Why do indie hackers do it? Freedom? Money? Something else?

Indie hacking is hard. That’s why it’s so important to know your “why”. A good “why” can get you through the tough times, the long hours, and the sacrifices. And regardless of what that “why” is, using it as your north star is hugely helpful in my experience.

I was curious to see why other indie hackers are doing it, so I did some digging.

The TL;DR of it is this: Indie hackers want freedom. And I found it interesting that while money is often mentioned, it’s generally considered a bonus. It’s rarely the “why”.

I’ll break it up into the main reasons I found, with examples of what indie hackers had to say about each one.

And let me know in the comments — why do you do it???

Freedom

This is the big one. And honestly, we could probably take all the other reasons and boil those down to freedom as well. Just about every indie hacker out there is doing what they do because they want to feel free.

@alula: I think it all comes down to freedom. Being indie hacker is all about being free, free of control, free of financial restriction, free of time restrictions, etc. This freedom ultimately helps you to craft the thing you want most and vice versa.

@marcusstenbeck: The freedom — to be in control of my own time.

@nicolas: I also love the freedom of living where I want and going and doing what I want without the need for asking "permission".

@wimgz: To have more freedom, to express my creativity, and earn an honest living directly from the value I give to my customers

@supremerumham: Personally, I like the flexibility of being an indie hacker. I like the idea of being able to live where ever I want and not be restricted to where the company I work for has an office. Having the ability to automate tasks and getting to make my own decisions gives me the freedom to do anything I want and that feels great!!

The love of building

Another strong trend was that indie hackers love to build things.

@channingallen: For my part, I love building useful things, and I love feeling like I'm the architect of my own life.

@harrisleonard: For me, it's about building what I really want to

@jrtashjian: I've always enjoyed building things that help people accomplish something or improve how they accomplish that thing, whatever it is. That is my ultimate drive and through that I enjoy building things.

It’s also worth noting that some of us are building simply because we want something specific to exist.

@yukiolkeda: I built my app because I found other apps are not good enough for me.

@drewmeulemans: Most importantly, build the tool that I want to exist for my own personal satisfaction. I want this thing to exist because I want to use it myself.

Fed up with employment

This one could probably be included in the “Freedom” category, but I think it deserves its own emphasis. A lot of indie hackers are fed up with standard employment.

@sven: I'm frustrated by the amount of waste in typical jobs eg. unproductive working environments, toxic people, low performers, pointless/mismanaged projects, etc. I think that if I'm on my own, I can avoid the sorts of waste that frustrate me.

@nicolas: I dislike the 9-5 and being chained to a desk or office. I always had the feeling my efforts were wasted in a company culture, where you mostly don't see the results of what you contribute.

@kool_aide: I really dislike working for other people. Being forced to obey a schedule, dress code, etc. It feels like I don't own my life. What I want is freedom.

@rjyoungling: I don't like to be dependent on anyone. When you work at a company (for me, I'm not judging others) it feels like you're still a kid. But instead of your parents taking care of you and putting food in your mouth, you're now looking to your boss to take on that role. Being in that position made me feel like I wasn't an adult.

Seeking fulfillment

A lot of folks just want to feel like they’re doing something important. Something they love.

@vivan: I want to do something I can be proud of. Currently I work in finance and while it pays well, it isn't really fulfilling and I don't feel like I'm making any contribution to society.

@elijahgeorge: For me it's one of the ways I can truly maximize my potential. I can pick a problem that I would enjoy solving or simply one that scratches a personal itch and pour all my abilities, talents and skillset into devising a plausible solution. Nothing provides a greater sense of fulfillment!

Curiosity and learning

Many of us do it to learn and uplevel. And my experience, there's no better way to do it.

@elijahgeorge: As a passionate learner, it's also a great way to assess and improve your current skillset. When you reach a point where things seem insurmountable, it forces you to go out and learn what is required to get past the hurdle.

@brotzky: Experience and learning. You really learn what hustle means.

Money

And then there’s money. Like I said above, most indie hackers seem to want it (of course), but they don’t see it as their main reason for doing this. Here’s a good example.

@jrtashjian: The money generated from it is a plus but not the goal. The only priority for making money around something I build is to sustain it and sustain the people working on it. If there is surplus it goes towards pursuing growth more aggressively or building something new.

But for others, it is about the money, and that’s alright! Who doesn't want financial freedom?

@1c7: The work I put in has a direct relationship with the return I get. On other hand salary is pretty much fixed number,

@rkho: Indie hacking appeals to me because I would like to be financially independent and retire early. My goal is to travel as often as I like (while maintaining my spending habits) without having to rely on full-time employment.

And sometimes it’s for money… but it’s really about something else.

@tiffanywong since the passing of my beloved cat last year, I've found a new purpose to reach financial independence. My personal goal is to build no-kill animal shelters offering free/affordable vet care, especially for sick/elderly animals. In order to this I will need a lot of money and this motivates me to work harder.

And so many other reasons

There are probably as many reasons as there are indie hackers, but here are a few one-offs that I noticed:

CREATIVE OUTLET (@codeforcash): Sneaking easter eggs and expressing myself creatively through my work

WEARING MANY HATS (@codeforcash again): Working on multiple things. You can't get a corporate job where you do sales, marketing, coding, and ux testing all in the same day.

COMMUNITY (@alula): It is also about relating with similar souls who are after similar things. There is no better feeling than getting in touch with your heroes and IH is filled with them. :)

CONNECTING WITH CUSTOMERS (@ttarik): I also love the fact that when you're a sole developer building things for people, you have a much closer connection to those people than working as a cog in a gigantic machine. Not to say that the cogs aren't valuable, but I feel so much more motivated when I know I have that connection.

MAKING THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE (@idanmasas): I build mine because I want to help the world,

PROVING SOMETHING TO YOURSELF (@mattli): I definitely want the money, and I definitely want the freedom, but it's also the way in which I will (hopefully) attain that. If I'm able to do this on my own, I can look back without any doubt that it was my hard work that made it happen.
indiehackers.com/post/ih-why-do-you-want-financial-independence-69760d15a4

So how about you? Why do you do it?

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