FromScratch

What FromScratch is

FromScratch is an AI app builder for people who want a working web application without writing it. The site's tagline is "Build full-stack apps with AI", and its pitch to a first-time visitor is a single question, "What do you want to build?", with a chat box under it. The product is aimed at a founder, freelancer or small business owner who can describe an app in a sentence and wants a real, running version back within minutes. The interface comes in English and French, with a language switch in the header. The pages do not say where the company is based or how many people use the product.

What you build and how

The workflow is chat, and the company's own guide to building a web app without coding lays it out as 4 steps.

1. Describe the app in plain language. The guide recommends starting with "one clear sentence: who uses the app and what it does." Its example is "a booking app where clients pick a time slot and I get notified." The home page offers a different one, "a recipe app where users rate dishes and save favorites", as the sample prompt in the input box. The guide adds that the more specific you are about the data and the actions, the better the first result.

2. Let the agent build and preview it. According to the guide, "the AI agent designs the database, writes the front-end and back-end, and runs the app live." You see it working in a preview within minutes, and the guide stresses that it is "not a static mockup, the real thing." This is where FromScratch differs from a pure design tool. The data layer is part of what the agent produces, so you are not asked to choose a database or model tables yourself.

3. Refine by chatting. Changes are requests in the same chat. The guide's examples are "add a search bar", "make the dashboard show weekly totals" and "require login to book", and it says each request updates the live app. So login, dashboards and search are things you ask for in words rather than components you drag in. You can also attach files such as PDFs, images and spreadsheets, so the app is built from your real content. On the pricing page, file uploads (PDF, images, docs) appear as a feature of the Starter plan, not the Free plan.

4. Publish and share. The guide says you can "publish to a public URL in one click, or connect your own custom domain", with "no servers to configure, no deployment pipeline to learn." The pricing page fills in the detail: the Free plan publishes to a FromScratch URL, and custom domains are listed under Pro.

There is also a template route. The home page offers starting points labeled Site e-commerce, Landing Page, SaaS, Real Estate and Fitness, which cover the common small-business shapes: a store, a marketing page, a software product, a property listing site and a gym or studio. The pages do not say how many templates exist beyond those 5, and they do not describe a visual drag-and-drop editor, a spreadsheet-style data editor or a native mobile app target. This is a web app builder driven by conversation.

For the end user of what you build, the result is a public web app at a FromScratch URL or your own domain, with whatever login and features you asked the agent to add.

The evidence from the pages

The pricing page is short and states credit volumes rather than currency prices. Its headline is "Simple pricing for an AI app builder", with the promise "Start building for free. Upgrade when you need more credits, more projects, file uploads and custom domains. No setup cost, no servers to manage."

• Free. 400 credits a month, a live preview of your app, publishing to a FromScratch URL, and up to 3 active projects. The card describes it as a way to "try the agent with starter credits."
• Starter. 2,000 credits a month, more active projects, file uploads (PDF, images, docs), and code export and GitHub push. The page marks it "Most popular" and describes it as "best for builders shipping side projects."
• Pro. 8,000 credits a month, the maximum number of active projects, custom domains and priority capacity. The page describes it as for heavy usage, more projects and more credits.

The page does not print a dollar or euro price for Starter or Pro. It says: "Live prices and exact credit amounts are shown in the app. Sign in to see current pricing." So a buyer has to sign in to see what Starter and Pro cost.

The FAQ is clear on the free plan: "Is there a free plan? Yes. FromScratch has a free plan with monthly starter credits so you can build and preview an app at no cost." And on payment details: "Do I need a credit card to start? No. You can start building on the free plan without a credit card."

2 points follow from the plan cards. First, code export and GitHub push are listed on Starter, which means the escape hatch into your own repository sits behind a paid plan. Second, the Free plan's limit of 3 active projects and its FromScratch URL make it a testing tier rather than a place to run a branded product.

The pages say nothing about what a credit buys, so you cannot yet translate 400 credits into a number of builds or edits. Nor do they publish limits on database size, users, traffic or file size, and they name no integrations, compliance certifications, support channels or customers. Treat those as questions to answer in the free tier before committing to a paid one.

Who it suits and who it does not

FromScratch suits a solo founder or small business owner who wants to see an idea running before spending money. A booking tool, a recipe or catalog site with user accounts, a small internal dashboard and a landing page are all shaped like the examples the company itself uses. The free plan, with no credit card, makes the first experiment cheap, and the live preview means you judge a real app rather than a mockup.

It also suits people who expect to hand the result to a developer later, because Starter lists code export and GitHub push. A freelancer building a first version for a client can start there and move the code on.

The caveats are straightforward. Credits are the unit of cost, and the pages do not explain how fast they run down. Custom domains are listed under Pro, the top tier shown. Teams that need governed permissions, audit trails, a named compliance standard or a published list of integrations will not find those on these pages, and an operations team building many internal tools may want a platform with more documented structure. A buyer who needs a native iOS or Android app will also need to look elsewhere, since the pages describe web apps only.