The Indie Founder's Guide to In-App Changelogs

If you’re a solo founder or tiny team, you already know the pain:

• You’re shipping new stuff constantly.
• You don’t have a marketing team.
• Users keep saying, “Oh, I didn’t know you added that…”

An in-app changelog is one of the highest-leverage tools you can add to your product as an indie. It makes you look bigger than you are, keeps users excited, and turns a steady stream of small improvements into a visible story of momentum.

ChangeTiny exists specifically for this use case: a simple “drop-in” in-app changelog for products that can’t afford to waste time building their own.

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Why indies need in-app changelogs even more than big teams

Enterprise teams have:

• Product marketing managers
• Customer success teams
• Quarterly launch campaigns

You have… probably you.

A good in-app changelog gives you:

1. Free, always-on marketing inside the product
2. A public record of momentum (“we’re alive and improving”)
3. A place to send people when they ask “what’s new?”

This is especially important when you compete with bigger players—your ability to move fast and show progress is one of your unfair advantages.

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What setup looks like (the simple version)

Here’s what a realistic indie-friendly setup looks like using ChangeTiny:

1. Add one script snippet to your app (or website, or WordPress, or Webflow). If you can add Google Analytics, you can add this.

2. Pick a default display mode (start with a badge + changelog feed).

3. Create your first 3–5 posts (see prompts below).

4. Commit to updating it whenever you push to production.

You don’t need complex segmentation or automation on day one. The key is to build the habit.

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Easy prompts for your first posts

Steal these and fill in the blanks:

1. “We fixed X so you can Y.”

   “We fixed how filters behave on the dashboard so you can slice your data without random resets.”

2. “We added X, here’s how to try it.”

   “We added a reusable templates library. You’ll see a ‘Browse templates’ button when you create a new project.”

3. “We improved X because you told us Y.”

   “You told us invitations were confusing, so we simplified the ‘Invite’ flow and added role labels.”

4. “Here’s what we shipped this month.” Small teams often underestimate the impact of a simple monthly wrap-up.

If you want a head start, you can even paste these prompts directly into ChangeTiny and reuse them every week.

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Where ChangeTiny fits in the indie stack

Indie founders tend to use:

• Stripe / Lemon Squeezy for payments
• Fathom / Plausible / GA for analytics
• Simple email tools or no marketing automation at all

ChangeTiny slots in as your “inside the product” marketing channel, sitting next to those tools instead of replacing them.

You keep:

• Your lightweight stack
• Your dev velocity
• Your ability to ship small improvements weekly

…while making sure users actually see what you’re doing.

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Don’t overthink the design

It’s tempting to obsess over the perfect changelog layout. Don’t.

• Use your brand colors.
• Use one primary CTA style.
• Use simple headings like “New”, “Improved”, “Fixed”.

Tools like ChangeTiny handle the actual UI for you (badge, top bar, corner card, popup, and the feed itself). You just bring the content.

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Tiny team, big presence

You don’t need a marketing department to:

• Look alive
• Show progress
• Make users feel included in the journey

You just need a habit:

Every time you ship, you tell users what changed where they actually are.

That’s the indie superpower an in-app changelog gives you.

You ship. ChangeTiny tells the story.