📬 Letters from our users | Moe Chaieb

Moe's story

As a solo indie dev, Moonbase has been one of the most valuable tools in my entire stack. I honestly don't know how I would've launched my plugin business without it.

Background

I come from a programming background, and I've been producing music on and off for years — sometimes professionally, but mostly as a deep personal passion. Over time, I developed a huge appreciation for plugins — not just what they do, but how they shape creative workflows. Eventually, I started to see a gap in the market for tools that didn't just introduce new effects, but that reimagined how you could use the plugins you already own.

That led me to start time off audio, a one-man company focused on building meta-plugins — tools that act as a layer on top of your existing plugin library, unlocking new creative and functional possibilities. Our first product, dime [tt], lets producers separate transient and tonal parts of their audio and route them through different plugin chains — like multiband processing, but for sound structure. It's a deceptively simple concept with a lot of depth, and it's resonated with the kind of users we're building for: people who want flexible, thoughtful tools that fit into their workflow rather than disrupt it.

Launching dime [tt] while building the business from scratch — alone — was wild

I was handling everything: coding the plugin itself, writing the website, marketing, support, infrastructure, legal… you name it. And I was getting bogged down in a lot of things that had nothing to do with the creative or technical vision. I looked at using Stripe directly, but quickly hit the wall with things like VAT handling, copy protection, and user management. I knew that if I didn't find a better backend solution, I'd burn out or delay the launch forever.

That's when I found Moonbase.

What made Moonbase stand out immediately was the fact that it wasn't just another licensing SDK or payment processor — it was a full platform that understood what a plugin developer actually needs. You offer the whole stack: licensing, checkout, vouchers and discounts, VAT collection, customer accounts, refunds, affiliate programs — everything. And it all just works.

In the early days, I used the hosted customer portal, which let me launch without having to build any UI or infrastructure. Customers could sign up, download the plugin, and activate it in a few clicks — and I didn't have to write a single line of backend code. That was a huge win for getting to market fast.

But as the business grew, I wanted to build a more custom experience

I started working with your Node.js SDK to integrate Moonbase deeper into my Next.js/React site. With a few tweaks and your help, I now have a full internal SDK that powers customer accounts, license activations, order management, and more — all within my own UI. That flexibility is gold for indie developers like me who want to stay lean but still build polished, custom experiences.

Beyond the tech, Moonbase has been super helpful in making me feel like a real company. The affiliate system helped me partner with creators on YouTube and Instagram. The voucher tools were key in signing distribution deals with marketplaces like Plugin Boutique. And just having a legit copy protection system and license activation flow helped me launch with confidence — I wasn't shipping a half-baked MVP, I was shipping a product.

The built-in email integrations also helped me discover MailerLite and bring it into my stack — much better pricing than Mailchimp, and the integration with Moonbase made it a no-brainer.

Today, I'm about 6 months into running time off audio

dime [tt] is doing well, and I've got two more products in the pipeline — all based on the same vision of building thoughtful, creative-first tools that empower music makers. I'm still wearing all the hats, but Moonbase takes a lot of the weight off my shoulders and lets me focus on product and community.

Long-term, I want time off audio to become a name that producers trust not just for cool effects, but for smart, well-designed utilities that fit right into their creative flow. And Moonbase has already proven that it can scale with me as I grow. It's one of the rare tools I use that feels just as right for day-one indie developers as it does for bigger plugin companies.

Thanks again for all the support — it's been an amazing experience working with you so far.

Best,

Moe