My 3 SaaS are evaporating. RIP indie hacking (2018-2026)

An indie hacker reports that their three SaaS products are failing, attributing the decline to Google's 2025 algorithm updates that targeted AI-generated content and the 2026 introduction of AI mode, which made ChatGPT a direct competitor. The hacker, who built a mood board editor in 2020 and later acquired myroomdesigner.ai and dreamhouseai.com, notes that the indie hacking model that thrived on scarce technical skills (Rails, Stripe, Tailwind) is no longer viable as those skills have become commoditized.

My 3 SaaS are evaporating. RIP indie hacking 2018-2026 After many products leading nowhere I got my first clients with my mood board editor in 2020. It was an editor that I built using fabricjs. My first real growth came when chatgpt took off. I acquired myroomdesigner .ai from an indie hacker and rebuilt the tool. I then bought dreamhouseai .com as well. The traffic was driven mainly by seo. Google rolled out two updates in 2025 that were cleaning listings of AI slop. This was the first hit for my traffic. The second hit happened in 2026 when AI mode was introduced. And of course you can just use chatgpt to do most of what my tools do anyway. Not really, bc it's no longer an attractive new business model for incoming wantrepreneurs. What made indie hacking work 10 years ago was the scarcity of technical people in the world who knew how to duct tape together Rails, Stripe & Tailwind. But now that skill is no longer