Project 3
Launched: Day 3
April 11, 2025
IndieNamer: AI website name generator for indie hackers
An AI-powered tool that generates creative domain name ideas for your projects with instant availability checking.
ai
domain-names
indie
tools
Project Timeline
0.9h
Work Sessions
Day 4
April 12, 2025
Making a static front-end with Cloudflare pages for indienamer.com
42m
Setting up indienamer.com
11m
Launch Day
Day 3Backstory
I realized that I'm actually going to have to come up with 30 names for 30 projects during this challenge, and I think naming is really important. Does it roll off the tongue well? Is it memorable? Is it relatable? And critically - is it available as a .com domain?
For developers like me, the threshold for accepting projects on different TLDs is quite low. I'd happily visit a .lol domain if I'm interested in the project. But I don't believe most people would be comfortable paying for something on a non-.com domain. Even I'd be more vigilant about a purchase on a weird TLD, and many potential customers just wouldn't bother evaluating if it's trustworthy.
I've been using AI tools like Claude 3.7 and GPT-4 to generate domain names, but most suggestions aren't great - maybe a couple decent ones per hundred, and those are usually taken anyway. If you search online, there are many domain name generators, but they're not good and the service is too high-friction. Most are from the pre-LLM era and use word lists, which isn't bad necessarily, but I think you can do better out of the box with LLMs.
I wanted something really simple and to the point, where you describe your project, set some parameters like which TLDs to explore, click generate, and get domain suggestions that are better than what you'd get from a regular chat with an LLM. So I created a specialized prompt that generates more creative names than the default responses.
The Challenge
Create a simple, focused tool that helps developers and indie hackers find the perfect domain name for their projects. The challenge was to build something genuinely useful for my own needs during this 30-day challenge while keeping the scope manageable enough to ship quickly.
Features
- Input project description and get tailored domain suggestions
- Select preferred TLDs (.com, .app, etc.) or specify custom ones
- Customize preferences like domain length, hyphens, and brandability
- Generate multiple domain ideas with a single click
- Ability to steer generation in particular directions with specific wishes
Technical Implementation
The application is hosted on Cloudflare Workers for the frontend. When a user inputs their request, it sends a webhook to Make.com, which formats the request into a custom prompt and forwards it to OpenAI. The structured JSON response is then sent back to the website and rendered for the user.
Monetization
Several monetization paths are possible: affiliate partnerships with domain registrars like Namecheap (which doesn't cost users anything), a one-time purchase model where users can use it with their own API key, or a subscription/credit-based system based on how many domain names they want to generate.
What I Learned
I learned that you can host interactive apps on Cloudflare Pages, especially when combined with Cloudflare Workers for a complete serverless setup. For rapid prototyping, using Make.com provides a great balance of flexibility and ease of use, even though it's not the most cost-effective for high volumes.
This project reinforced my belief in using the right tool for the job. While I could have spent time building a custom backend, using Make.com let me iterate quickly and deploy faster. If traffic grows, I can always migrate to a more cost-effective solution later without users noticing any change - as long as it accepts the same webhook, users wouldn't even notice the difference.
I'm also seeing my strategy pay off - building tools that increase my own leverage as a solo developer, which in turn will help other indie hackers increase theirs too. These tools will make it more likely that I can complete all 30 projects while maintaining quality, and I'm already finding a lot of inspiration for domain name ideas for other projects with this tool.
Final Thoughts
I really enjoy well-named and well-branded products, so building this tool was personally satisfying. Even if users don't find the exact domain they want, they can find inspiration for better ideas. I plan to continue improving this tool throughout the challenge, as good naming is essential for all my projects, and there are a few adjacent areas I'd like to explore like brand asset generation.
I'm finding the domain names from this tool really helpful in stimulating my own creativity. Even when I don't find an exact domain match, I often get ideas that lead me to finding a domain I love. This makes IndieNamer valuable even beyond its direct suggestions.