What ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity and Grok actually recommend when someone building alone asks what to use. 35 sampled answers, 5 assistants, Aug 16, 2026 to Sep 13, 2026. Nobody paid for a place and nobody picked a favourite.
By Orbator · Updated Aug 24, 2026 · n and window on every figure
Someone searching for the best AI tools for indie hackers is asking two things at once. Which tools should a one-person company run on, and how does a product built by one person get in front of buyers. Both questions now get put to ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity and Grok, and the answers differ from engine to engine. The AI Recommendation Index samples those answers with buyer-shaped prompts, no product names in them, and counts what each one recommends. This page reports the indie hacker and solopreneur category. The sample here is 35 answers, Aug 16, 2026 to Sep 13, 2026, and each category is resampled roughly monthly on a rolling 4-week window.
The ranking below is that count. Each tool carries the share of sampled answers that recommended it, and the same share per engine. A product named in passing, or named as a warning, does not add to its share. The engines rarely settle on one leader. Across 296 measured categories, a single product led every engine in 10.8% of them (n=296, 28-day window). In this category, ChatGPT had Stripe, Next.js and Vercel tied at the top; Claude had Supabase, Indie Hackers and ShipFast tied at the top; Gemini put Stripe first; Perplexity had Supabase and Notion tied at the top; Grok had Supabase, Stripe and Next.js tied at the top.
The second question, how a solo founder reaches buyers, also has a measured side. It starts with what the engines read before they answer. Across the whole Index, 51.9% of the pages the engines cited were published by a vendor in the category being asked about (58,787 of 113,279 citations, 28-day window). The assistants also named Indie Hackers and beehiiv as tools in their own right in this category; the figures are in the channels section below.
Every sentence below is read off the measurement: share of 35 sampled answers (Aug 16, 2026 to Sep 13, 2026), the role the product played in them, and how each engine treated it. Prices come from sourced, dated facts where a product has them; where it does not, the page says so.
Recommended in 23 of 35 sampled answers (65.7% share). Of those, recommended outright in 10 and listed among options in 13. Named in passing in 3 further answers. Named as a warning in 1 further answer. Named first in 5 answers. Strongest with Grok (7 of 7 answers), weakest with ChatGPT (3 of 7). Average position when named: 4.2.
Pricing: Pricing not verified for this window.
Recommended in 23 of 35 sampled answers (65.7% share). Of those, recommended outright in 7 and listed among options in 16. Named in passing in 7 further answers. Named as a warning in 1 further answer. Named first in 5 answers. Strongest with Grok (7 of 7 answers), weakest with Claude (3 of 7). Average position when named: 6.4.
Pricing: Pricing not verified for this window.
Recommended in 22 of 35 sampled answers (62.9% share). Of those, recommended outright in 8 and listed among options in 14. Named in passing in 3 further answers. Named first in 4 answers. Strongest with Grok (7 of 7 answers), weakest with Claude (3 of 7). Average position when named: 4.7.
Pricing: Pricing not verified for this window.
Recommended in 18 of 35 sampled answers (51.4% share). Of those, recommended outright in 5 and listed among options in 13. Named in passing in 5 further answers. Named first in 2 answers. Strongest with Grok (5 of 7 answers), weakest with Claude (3 of 7). Average position when named: 5.9.
Pricing: Pro: $20 a month (free tier available) ↗ source · verified Sep 5, 2026
Recommended in 17 of 35 sampled answers (48.6% share). Of those, recommended outright in 8 and listed among options in 9. Named in passing in 2 further answers. Named first in 4 answers. Strongest with Grok (6 of 7 answers), weakest with ChatGPT (1 of 7). Average position when named: 12.5.
Pricing: Pricing not verified for this window.
Recommended in 16 of 35 sampled answers (45.7% share). Of those, recommended outright in 4 and listed among options in 12. Named in passing in 1 further answer. Strongest with Grok (5 of 7 answers), weakest with ChatGPT (2 of 7). Average position when named: 12.4.
Pricing: Pricing not verified for this window.
Recommended in 14 of 35 sampled answers (40% share). Of those, recommended outright in 4 and listed among options in 10. Named in passing in 2 further answers. Named first in 1 answer. Strongest with Grok (6 of 7 answers), weakest with Gemini (1 of 7). Average position when named: 7.5.
Pricing: Pricing not verified for this window.
Full ranking of 100 products on the live category page · CSV · JSON
51.9%
of the pages the engines cited across the Index were published by a vendor in the category being asked about (58,787 of 113,279 citations, 28-day window). For a solo founder this is the usable line. A plain page on your own domain that answers the buyer's question is the same kind of page that makes up that share of the reading list.
Channels the assistants named in this category
A community that the assistants themselves recommend as a tool is a channel the assistants read. Presence there can be measured the same way.
The sources behind your own category are listable the same way. The free check shows which pages each engine cited for one buyer question, and this guide walks through resolving every cited page to its owner. Channels with no citation behind them are left off this page on purpose.
35 sampled answers to real buyer questions in this category, Aug 16, 2026 to Sep 13, 2026. The same measurement Orbator runs for any category.
One real buyer question, every engine, and the pages each one read before answering. The same measurement as the ranking above, pointed at your product.
Get answers to common questions about Orbator