The Indie Hacker’s Guide to MRR (and Why Simple Beats Complex)
Published September 9, 2025
If you’ve been building projects for a while, you’ve probably seen the acronym MRR thrown around.
MRR stands for Monthly Recurring Revenue — and it’s the heartbeat of any subscription-based business. For indie hackers, though, it’s more than just a finance metric. MRR is the difference between:
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side project vs. real business
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hobby income vs. ramen profitability
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dreaming vs. quitting your job
But here’s the catch: most resources on MRR are written for venture-backed startups, not indie devs. They bury you in acronyms (CAC, LTV, ARR, NRR 🤯) when all you really want to know is:
👉 How many users do I need, and how long will it take to hit $1k MRR?
What is MRR, really?
At its simplest:
MRR = number of paying customers × price per customer per month
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10 customers paying $10/month → $100 MRR
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50 customers paying $20/month → $1,000 MRR
That’s it. Nothing fancy.
Where it gets messy is when you try to project MRR into the future. Do you account for churn? Upgrades? Downgrades? Annual billing? Failed payments?
You can include all of that. But early on, that’s like bringing a whiteboard full of equations to your morning coffee.
The Indie Problem with MRR Calculators
Most “MRR calculators” you’ll find online were designed for investors and finance teams.
They assume you’re tracking a dozen variables. They ask for inputs you probably don’t even have yet. They give you a spreadsheet instead of clarity.
And they don’t answer the one indie-first question:
When will I hit ramen profitability?
A Simpler Approach
When you boil it down, early-stage SaaS (or subscription-based indie projects) only need three levers:
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Plan Price ($/month)
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New Users per Month
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Churn Rate (%)
That’s it.
The algorithm:
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New MRR = New Users × Plan Price
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Churned MRR = Current MRR × Churn Rate
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MRR_next = Current MRR + New MRR − Churned MRR
Run that over time and you’ll see:
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When you’ll hit $100, $1k, $10k MRR
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How many customers it takes to get there
No jargon. No spreadsheets. Just straight answers.
Why This Matters for Indie Devs
Indie hackers think in milestones:
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$100 → proof that strangers will pay you
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$1k → ramen profitable
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$10k → quit-your-job or fund-your-team money
These milestones are motivational fuel. Knowing the timeline at your current pace can change how you work this week.
Instead of “I hope this grows,” you can say:
“If I keep adding 10 users a month at $19 each, I’ll hit $1k in 7 months.”
That clarity is priceless.
The Indie10k Angle
At Indie10k, we believe in building tools that fit the indie reality.
That’s why we created the Profitability Path Tool — a lightweight MRR simulator designed for solo founders and small teams.
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3 sliders, not 20 inputs
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Milestone timeline ($100 → $1k → $10k)
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A simple growth curve to visualize your path
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Optional: turn projections into actionable Indie10k missions
📈 Try it here → Profitability Path Tool
Final Thought
MRR doesn’t need to be complicated.
You don’t need a finance degree to understand your growth.
What you need is clarity: how many users, how long, and what’s next.
If you’re serious about growing your project, Indie10k is here to help. We turn fuzzy goals into clear milestones and daily actions so you can keep momentum going. Join the community of indie hackers tracking their path to $10k MRR, share your wins, and stay accountable.