Three sites now show startup revenue that founders can't type in by hand: TrustMRR, Indie Race, and HitMRR. They look similar from a distance - leaderboards, Stripe, public MRR - and are built for different jobs. This is an honest comparison, written by the founder of HitMRR, with the facts as of August 2026. Where a competitor does something better, it says so.
The short version
- TrustMRR is the largest verified-revenue database: over a thousand startups, hourly updates, several payment providers, an API, and a marketplace for buying and selling the businesses listed. If you want the most complete picture of who is making what, start there.
- Indie Race is a creator page for solo founders: a personal profile that shows your revenue and startups, collects newsletter subscribers, and awards badges as you hit milestones. One-time $25 for a year.
- HitMRR is a race: founders enter a time-boxed competition to reach an MRR goal, the field locks when the host fires the gun, and standings are verified from Stripe every 30 minutes. Free.
Feature comparison
| HitMRR | TrustMRR | Indie Race | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Core idea | Race to an MRR goal | Verified revenue database + marketplace | Founder creator page |
| Verification source | Stripe (read-only restricted key) | Stripe, RevenueCat, Superwall, Creem | Stripe |
| Update frequency | Every 30 min | Hourly | Not stated |
| Price for founders | Free | Free to list; paid sponsorships and marketplace | $25 one-time (1-year pass) |
| Timed competitions with a locked field | Yes - the "gun" stamps everyone's starting MRR | No (ongoing rankings, incl. a by-country "Olympics") | No (badges for milestones) |
| Private races for a cohort or friend group | Yes | No | No |
| Global leaderboard | Yes | Yes (largest) | Yes (small) |
| Category leaderboards | Yes | Yes | No |
| Head-to-head compare pages | Yes | Yes | No |
| Public startup page with MRR history | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Embeddable verified-MRR badge | Yes (SVG, updates itself) | No | Milestone badges on your page |
| Buy / sell startups | No | Yes | No |
| Newsletter capture on your page | No | No | Yes |
| API / AI-agent access | JSON + Markdown endpoints, llms.txt | REST API + MCP server | No |
| Test-mode data hidden from public boards | Yes | Yes (verified providers) | Not stated |
| Free tools (calculators, guides) | Yes | Interactive games, tech-stack directory | No |
Where TrustMRR is better
Breadth. TrustMRR launched in late 2025 and has the network effect: more startups, more providers (mobile-app revenue via RevenueCat and Superwall, which HitMRR doesn't support yet), an API that other tools build on, and a marketplace that turns a verified revenue page into a listing you can sell. If the question is "what does the verified indie-SaaS landscape look like?", TrustMRR is the reference.
It is also a business built on attention: sponsored placements rotate through the leaderboard, and the marketplace takes a cut of acquisitions. That's not a criticism - it's what pays for the hourly syncs - but it shapes the product toward being browsed.
Where Indie Race is better
If what you want is a personal page - your face, your startups, your revenue, a newsletter form, a hundred badges to unlock - Indie Race is built around exactly that, and the one-time price is low. It's closer to a Linktree for founders than to a leaderboard.
Where HitMRR is different
HitMRR isn't trying to be the biggest list. It's trying to answer one question: who gets to the goal first? That shapes everything:
- Fair start. When a host starts a race, one transaction locks the field and stamps every racer's current MRR. Nobody joins late already at $9,800 on a $10k race; nobody sandbags. Standings measure movement since the gun, not who was biggest to begin with.
- Time-boxed. A race has a deadline or a target. It ends, someone wins, and a new one opens. That's a reason to come back that a static ranking doesn't have.
- Private races. A cohort, an accelerator batch, or four friends can race each other without publishing anything.
- Free, and can't touch your money. Restricted read-only keys only; full secret keys are rejected at the door. There are no sponsorships on the board.
- The badge. A live SVG of your verified MRR you can embed on your site or README, linking back to the verified page.
The trade-offs are real: Stripe only for now (Lemon Squeezy, Polar and Paddle are planned), a far smaller directory, and no marketplace.
Which one should you use?
- You want to see who is making what, or list a startup for sale → TrustMRR.
- You want a personal founder page with badges and a newsletter → Indie Race.
- You want to commit to a goal in public and race other founders to it, with numbers nobody can fake → HitMRR.
They aren't exclusive. Plenty of founders will list on TrustMRR for reach and race on HitMRR for motivation. Verified revenue is a good thing wherever it lives; the more places founders prove their numbers instead of screenshotting them, the less anyone has to take on faith.
Facts about TrustMRR and Indie Race are taken from their public sites in August 2026. If something is out of date, tell us on X and we'll fix it.