15 apps you can vibe code instead of subscribing

I built Vibecode It Yourself to help you find small apps worth building with a coding agent.

It now has 109 app and service ideas. Each has its own guide, with a complete build prompt and a specific version of the product to aim for.

You can look up Slack, for example, and get a plan for a small team’s chat app. Or pick something you could finish much sooner, like a page of links or an image compressor.

I wrote about the original launch when the catalog was much smaller. Here are 15 guides I would look through to choose a project.

Start with a tool you can use yourself

The easiest projects have a short path from building to using. You already have the links, images, or information the app needs. Once it works, you can try it on your own work.

1. A Linktree alternative

The Linktree build guide starts with an avatar, a short bio, and an ordered list of links. Publish it on your own domain.

The basic estimate is 30 minutes. Reordering, drafts, and click counts belong to the larger version. You can decide whether you need them after your page is online.

2. A TinyPNG alternative

Build your own image compressor that runs in the browser. Drop in images, compress them, and download the results.

This is a good project if you regularly prepare images for a website. The originals can stay on your computer. Start with compression and downloads, then add quality controls and a comparison preview.

3. A Bitly alternative

The Bitly replacement guide covers short links, redirects, and click counts.

A link like yourdomain.com/course can point somewhere different later, without changing the URL you already shared. Validate destinations and make sure two links cannot claim the same short name.

4. A Day One alternative

Build your own private journal with dated entries, tags, and search.

The guide focuses on a local app for one computer. Photos and backup export can come next. Multi-device synchronization is a much larger project, so choose this one if a local journal fits how you write.

5. A Splitwise alternative

The Splitwise build guide is for housemates or a trip group keeping track of shared expenses.

Record who paid, split the amount, and calculate who owes whom. The app records settlements; people transfer the money separately. Unequal splits and rounding give you useful problems to work through with your agent.

Build around a workflow you already have

A tool gets more interesting when it handles a small piece of your business. Keep the first version tied to the way you work, so you can test it with familiar examples.

6. A Typeform alternative

Build your own Typeform-style form for client intake, applications, or a questionnaire.

The basic version shows one question at a time and saves responses in a table. Add CSV export when you need to use those answers elsewhere. A visual form builder and payment fields can wait.

7. A Calendly alternative

The Calendly build guide starts with one meeting type, weekly availability, and bookings.

Calendar synchronization and timezones need more work. Two guests trying to reserve the same slot must produce one booking. That is worth testing before you send the link to a client.

8. A Toggl Track alternative

Build your own time tracker with a start button, a stop button, and a weekly view.

Allow manual corrections, because you will eventually forget to stop it. Project labels and reports can follow. You can learn plenty from a timer you use yourself before adding team features.

9. A Sortly alternative

The Sortly replacement guide focuses on inventory for a small workshop or storage room.

Keep a list of items and locations, then record stock coming in and going out. A movement history helps explain why the count changed. QR labels and low-stock alerts are useful additions once the quantities are reliable.

10. A Content Snare alternative

Build your own client content collector if you spend time chasing logos, page copy, or attachments.

Give the client a private request page. They can save answers and upload files; you can accept each item or ask for changes. Reminders should stop when the requested work is complete.

Give the larger ideas a small first version

These are appealing projects, especially if you already pay for the original. Read the scope carefully before choosing one.

11. A Trello alternative

Build your own task board with columns and cards you can move between them.

Start with one board. Add checklists or due dates when your work needs them. The guide leaves out the integrations marketplace and portfolio features.

12. A Notion alternative

The Notion build guide focuses on a team wiki with nested Markdown pages and search.

That is a useful replacement if documentation is what you use Notion for. Databases, formulas, and simultaneous editing would change the project considerably. Read the non-goals before handing the prompt to your agent.

13. A Slack alternative

How to vibe code your own Slack alternative is the ambitious one in this selection.

The first version has channels, messages, and threads for a small internal team. Private-channel permissions have to work in search and attachment downloads too. Voice calls and mobile apps are outside the proposed build.

I would choose this as a project to spend time on, with people available to test it. I would start somewhere smaller for a first attempt at vibe coding.

14. A Statuspage alternative

Build your own public status page with service states and incident updates.

The page gives customers somewhere to check during an outage. Automated monitoring is a separate job. If you host this alongside the service it describes, consider what customers will see when that hosting fails too.

15. A YNAB alternative

The YNAB build guide is for a private budget with accounts, spending categories, and manually entered transactions.

CSV import and reconciliation come in the larger version. Bank connections and moving money stay outside the scope. Start with sample transactions and check that the balances and category totals agree before relying on it.

The guide gives your agent a smaller job

Each guide has a basic estimate, a more complete first version, and an estimate for the much larger product. Those are planning estimates. Your experience and the checks the app needs will affect the time.

The Linktree example shows why the version matters. A public profile with a few links is a short project. Hosting other people’s profiles, collecting payments, and maintaining a theme marketplace adds work you may never need.

The full prompts describe the user journeys, screens, stored data, permissions, and tests. They also say which features to leave out. Choose the AHA stack, Next.js, Laravel, or Ruby on Rails, then adjust the prompt for your own needs.

If you choose AHA and want to understand the generated app, my AHA Stack introduction explains how the pieces fit. The free Astro course walks through pages, components, and the framework underneath it.

You can also take a smaller feature from a guide. There are four standalone prompts per app. You could work on a booking conflict check or a journal backup before committing to the whole product.

Pick the one you would keep using

Building the app also gives you responsibility for its data, updates, and failures. I wrote more about that in build vs buy software.

For this exercise, I would choose something I could try myself without moving a team’s important work into it. Use the first version, reload it, export its data, and check what happens when something fails.

Browse the guides on Vibecode It Yourself, pick one that fits a real need, and read its build prompt.

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