Find the people asking for the tool you could build
Type your niche. Get ready-made searches for “is there a tool that…”, “alternative to…”, “would pay for…” and 4 more buyer phrases on Reddit, Hacker News and Indie Hackers. No more hand-writing search operators.
Try: invoicing for freelancers · scheduling for dog groomers · crm for real estate agents · inventory for etsy sellers
A real example: “invoicing for freelancers”
These are the exact links PainScout builds for that niche (2 of the 7 groups shown). Click one: it opens a live search.
Is there a tool / app that
People asking out loud whether a product exists: the clearest sign of an unmet need.
- Google · Reddit
site:reddit.com ("is there a tool" OR "is there an app" OR "is there a way to") invoicing for freelancers - Reddit search
("is there a tool" OR "is there an app") invoicing for freelancers - Google · Hacker News
site:news.ycombinator.com ("is there a tool" OR "is there an app" OR "is there a way to") invoicing for freelancers - HN Algolia
"is there a tool" invoicing for freelancers - Google · Indie Hackers
site:indiehackers.com ("is there a tool" OR "is there an app" OR "is there a way to") invoicing for freelancers
Looking for a tool
Active buyers describing what they want, often with budget and must-have features.
- Google · Reddit
site:reddit.com ("looking for a tool" OR "looking for an app" OR "looking for software") invoicing for freelancers - Reddit search
("looking for a tool" OR "looking for an app") invoicing for freelancers - Google · Hacker News
site:news.ycombinator.com ("looking for a tool" OR "looking for an app" OR "looking for software") invoicing for freelancers - HN Algolia
"looking for a tool" invoicing for freelancers - Google · Indie Hackers
site:indiehackers.com ("looking for a tool" OR "looking for an app" OR "looking for software") invoicing for freelancers
Why these searches work
- They match how people ask. Buyers rarely type your product category. They write “is there an app that…” or “how do you handle…”.
- They cover the places founders and early adopters talk. Reddit, Hacker News and Indie Hackers, through Google’s
site:operator and each site’s own search. - Each group has a reason. “Alternative to” finds people already paying a competitor; “would pay for” finds people telling you the price.
Want to write your own? Read the guide to Reddit, Hacker News and Google search operators.
Export: the threads, ranked (US$ 9)
Skip the clicking. The export fetches matching Hacker News stories and comments from the last 2 years when you ask, removes duplicates and ranks them with a published formula. Every row says why it scored what it did.
Full export
US$ 9 one-time
- Up to 100 ranked threads with score, reason, date, link and an excerpt
- CSV download for your spreadsheet
- Re-run the same query as often as you like for 30 days
- Top 3 rows free before you pay
Version 1 covers Hacker News only. Reddit blocks requests from our servers, so Reddit and Indie Hackers stay in the free links.
How the score works
| Part | Rule | Points |
|---|---|---|
| Pain | Each distinct pain phrase (“is there a tool”, “alternative to”, “would pay for”, “frustrated with”…): +15 in the title, +10 if only in the text. | 0–50 |
| Relevance | 20 × share of your keywords found in the title or text. | 0–20 |
| Recency | 25 × 0.5^(age in days ÷ 90). Halves every 90 days. | 0–25 |
| Discussion | floor(log2(1 + comments or answers)). | 0–5 |
Score = sum, rounded, 0–100. Ties go to the newer thread. Same thread on the same day always gets the same score.
FAQ
Is the generator really free?
Yes. No sign-up, no limit on searches. Type a niche, open the links. The page also works without JavaScript and every result has its own shareable URL.
What does the $9 export add?
The threads themselves. PainScout fetches matching Hacker News stories and comments at request time, removes duplicates, scores each one from 0 to 100 for pain and recency, and gives you a ranked list plus a CSV. You see the top 3 rows free before paying.
Why does the export cover only Hacker News?
Version 1 reads only sources that answer our servers without logins or keys. Hacker News (through its public Algolia API) does. Reddit blocks requests from our servers (HTTP 403), so Reddit stays in the free one-click links, which work in your own browser. We will add sources only when they can be read within their rules.
Do I need an account?
No. When you unlock an export you get a private link (a long random key). Keep it: it opens your export and lets you re-run it for 30 days. We never ask for your email; Stripe sends you the receipt.
Is the score AI?
No. It is a fixed formula published on this page: pain phrases found, how many of your keywords match, how recent the thread is and how much discussion it has. Every row shows the reason for its score.
Do you scrape websites?
No. The export only calls the public Hacker News search API (by Algolia), with no keys or logins, cached for 6 hours so repeated searches do not hit it again.
Who makes this
PainScout was specified in public in a conversation with Grok on X and built by Claude for SaaSCron, which makes small, honest tools for people running software businesses. It is new, so there are no testimonials here: try the free links and judge for yourself.