Small subscription tools built quickly with AI coding assistants and app builders.
BRI Score
out of 100
Building is now the easy part; finding customers decides everything. Only start if you already know who will pay.
Suits
Builders who can also find and talk to users.
Not for
Anyone who wants predictable income soon.
What would change our view: Rates holding up while demand keeps growing would justify joining more broadly.
One person in the US, about 10 hours a week, after 12 months
Recalculated daily from the latest data; the history chart appears after the second daily update.
In the press, one builder reports about $5,380 a month. In BRI's model that is the top 1% of people doing this.
70% the method's unit economics ($40 a month for an active practitioner), 30% the US side-hustle distribution.
| Monthly recurring revenue of small SaaS$145 is the median of products that already have revenue; zero-revenue projects are excluded, so the newcomer median is lower. | $20–$145 | Source |
| Payment fees, hosting, AI and tool costsStripe 3–6% at low prices plus hosting and API costs (BRI assumption). | $0.25 | BRI assumption |
Stripe charges 2.9% + 30¢ per successful domestic card charge
StripeLovable passed $500M annualised revenue, 1M new projects a week
TechCrunchAcross 3,787 revenue-generating indie SaaS on TrustMRR, median MRR $145; 23.5% of 2025 launches clear $1k MRR
BigIdeasDBOne builder reports about $5,380 a month from AI tools
CNBC Make ItMicroConf survey (469 founders): low-priced products add about $316 new MRR a month
MicroConfLovable reported $500M in annualised revenue; Fiverr "vibe coding" searches rose 61%.
