For founders
Describe the product tonight. Open it at its own address.
Mend, a booking app for independent physiotherapists, was built from the sentence below. It is live at physio-diary.instroc.app.
What it got with nothing to set up: sign-in and accounts · a database · each person sees their own · a live address.
What a first version costs
Every part a first version needs, and the plan that covers it. Read from our plan table.
| Part | Included from |
|---|---|
| Sign-in and accounts | Free |
| Its own database | Free |
| File storage | Free |
| Scheduled jobs | Free |
| A live address on instroc.app | Free |
| Payments to your own account | Hobby |
| Your own domain | Hobby |
Hobby covers it$6/month
One plan includes every line, so the total is one subscription. Building spends credits and a running app spends hosting usage, and every plan includes some of both. Payments go straight to your account.
Five more sentences to paste
Each builds a working app with the parts listed beside it. A part that needs a paid plan says which.
The waitlist
A waitlist for my app with a referral link for each person, a place in line that moves up with every friend who joins, and a page that shows it.
- Sign-in and accounts · A database · A live address
- Sign-in and accounts
- A database
- A live address
The paid archive
A newsletter archive where anyone reads the latest three issues and members who pay monthly read everything.
- Sign-in and accounts · A database · Payments to your account (Hobby and up)
- Sign-in and accounts
- A database
- Payments to your account (Hobby and up)
The investor update
An investor update page: each month I post the numbers and a note, and only the people I invite can sign in and read it.
- Sign-in and accounts · A database · Each person sees their own
- Sign-in and accounts
- A database
- Each person sees their own
The marketplace
A marketplace for second-hand climbing gear: sellers list items with photos, buyers message the seller, and sold items come down after a week.
- Sign-in and accounts · File storage · Scheduled jobs · A database
- Sign-in and accounts
- File storage
- Scheduled jobs
- A database
The console
An admin console for my product: sign-ups per day, active members, revenue this month, and a list of the newest accounts with a search box.
- Sign-in and accounts · A database · Visits and sources
- Sign-in and accounts
- A database
- Visits and sources
Live now, built on Instroc
Real apps at real addresses. Open one and use it.
Pilot
A console for a software product: revenue, members, projects and usage in one place.
Start from this template
Ledger
A founder's weekly ledger: revenue, users, churn, uptime and everything shipped.
Start from this template
Vibe Tickets
Events with tickets to sell or give away, and a QR check-in at the door.
Start from this template
Asked before starting
- Will I have to rebuild it when customers arrive?
- No. What you open at the address is the app your customers use: real accounts, a real database, real files, and jobs that run on a schedule. You keep changing it by describing the change, and every version is kept so you can go back.
- What does it cost before I have customers?
- Building and publishing starts at $0. Taking payments starts at Hobby ($6/month), and your own domain at Hobby ($6/month). The plans: Free $0, 30 credits a month, $5 of hosting usage once; Hobby $6/month, 40 credits a month, $5 of hosting usage a month; Starter $15/month, 100 credits a month, $10 of hosting usage a month; Pro $40/month, 250 credits a month, $20 of hosting usage a month; Business $80/month, 500 credits a month, $25 of hosting usage a month. Building spends credits; a running app spends hosting usage, and each plan includes some.
- Can it take payments?
- Yes, on every paid plan from Hobby ($6/month). You connect your own payment account by approving it on the provider's site, with no secret key to copy. Money goes straight to you, and each payment is recorded in the app's database against the customer who paid.
- Can an engineer take the code later?
- Yes. Every app is real React and TypeScript, and you can read and download the source on every plan, Free included. From Hobby ($6/month) up you can also edit the code in the built-in editor.
- Can my co-founder build with me?
- Yes, from Starter ($15/month). A workspace holds the apps, and you invite editors (Starter 5, Pro 25, Business 100) and as many viewers as you like, free. Builds in a workspace are paid from that workspace's credits, so the people you invite need no plan of their own.
- What happens to my customers' data?
- Each app has its own database. A customer sees only their own records unless you decide otherwise, table by table. You can pick where an app's database lives, keep a workspace's new apps in Europe, and take a backup whenever you want. From Hobby ($6/month), a backup is also taken every day and the last 7 are kept.
Your product, at its own address, from one sentence.
After sign-up the sentence is waiting in your prompt box. Nothing is built until you press send. The Free plan needs no card.