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I moved justship.now to the front of my portfolio because visitors could use it immediately: it is a curated directory of developer and startup tools, not a product still waiting behind an early-access gate. That made it the better project to put first for now—not a permanent verdict on another idea or on SaaS.
What justship.now offers visitors
justship.now combines a curated software directory with a build-in-public blog. Its homepage described it as a resource for developers, indie hackers, and startup builders. When I checked the live site on October 7, 2026, it displayed 145 tools across 28 browse categories.
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The categories cover different stages of building and operating a product: ideation and planning, development, infrastructure and deployment, and growth and operations. In the browse directory, that includes areas such as frameworks, databases, authentication, APIs, testing, payments, hosting, monitoring, email, marketing, and analytics.
The site says I have used or directly checked each listed tool. It also says there is no listing fee or submission form: visitors can suggest a tool, and a person reviews suggestions before anything is added. That approach makes the directory a point of view, not an attempt to include every available product.
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Why I chose a directory over another SaaS
A new SaaS can be ambitious, but ambition does not make a product useful to a visitor today. I wanted the project at the top of my portfolio to offer something people could browse without waiting for access, a launch, or a feature roadmap. justship.now already had a practical job: help someone find tools for building and running a software business.
The trade-off is that curation is slower than accepting every submission. I have to decide what belongs, keep the entries useful, and accept that my selection reflects my judgment. As I put it in my August 30, 2026 essay: “Curation is slower and it’s the only version of this that I’d trust enough to send a friend to.” That is my reason for choosing this model, not proof that curated directories are objectively better.
The live count also needs a date attached. The current homepage showed 145 tools when checked on October 7, 2026. My August essay described the directory as having well over a hundred and included a 300+ figure in its FAQ; a HackerNoon republication on August 31 said “Just over 300.” Those older descriptions conflict with the later homepage count, so I would not combine them into a single growth claim.
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The choice is not simply between a curated directory and a SaaS. It is also a choice about what kind of discovery a visitor needs. These distinctions reflect how I think about the options, rather than a comprehensive assessment of every directory or community.
| Discovery model | What it is useful for | Trade-off in my view |
|---|---|---|
| Curated directory such as justship.now | An ongoing shortlist organized around categories and an editor’s selections. | Editorial review can make a smaller list easier to trust, but it limits breadth and takes time to maintain. |
| Community-maintained GitHub “awesome lists” | Finding tools collected around a particular topic or ecosystem. | The collection depends on community contributions and continued maintenance. |
| Crowdsourced directories such as PeerPush and 1000.tools | Browsing categorized products and community-submitted entries. | Submission can broaden discovery, while the visitor may need to do more of the evaluation. |
| Product Hunt | Discovering products around launch time. | I see it as more useful for launch-day discovery than as an evergreen catalog of tools. |
If you are choosing where to look, start with the job: a launch audience, broad crowdsourced coverage, a community-maintained collection, or an edited shortlist are different needs. A directory also does not remove the need to check whether a tool fits your requirements, pricing, security expectations, and current product status.
Why immediate access mattered in the makers.page comparison
When I wrote about the portfolio decision on August 30, 2026, makers.page’s Marketing Assistant MCP was still behind early access and a waitlist. That timing mattered to my choice: justship.now was already available to visitors, while the other project was not yet something most visitors could use immediately.
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This is a comparison of their availability at that moment, not a claim that one project is permanently better or that makers.page remains in the same state today. My portfolio order is a current choice, and I may revisit it as the projects change.
What this choice does—and does not—establish
Putting a directory first says what I want a portfolio visitor to encounter; it does not show that the directory improves search rankings, generates a particular amount of traffic, or earns revenue. My August essay points readers to a separate discussion of SEO, but the figures available here do not establish an SEO effect. The tool count is an inventory snapshot, not a performance metric.
Best Value
The live directory contains vendor links and opinionated descriptions, but the reviewed pages do not establish affiliate participation, referral tracking, or commissions. If commercial relationships are introduced, they should be disclosed and should not determine editorial inclusion. The present case for justship.now is simpler: it gives a visitor a useful place to start now, and I prefer that to leading with a product that was still gated when I made the decision.
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