Startup updates for IndieLogs

IndieLogs now supports auto-filling startup details from URLs and improves GitHub integration and sidebar usability.

• Added a new "Creation Mode" toggle in the startup editor to switch between manual entry and auto-filling startup data from a URL.
• Fixed GitHub repository name display by using the correct camelCase property, ensuring repo names are visible when linking projects.
• Improved GitHub project link handling to clearly indicate whether a startup is linked to a GitHub repo or not.
• Updated the mobile sidebar trigger button to only show on non-desktop views and enhanced sidebar open/close transitions for better mobile experience.
• Added backend API for startup analysis leveraging OpenAI models, enabling automatic categorization and description suggestions based on startup data.
• Refined UI text colors and styles in GitHub repo lists for better readability and consistent design.

IndieLogs has updated the feed and categories pages with a new unified design system and improved UI elements.

• Introduced a shared PageHero component featuring consistent blue hero sections with subtle radial glow effects.
• Redesigned the /feed page with a new hero section using serif accents, pill-style period tabs, and JournalEntry cards for updates.
• Updated /categories and /category/[slug] pages with refreshed hero sections and modern startup cards that include status dots.
• Replaced the old dashed-border timeline in Upvotes with JournalEntry cards for a cleaner look.
• Modernized the FeedRecent sidebar from a table layout to card-style startup listings.
• Enhanced the CategoryList sidebar with active states and simplified category links for easier navigation.
• Added founderName and founderUsername props to JournalEntry components to display founder info consistently across feeds.
• Both feed and category pages now use a custom layout including the updated navigation bar (TheNavbarNew) and footer.
• Improved navbar link contrast on the blue hero background by increasing text opacity for better readability.

IndieLogs now supports automated update publishing via a new agent API and includes a redesigned startup tab bar for improved navigation.

• Added a secure agent ingestion API allowing external coding agents to publish changelog entries directly to IndieLogs, updating startup profiles and feeds automatically.
• Introduced an agent token system with token creation and verification, including expiration and signature validation for secure API access.
• Released the "IndieLogs Update" skill to facilitate publishing product updates through the new API with clear payload requirements and authentication.
• Redesigned the startup tab bar with a compact layout featuring colored status dots, tighter spacing, truncated names, and a simplified "All" tab for better usability.
• Fixed an issue causing the journal feed to appear empty by correctly importing the JournalEntry component.
• Integrated DataFast analytics script for improved website analytics tracking.

Been a little while since I worked on IndieLogs - but I took some time last week to improve data fetching, security and make it a bit faster.

It's gotten quite a few users since I stopped using it lol so maybe it's time for some improvements. Maybe I could add AI into the editor to reformat what you write?

Planning to use it more often again now as a changelog for anotherwrapper.com

Let me know!

IndieLogs is going live on ProductHunt next week! 🎉

In anticipation, I am:

• Redesigning some core parts

• Fixing some speed issues

• Fixing double data fetching issue on profile when switching projects

If you want to help me out, please subscribe here: https://www.producthunt.com/products/indielogs

Introducing: Indie Wars! 🎉

You can now compete with fellow makers to see who shipped the best product update of the week, month, and year all while:

✅ Gathering user feedback

✅ Increasing visibility of your products

✅ V1 category section is ready!

Also fixed category issue on edit startup page

OG Image was having errors because I converted all images to .webp

So converting back profile pics + startup logos to JPEG to handle this. Will keep other images as WebP

Planning to launch IndieLogs on ProductHunt soon

So working on some finishing touches:

- Rewriting the entire messaging & copy to be more SEO-based

- Categories page

- New buying modal

- New pricing

Will probably also get rid of the AI generated articles and write some content myself

The plan:

• Get rid of free plan - work with credits instead - allow ppl to upload 3 logs or sth for a project - after that they need to pay

• Get categories page working (started months ago but never finished)

• Change all copy

• Get og-images generator back working (idk why it stopped)

• Start listing on a bunch of directories pre-launch

• All profile pic images should be stored on my own server to avoid fetching/loading issues

Worked a bit on the new free tool.

Should be ready to launch now! Just need to record a small demo.

Made some changes to the hero based on this:

- Shorter H1 tag
- Better/more actionable CTA
- More focus on social proof

Thanks @imudayyyy

New free tool almost ready!

Will probably launch next couple of days & start doing email marketing.

Then will also do Product Hunt launch within the month!

Ok - lot's of updates for IndieLogs! 🚀

1) First, I attempted a hero redesign which got completely roasted on Twitter.

Guess I'm keeping the current one haha.

2) Improved current landing page based on that feedback:

• Changed titles and headings

• Improved the copy

• Added some more color to break between components

• Changed the messaging to put more focus on integration on your own website

• Removed the feed

3) Improved the onboarding flow to make it easier for new users

4) Been working on a new free tool - hopefully to be delivered soon!

✅ Set up Cloudflare CDN (even though I'm not sure if done correctly) + migrated storage to R2.

✅ Some updates:

• New footer design (copy-pasta from InterioresIA)

• Some small design changes to Pricing

• Fixed broken link in Pricing component

• Converted all previous images to WebP to optimize loading times + reduce bandwidth

Next up:

• Categories

• Likes

• New free tool

• Feed - do not load everything at once

• Marketing? Maybe 😝

I'm cutting my monthly costs by more than 80% by self-hosting everything

I started indiehacking a year ago & was using mostly free services for my projects:

- Vercel

- Supabase

- PostHog analytics

- AWS EC2 first year free for micro instance

But over the last year, my projects have finally started getting some more traffic + my free credits on AWS ran out. I am looking to scale even more so I know costs can get out of hand pretty quickly (+ I have seen some scary stories here recently).

Monthly, I would have, on average:

- $50 for Supabase (5+ projects)

- $45 for my AWS EC2 instances

+ variable costs for renting GPU for my AI projects

+ I also just surpassed the limits of the free plan on Vercel in terms of bandwidth, Image Optimization & Speed Insight points

The only project that's (finally) making some money so far is ImagenMIA, and with only 60% margins or so due to high model training costs (+ still early phase).

On the one hand I am super happy that ImagenMIA is starting to generate some money on its own (all organic, SEO-based traffic) but on the other hand, infra costs are starting to climb up and are only going to get worse as it scales.

Luckily I saw a post from @dobroslav_dev mentioning Hetzner and Coolify. So I started digging into it and have migrated the first couple of projects to test everything out.

Here is my setup:

- One small VPS (€3.98) for Coolify

- 2vCPU

- 4GB RAM

- 40GB SSD

- 20 TB Egress traffic

A bigger one (€14.51) to host all my projects:

- 8 vCPU

- 16 GB RAM

- 160 GB SSD

- 20 TB Egress traffic

I will be self hosting everything:

- Supabase

- Front-end

- NodeJS Express API Endpoints

- N8N

- PostHog

I was a bit afraid but tbh, Coolify makes things so much easier (OS alternative to Vercel/Netlify) + now I no longer have to worry about extreme bandwidth costs in case of traffic spikes!

Looking to migrate my bigger projects over there hopefully the next couple of days!

Played a lot around with:

• VPS (Hetzner)

• Docker

• Self-hosting supabase

• Coolify

Looking to start self-hosting everything so that I am able to cut costs!

✅ Integrated settings into the profile page!

You can now edit your profile and select a theme straight from your profile page. Trying to make things as easy and intuitive as possible!

Had neglected image optimization and compression for IndieLogs

This resulted in slow page loading times + extremely high egress bandwidth.

So working on implementing image compression when uploading + webp conversion.

✅ Testing it out now and it works!

Has been implemented across:

• Log image uploads

• Profile pics

• Logos
  
  

Next steps:

• Figure out a way to optimize and reduce size of all images that have been uploaded in the past, without fucking everything up lol

Made some copy modifications to the hero section.

To do next:

• Startup "gallery"

• Categories
  

✅Also started identifying directories to launch and writing copy.

First ones are done:

• DevPost

• HackerNews