Ask HN: What non-AI products are you working on?

Hacker News Discussion ↗

Engineers and founders share hundreds of non‑AI products they’re building, ranging from privacy‑first personal finance tools, developer infrastructure, and monitoring platforms to niche consumer apps, games, hardware, and even biotech services. A recurring theme is a preference for “boring,” durable tech and local‑first or self‑hosted designs over hype‑driven AI features, with many projects bootstrapped, open source, or scratching very specific personal itches. Collectively, the thread highlights a vibrant ecosystem of small, focused products targeting underserved workflows, hobbies, and professional niches.

Overall Themes

  • Wide variety of non‑AI work: finance tools, dev tooling, personal productivity, games, language learning, hardware, crypto, bio, and long‑term data storage.
  • Many builders are solo or very small teams, often scratching personal itches or rebuilding legacy tools with modern stacks.

Privacy, Local‑First, and Self‑Hosting

  • Strong interest in privacy‑first products: local‑first personal finance, diaries, monitoring tools, and note‑taking apps.
  • Common patterns:
    • Localhost / self‑hosted mode plus a paid cloud/SaaS version.
    • Client‑side encryption and browser‑based PWAs.
    • Users frequently ask about export, migration between SaaS/local, and long‑term viability.

Developer & Infrastructure Tooling

  • Significant activity around:
    • HTTP/DB layers (Postgres HTTP clients, OpenAPI tooling, config & secret managers).
    • Monitoring/observability (uptime checks, GitHub Actions analytics, log viewers, honeypots, honeypot‑style SSH keys).
    • Low‑code / no‑code app builders, internal tools, and templated scaffolding.
  • Discussion often compares new tools to incumbents (PostgREST, Hasura, Hotjar, FullStory, etc.) and presses for differentiation and pricing clarity.

Consumer Apps, Education, and Games

  • Many lifestyle/consumer projects: productivity and habit trackers, breathing and reflection apps, language learning via interactive stories, RSS readers, recipe tools, event RSVPs, calendar mergers, soundscapes, and “look away” eye‑strain timers.
  • Games and creative tools: money‑laundering simulator, tower defense, MTG utilities, art editors, music sequencers/generators, robotic hardware, MIDI controllers, VR/AR and Vision Pro apps.

Business Models & Risk Concerns

  • Long‑term services (e.g., archival storage, “after death” note delivery) trigger questions about:
    • How users can trust multi‑decade continuity.
    • What happens on shutdown, sale, legal pressure, or provider failure.
  • Builders respond with ideas like fixed‑term renewals, public continuity plans, escape hatches, and use of major cloud cold storage.

Social / UX Debates

  • One gift‑card‑hidden‑in‑cheap‑jewelry idea sparks a long side debate about:
    • Waste and environmental impact.
    • Whether circumventing gift‑giving norms is clever, narcissistic, or socially fraught.
    • Broader norms around politeness (e.g., disclosing dietary restrictions before dinners).
  • UX feedback recurs: confusing onboarding, overwhelming configurability, unclear clickable elements, and layout issues on mobile.