Inaugural Hall of Fame

April 2026

The first class of inducted projects on RateProjects. These builders competed in Season 1 and shared their story.

How the Hall of Fame works

  • Each month, top projects are inducted after their builders share the story behind the build.
  • ELO never resets. The leaderboard runs continuously. Inductees keep battling.
  • Once inducted, retired. A project can only be inducted once — making room for new builders to be honored each month.
  • Frozen at induction. The stats below are captured at the moment of induction. Live ranks may differ.
Collaborative Pixel Canvas
Inducted as #1 overall

Collaborative Pixel Canvas

pixels.rocks

A shared pixel canvas where anyone can draw. Pick any color, protect your area, and create something together.

ELO at induction
1105
Battle record
73W · 33L
Win rate
69%
Interview with the builder
Anton
What made you build this?
Wanted to level up my full-stack skills and experiment with AI-assisted development (vibe-coding with Claude). r/place was the inspiration — loved the collaborative chaos. Plus the domain showed up on sale at the perfect moment, took it as a sign.
How long from idea to launch?
The idea was floating around for a while, but with AI agents maturing, I built the MVP in evenings over July-August 2025. Launched in October.
Tech stack?
Python (FastAPI, WebSockets, Celery, OpenCV, PIL), React (TypeScript, Canvas API, Web Workers), Redis, PostgreSQL. Infrastructure: k3s, Helm, Ansible, Hetzner + Terraform.
The hardest part so far?
Honestly — growth. Getting people to the site. Technically, AI accelerated everything massively. The steepest learning curve was deployment automation (Terraform + k3s) since I knew nothing about it, but Claude turned weeks into days.
What's next?
Launching custom template uploads soon (with CV algorithms to crop and pixelate raster images). The main focus is audience growth — pushing timelapse content on TikTok, Reels, YouTube to show the creative process.
Navsy
Inducted as #2 at time of interview

Navsy

formerly Trip Planner HQ

navsy.app

A travel planning app that combines itineraries, budgets, and real-time expense tracking — so you can plan trips you can actually afford.

ELO at induction
1041
Battle record
41W · 27L
Win rate
60%
currently #4 on the live leaderboard
Interview with the builder
Vebjørn
What made you build this?
I built it out of frustration. I kept juggling notes apps, spreadsheets, currency converters, and booking emails while traveling. Planning was scattered, and tracking spending during the trip was even worse. I wanted one place that handled both planning and money — before and during the trip.
How long from idea to launch?
Roughly a few months from first idea to an early usable version. It's been iterated continuously since then in public, with features evolving based on real travel use cases.
Tech stack?
Web app built with React, TypeScript, and a modern backend stack. Deployed on Vercel, with a PostgreSQL database and integrations for payments and APIs. iOS is currently in progress alongside the web version.
The hardest part so far?
Balancing scope with quality as a solo builder. There are endless features you could add, but keeping the product focused while still genuinely useful — especially around multi-currency expense tracking — has been the biggest challenge.
What's next?
Finishing the iOS app, improving onboarding, and making expense tracking during the trip even faster. Longer-term: more collaborative trip features and smarter budget insights.

Want to be in next month's Hall of Fame?

Top projects on the leaderboard get inducted each month. Submit your project, climb the rankings, and tell your story.