Welcome to the Rider’s Digest blog, where we share behind-the-scenes updates on Horse and what it’s really like to build an indie browser from scratch.

Hello Riders, and Happy New Year! After two years of development, fully-funded by you - our users - 2024 was the year that Horse took off. We want to thank everyone who supported our indie browser and the 1000+ users who joined us on the Trail. It was truly an amazing year. And we’re determined to make 2025 even better.

In fact, we’ve already launched our first update of the year which introduces some super cool features:

• Organise like a pro: Select multiple Trails at once to create folders, export, or delete them in bulk. Streamlining your Trails has never been faster! 🗂️
• Search your way: We’ve added more search engine options, including Perplexity, Startpage, Swisscows, MetaGer, Searx, and Gigablast. Take back control of your search experience! 🔎
• Konnichiwa, Japan! Horse Browser is now available in Japanese 🇯🇵

So, if you’re looking to get organised in 2025, remember Horse is here to help. And we’ve got some major features in the pipeline this year! We can’t wait to share.

Looking back, we’re really proud of the progress Horse made in 2024. With the introduction of our import/export tool, in-browser notes, a built-in password manager, and organisational folders, users were able to streamline their workflows and stop jumping between their browser and notes app.

We feel like we’re on the way to taking the web browser back to what it always should have been: a professional, organisational tool that helps you get stuff done.

As we kick off 2025, we wanted to share the highs and lows of building our indie browser. Saddle up; it’s been quite the ride!

2024: What a Ride! 🎢

2024 was a rollercoaster for Horse Browser. As a two-person team building a browser from scratch, we knew we were in for a challenge—but we didn’t realise just how much stamina and belief we’d need to keep going…

The uphill struggle

At the start of 2024, we were really struggling with the marketing side of running a SAAS. As a two-person, bootstrapped team, it often felt like we were climbing a mountain without a map. While we had a loyal group of users, we were really struggling to get the word out to the wider world. It was daunting, to say the least.

But then something shifted. Pascal turned a hate email (yes, really!) into a memorable discount code (suggested by follower @exsoylentgreen) that had new users flocking to Horse Browser. Around the same time, positive reviews from the PKM (personal knowledge management) community gave us a much-needed morale boost. For the first time, we began to believe: we can actually do this.