Happy New Year from Pascal and Eleanor at Horse Browser! After two years of development, fully-funded by you - our users - 2024 was the year that Horse Browser 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.
The turnaround
The summer still had its ups and downs. We were running low on funds to continue and we came towards a crisis moment. We knew we needed to understand more about our loyal users and that’s when the magic happened! Pascal scheduled chats with our top 10 users and these turned out to be incredibly important conversations. From discussing in-depth, we finally understood the best way to market and price our product. And, bang just like that, Horse Browser started getting recommended all over social media. Then we got hunted directly by Product Hunt. Suddenly, new users started pouring in like never before.
In the early days of Horse, we used to do a little dance every time we had a sale. Now, we just sat there, stunned, watching our notifications light up. It was incredible to see so many people discovering Horse, and even more rewarding to hear how it’s helping you stay focused and productive. Your feedback keeps us going—and yes, we’re still dancing for every kind word you send our way.
Horse’s first official tech press
To top it all off, Horse Browser received its first official reviews in the tech press this year! That was a surreal milestone and something we’ve dreamed about since Day One:
“Horse is unlike anything I’ve ever seen in this space… The resulting UI is unique, appealing, and clever.” [MacStories]
“Horse is a beautifully designed browser… It’s apparent that Horse’s creators spent just as much time thinking about how it looks as they did thinking about how it works… It’s not just yet another browser to be added to the pile but one that actually attempts to rethink how a browser should work on a fundamental level.” [Digital Trends]
Plus, Horse was named one of Creativerly’s favourite apps of 2024.
As well as new tech reviews, Horse is also getting an official recommendation, by a BACP-licensed psychotherapist, as a beneficial tool for neurodivergent minds. The added structure of Trails turns out to be a lifesaver for neurodivergent people, including those with ADHD and autism.
Final challenges
Of course, with the growth came new challenges. The support inbox got a little wild for a while, and all of Eleanor’s time was devoted to answering emails. But, by the end of 2024, we’d managed to automate some processes and Intercom granted us a start-up plan, freeing us up to focus on building new features and spreading the word about Horse in 2025.
Looking back, Horse Browser has transformed so much over the past 12 months—not just in terms of the number of users, but also in how the browser itself has evolved. Your ideas, enthusiasm, and encouragement are what make this journey so rewarding.
So, as we step into 2025, we want to say thank you. Thank you for being part of this community, for sharing Horse Browser with friends, and for trusting us to help you tackle your digital life.
And if there’s someone in your life who’s drowning in browser tabs, why not share Horse with them? Let’s make 2025 the year we all conquer the chaos together.
Here’s to another year of building Horse Browser 🥂
– Pascal & Eleanor
