing it so transparently.
As someone who’s also building solo (just launched a minimal IP checker with a ChatGPT-style interface called ChatIPT — you can find it by searching chatipt dot com), your journey makes me feel more at peace with the slow, organic path.
The way you leaned into fun and curiosity, rather than chasing monetization early on, is something I really respect. Also love how your light stack philosophy kept things simple, fast, and sustainable.
Appreciate your advice at the end — get your hands dirty is going to be my new motto. Wishing you continued success with Photopea and everything else 🙌
Awesome!!!
motivating
That’s such a cool story... The whole thing feels super down-to-earth (both tech and founder) and yet it’s wildly successful. Just a genuinely useful tool with reasonable monetization, built steadily over a long time without abandoning it, and not even selling when you had the chance. I also really love that it all runs statically in the browser with minimal server code. Actually quite an innovation in today’s cloud-based, data-catching world ^^ Truly inspiring. Massive respect from my side as well!
I've personally loved using this tool as a Photoshop alternative for many years now.
Nice to read up about you, and its, story. Thanks for sharing!
This really impress me I hope one day am also gonna find a way to
This really impress me I hope one day am also gonna find a way to start my own tech company
yes