Indie site teardowns for founders
We take apart independent image and PDF tool sites that are still standing, and we show the traffic, the pricing and the choices that kept them alive. A site that survived is a demand that has already been tested. This site exists to copy the test results, not the hype.
Read the Sejda teardown Browse all teardowns
| Sites tracked | 5 | First batch, added 16 November 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Biggest site tracked | 24.96M visits/mo | Sejda, per Semrush, October 2026. Third-party estimate, not official MAU/DAU |
| Full teardowns published | 1 | Sejda. The other four sites have data rows and are queued |
| Paying subscribers | 0 | Checkout is not live yet. We print this number because a teardown site that hides it is selling you a story |
Latest teardowns and data rows
Every site in the database passed the same gate: a public source has to publish a monthly visit number for it, with the source and the month named. No number, no entry. Traffic figures below are third-party estimates, not official MAU/DAU. How we collect and label them is written up on the methodology page.
| Site | Category | Monthly visits | Source | Pricing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sejda | PDF tools | 24.96M | Semrush, Oct 2026 | Free, then $5 week pass, $7.50/mo or $63/yr |
| Photopea | Image editing | 21.4M | Semrush, Feb 2026 | Not publicly disclosed |
| SmallSEOTools | SEO tools | 8.37M | Semrush, Oct 2026 | PRO from $9.80/mo |
| Excalidraw | Design / whiteboard | 4.13M to 4.57M | Semrush and Hypestat, Oct 2026 | Free, Plus $6/user/mo |
| TinyPNG (Tinify) | Image tools / developer tools | 3.86M | Semrush, Oct 2026 | 500 free compressions/mo, then pay per use |
Excalidraw is shown as a range because the two sources disagree. Photopea pricing is not published on a public page, so we do not print a number for it. Country breakdowns are not publicly disclosed for any of the five.
What a teardown covers
Each full teardown follows the same structure, so you can compare sites without relearning the page. It opens with a data card: what the site is, who it is for, how much traffic a named source credits it with, and what it charges. Then the positioning, the product and its first screen, the pricing ladder and where the paywall sits, how it gets users, how it converts them, and what is known about retention. Channels we cannot verify are printed as not publicly disclosed. Guessing would be faster. It would also be worthless to you.
The point of the exercise is the last two sections: why this site is still standing, split into what you can copy this week and what you cannot copy because it depended on timing, an existing audience, or years of search rankings. If a teardown cannot name both lists, it is not finished.
One teardown in your inbox, weekly
The free email carries one verified tool site teardown a week, with the traffic source and month attached. Full teardowns, the filterable database and side-by-side comparisons sit behind the paid plan on the pricing page.
Status, stated plainly: email collection is not live yet. The form below cannot store your address today, and it will tell you that when you submit. We would rather show you an honest form than a fake signup counter.