Comments
>log in to commentI’ve spent 25 years building and selling adtech businesses, and I built Crossbar because ads have priced out indie builders. Add one script tag and a slim bar appears on your site, showing other builders’ sites and some paid headlines. In return, your site shows up across their sites. No ad budget, no tracking cookies, and your visitors can close it anytime. I’m here all day and would love blunt feedback. How do you currently get your side projects in front of people?
Crossbar is a free, dismissible top-bar you embed to trade your app’s exposure for traffic from other indie apps.
- for
- Indie app developers, weekend builders, micro-SaaS founders with no ad budget
- pricing
- free
Key features
- One-line embed — Add a single async script tag and a thin bar appears on your site.
- Dismissible UI — The bar is thin, pinned top (desktop) or bottom (mobile) and can be closed with one tap.
- Exposure trade network — Shows other apps and receives reciprocal traffic from a shared pool.
- Free forever — No card, contract or spend; the model is entirely barter-based.
- Paid sponsor slot — Roughly one in three slots is sold to advertisers, keeping the network free.
- Public directory listing — Each publisher gets an SEO-friendly directory entry for extra discoverability.
Use cases
- Get free traffic for a side-project without a CPM budget
- Increase visibility of a micro-SaaS early on limited runway
- Show other indie apps while earning reciprocal visits
- Add an SEO-friendly directory entry for your app
Crossbar vs alternatives
 Crossbar |  Mautic |  Void Analytics |  zippystarter | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Best for | Barter-based ad exchange for indie apps | Email campaigns | Marketing automation | User analytics | Quick site scaffolding |
| Pricing | Free | Subscription | Free | Subscription | One time fee |
| DevHunt upvotes | 1 | 0 | 0 | 17 | 111 |
| Launched | Oct 2026 | — | — | Mar 2024 | Jan 2023 |
- Crossbar vs Mailchimp: Email-focused marketing platform, not a barter ad bar
- Crossbar vs Mautic: Open-source marketing automation, not a cross-app exposure network
- Crossbar vs Void Analytics: Privacy-focused analytics, not an ad exchange
- Crossbar vs zippystarter: Static site starter, unrelated to ad/bar exchange
Crossbar FAQ
Is Crossbar actually free?+
Yes, publishers trade exposure at no cost—no card, contract or commitment required.
How does the exposure trade work?+
You display other apps in your bar; a shared pool returns exposure to your app, with about one-third of slots reserved for paid sponsors.
Will the bar slow down or clutter my app?+
It’s a tiny async script that never blocks content and is dismissible in a single tap.
What do I have to give up to use Crossbar?+
Only a sliver of screen real estate; no data resale, lock-in, or other obligations.
Summarized by DevHunt from crossbar.dev · Oct 17, 2026. Details may change; check the official site.
