# Tindie Hacker Approved page: https://hackerapproved.com/p/tindie/ 8 people recommended Tindie in Hacker News comments, 2 had mixed feelings and 12 criticized it, November 2025 to October 2026. It was recommended in 2 of 12 months, in 3 threads. It does not meet the Hacker Approved badge rule. 6 of the 8 people who recommend it commented in one thread, “Tindie store under "scheduled maintenance" for days”. **Verdict:** More people criticize it than recommend it. Makers' marketplace for unusual tech products found nowhere else, valued for its searchable index. Critics agree on repeated long outages and poor communication after the new owners' site move. Summary written by Claude from the comments below. ## What people warn about - Botched site move, poor handling (3 comments in the sample): "It looks from the outside like a Chinese tech blog just randomly bought Tindie, broke the site while moving it to their own servers" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47946082)) "a professional development team should have been able to manage this switch with minimal to no downtime" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47850544)) "They must have really bungled something if they can't roll back and get the site operational again." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47849766)) - Poor communication and transparency (3 comments in the sample): "The lack of clear communication and transparency around this whole issue has been appaling." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47945847)) "Also zero information about the new owners other than the name of a shell corp" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47948918)) "I suspect something's much more broken than they're letting on." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47849203)) - Multi-day outages and downtime (2 comments in the sample): "taking down the entire platform for weeks without any clear timeline or reasoning" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47945848)) "Scheduled maintenance in 2026 is insane" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47850821)) - Buggy site and unshipped features (2 comments in the sample): "the site was supper buggy and failing to add things to cart" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47849341)) "basic features promised 10 years ago never shipped" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47851880)) ## Why people recommend it - Unique maker products hard to find (3 comments in the sample): "Also check out https://www.tindie.com/ - it's a site for small companies & individuals to sell tech-related stuff." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48043468)) "There are a number of things on Tindie that I have been unable to find anywhere else at any price." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47848868)) "Tindie is (was?) a pretty unique marketplace" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47849065)) - Liked by long-time users and buyers (3 comments in the sample): "I really like Tindie as a platform and have been using it since nearly the beginning" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47850745)) "I really like Tindie and what they're doing" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47848821)) "I've bought some cool stuff off Tindie" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47849110)) - Searchable index, easy browsing (2 comments in the sample): "discoverability is a huge thing for tindie. I'll go there for something specific and pretty much every single time just poke around" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47853809)) "Word of mouth/discord/etc isn't nearly as a great a tool as a searchable refreshing index." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47851892)) ## Other online marketplaces people recommend - [Amazon](https://hackerapproved.com/p/amazon/): 120 recommend, 88 mixed, 580 criticize - [eBay](https://hackerapproved.com/p/ebay/): 69 recommend, 28 mixed, 136 criticize - [AliExpress](https://hackerapproved.com/p/aliexpress/): 43 recommend, 16 mixed, 75 criticize - [Allegro.pl](https://hackerapproved.com/p/allegro/): 11 recommend, 2 mixed, 4 criticize ## Where to get it - [Visit the official site](https://www.tindie.com/) ## The badge A product earns the Hacker Approved badge when at least 10 people recommend it, recommenders outnumber critics at least 2 to 1 (mixed feelings count toward neither side), it was recommended in at least 4 of the 12 months and in at least 5 different threads, and no single thread supplies more than half of the people who recommend it. Health and money products are never badged. ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "Tindie", https://hackerapproved.com/p/tindie/ (8 recommend, 2 mixed, 12 criticize; Hacker News comments, November 2025 to October 2026). Counts updated 2 Nov 2026, with data through October 31, 2026.