Tindie
Ranked 6 of 8 online marketplaces by recommenders
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.
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.
24 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 11
- criticize it
- 13
- approval share
- 46%
Recommended in 2 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 11 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 0.8 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 2 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Unique maker products hard to find
“Also check out https://www.tindie.com/ - it's a site for small companies & individuals to sell tech-related stuff.”
Comment from 6 May 2026 in “Batteries Not Included, or Required, for These Smart Home Sensors” “There are a number of things on Tindie that I have been unable to find anywhere else at any price.”
Comment from 21 Apr 2026 in “Tindie store under "scheduled maintenance" for days” “Tindie is (was?) a pretty unique marketplace”
Comment from 21 Apr 2026 in “Tindie store under "scheduled maintenance" for days” Searchable index, easy browsing
“discoverability is a huge thing for tindie. I'll go there for something specific and pretty much every single time just poke around”
Comment from 21 Apr 2026 in “Tindie store under "scheduled maintenance" for days” “Word of mouth/discord/etc isn't nearly as a great a tool as a searchable refreshing index.”
Comment from 21 Apr 2026 in “Tindie store under "scheduled maintenance" for days” Liked by long-time users and buyers
“I really like Tindie as a platform and have been using it since nearly the beginning”
Comment from 21 Apr 2026 in “Tindie store under "scheduled maintenance" for days” “I really like Tindie and what they're doing”
Comment from 21 Apr 2026 in “Tindie store under "scheduled maintenance" for days” “I've bought some cool stuff off Tindie”
Comment from 21 Apr 2026 in “Tindie store under "scheduled maintenance" for days”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Multi-day outages and downtime
“it's been years since I remember any engineering team knocking out the entire site for days”
Comment from 21 Apr 2026 in “Tindie store under "scheduled maintenance" for days” “taking down the entire platform for weeks without any clear timeline or reasoning”
Comment from 29 Apr 2026 in “Tell HN: An update from the new Tindie team” “Makers' marketplace Tindie has been down for over a week”
Comment from 29 Apr 2026 in “Tell HN: An update from the new Tindie team” - Comment from 21 Apr 2026 in “Tindie store under "scheduled maintenance" for days”
Botched site move, poor handling
“It looks from the outside like a Chinese tech blog just randomly bought Tindie, broke the site while moving it to their own servers”
Comment from 29 Apr 2026 in “Tell HN: An update from the new Tindie team” “a professional development team should have been able to manage this switch with minimal to no downtime”
Comment from 21 Apr 2026 in “Tindie store under "scheduled maintenance" for days” “They must have really bungled something if they can't roll back and get the site operational again.”
Comment from 21 Apr 2026 in “Tindie store under "scheduled maintenance" for days” Poor communication and transparency
“The lack of clear communication and transparency around this whole issue has been appaling.”
Comment from 29 Apr 2026 in “Tell HN: An update from the new Tindie team” “Also zero information about the new owners other than the name of a shell corp”
Comment from 29 Apr 2026 in “Tell HN: An update from the new Tindie team” “I suspect something's much more broken than they're letting on.”
Comment from 21 Apr 2026 in “Tindie store under "scheduled maintenance" for days” Buggy site and unshipped features
“the site was supper buggy and failing to add things to cart”
Comment from 21 Apr 2026 in “Tindie store under "scheduled maintenance" for days” “basic features promised 10 years ago never shipped”
Comment from 21 Apr 2026 in “Tindie store under "scheduled maintenance" for days”
Other online marketplaces people recommend
The four most recommended other online marketplaces, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon | 238 | 605 | 28% | 13 | 10 yrs14 owners | — |
| eBay | 101 | 146 | 41% | 12 | 20 yrs13 owners | — |
| AliExpress | 62 | 76 | 45% | 12 | 3 yrs3 owners | — |
| Temu | 15 | 64 | 19% | 6 | — | — |
| TindieThis page | 11 | 13 | 46% | 2 | — | — |
What people said
24 of the 25 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Tindie has not paid me for the last month.”
“Also check out https://www.tindie.com/ - it's a site for small companies & individuals to sell tech-related stuff.”
“Tindie is great for this type of stuff, if OP needs a platform.”
“Makers' marketplace Tindie has been down for over a week”
“Also zero information about the new owners other than the name of a shell corp”
“It looks from the outside like a Chinese tech blog just randomly bought Tindie, broke the site while moving it to their own servers”
“taking down the entire platform for weeks without any clear timeline or reasoning”
“The lack of clear communication and transparency around this whole issue has been appaling.”
“discoverability is a huge thing for tindie. I'll go there for something specific and pretty much every single time just poke around”
“Word of mouth/discord/etc isn't nearly as a great a tool as a searchable refreshing index.”
“basic features promised 10 years ago never shipped”
“found a declined purchased for pizza on the now long-deactivated burner card”
“Scheduled maintenance in 2026 is insane”
“I really like Tindie as a platform and have been using it since nearly the beginning”
“a professional development team should have been able to manage this switch with minimal to no downtime”
“it's been years since I remember any engineering team knocking out the entire site for days”
“it has felt like a sinking ship for a long time”
“They must have really bungled something if they can't roll back and get the site operational again.”
“the site was supper buggy and failing to add things to cart”
“I suspect something's much more broken than they're letting on.”
“I've bought some cool stuff off Tindie”
“Tindie is (was?) a pretty unique marketplace”
“There are a number of things on Tindie that I have been unable to find anywhere else at any price.”
“I really like Tindie and what they're doing”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.