Why MakerNear exists

MakerNear exists to make small workshops findable in their own city, without a marketplace taking a cut of their work.

Small workshops are hard to find

Most are one or two people with good machines and no marketing budget. Off the big marketplaces you are invisible; on them you pay a commission, compete on price with overseas sellers, and the platform owns your customer. MakerNear is a directory, not a marketplace. Buyers find you, the enquiry goes straight to your inbox, and we take no percentage of the work.

Local matters more than people think

Shipping is a real cost, and it bites hardest during prototyping, when a part goes back and forth three or four times before it is right. A workshop in the same city usually removes that cost entirely, cuts days off the turnaround, and means you can drive over and look at the part.

Makers should be able to talk to each other

A forum for listed makers is in development, open to makers only: local hurdles and how others got past them, sourcing — materials, stock, machine time, who has capacity this week — and passing work between workshops. An enquiry that is the wrong process, too big, or due tomorrow should not be a dead end; it should be easy to hand to someone who can do it. Competing quietly in separate corners suits the big platforms. It does not suit makers.

Where this is going

Listing is free now and stays free. No listing fee, no charge per enquiry, and no commission on your work. If that ever changed, every listed maker would get three to six months' notice by email first — nobody wakes up to a new bill. The intention is that MakerNear pays for itself through sponsors and advertising rather than by charging the workshops on it. As the site earns, that money goes into advertising the makers listed here — search and social ads sending work to them — and into the community around it. Making things is getting cheaper and more capable every year, and independent workshops should be the ones who benefit from that.

This is early, and shaped by the makers on it

If something would make MakerNear more useful to your workshop, say so — that is what decides what gets built next. Write to hello@makernear.com, or list your workshop if you are not on it yet.

MakerNear is operated from Melbourne, Australia (ABN 20 147 316 802). · How MakerNear works · hello@makernear.com