Small tech in 2025

Big tech can fend for itself. For me, small tech — home to all manner of creative computer weirdos — is where the fun is at. Here are some trends I’m keeping an eye on:

The open social web hit its stride in 2024. Idealists and software nerds got organized: the Social Web Foundation emerged to steward the ActivityPub ecosystem, Free Our Feeds started holding ATProto’s feet to the decentralized fire, and A New Social began building bridges between open networks. Independent researchers brought focus to the challenges of decentralized governance while nonprofits developed new resources for federated moderation. And, in early 2025, Mastodon took big steps toward community ownership.

Creative tinkerers have leveraged the social web’s openness to build interesting indie businesses. Surf.social ships an innovative UI for exploring open social content. Murmel sends top stories from your feed directly to your inbox. Mastohost makes it easy to self-host Mastodon. And Micro.blog continues to thoughtfully explore new directions.

Novel use of large language models

While big tech spins its wheels on “agentic” AI hype, small tech is discovering creative and force-multiplying new uses for LLMs.

I’m particularly excited about systems where humans stay in tight feedback loops with LLMs. AI code assistants are a good example: LLMs suggest completions that developers can quickly accept, reject, or refine, often improving results by adding comments or type hints. These rapid feedback cycles are powerful but feel like just the beginning. Editor workflow innovations in 2024 from Cursor and Windsurf AI, along with chat UX features like Anthropic’s Artifacts, suggest where they might go next.

Beyond dev tools, researchers like Amelia Wattenberger, Linus Lee, Tony Beltramelli, Maggie Appleton, and Shawn Wang are all exploring LLM-powered user experiences built on tight feedback loops. Meanwhile, services like CityMeetings.nyc show the potential for LLMs to transmute unstructured content into actionable insight, with humans auditing and refining the output. Impressively, CityMeetings is a one-person project!

With the help of LLMs, indie devs have the tools to craft more magical, user-centered experiences like these.

Experiments in local-first

While LLMs uncover insights and enhance user experiences, small tech must also ensure users retain control over their data. That’s why I pay attention when Martin Kleppmann and Adam Wiggins explore new software architectures. Their concept of local-first software — applications that store data locally, work offline, and sync with other devices when possible — aligns nicely with the ethos of small tech and the open social web.

In his fun-to-read predictions for 2025, Tom MacWright anticipates that “local-first will have a breakthrough moment”. The technical challenges — building sync engines, resolving conflicts, and managing schema migrations — remain substantial, so I don’t expect to see a true market breakthrough. That said, new frameworks like Zero, Electric, and Jazz show that indie devs will keep pushing the envelope.

Sustainable and small

I’m always drawn to indie software shops that eschew “traditional” VC financing in favor of a focus on sustainable growth and personal independence. I’m delighted by the sheer amount of technical depth, art, whimsy, and nerdy joy I’m seeing from today’s crop of small tech startups. Creative experimentation is alive and well. While big tech keeps embiggening, small tech is quietly shaping a more humane and thoughtful future.