Indie hackers live or die by runway, and software subscriptions eat runway fast. The good news: in 2026 you can cover writing, visuals, video, research and organisation with free AI tools, as long as you choose by free-tier limits rather than by marketing pages. Start with a broad comparison rather than a single recommendation list. The Free AI Tools Guide (https://freeaitoolsguide.com/) organises tools by category, which makes it easy to pick one tool per job and ignore the rest. Writing comes first for most builders: landing page copy, changelogs, onboarding emails, documentation. The free AI writing tools roundup (https://freeaitoolsguide.com/ai-writing-tools/) compares free allowances, which matters when you are shipping weekly updates. Visuals decide first impressions. Free AI image generators (https://freeaitoolsguide.com/ai-image-generators/) can produce landing page illustrations, social graphics and concept art — check watermark and commercial-use terms before shipping anything customer-facing. Video is where free tiers bite hardest: minutes per month, resolution caps, watermarks. The free AI video tools overview (https://freeaitoolsguide.com/ai-video-tools/) lays out those limits before you build a workflow around one tool. Underneath it all sits the chatbot layer for brainstorming, research and rubber-duck debugging. The free AI chatbot guide (https://freeaitoolsguide.com/ai-chatbots/) compares the main free options. Finally, organisation: free AI productivity tools (https://freeaitoolsguide.com/ai-productivity/) summarise research, draft outreach and keep a solo roadmap on track. Rules for the free tier life: read the limits before you depend on a tool; keep one backup per category; edit everything in your own voice. Pick one tool per category, ship for a month, then judge.