# How to make a free app for your family and friends (2026)

By Will Evans, one of the people building Podda.
Published: 2026-08-22. Updated: 2026-08-22.
Canonical: https://podda.app/blog/make-a-free-app-for-your-family-and-friends


You can make a real app for free in 2026: describe it to ChatGPT or Claude and put it on Podda, where the people you invite can open it with nothing to pay and nothing to install. Plenty of other builders say free too. The differences hide in what free actually includes, so here is the breakdown.

## What does free actually get you?

| Tool | What's free | Where free ends |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Podda | A few invite-only apps, invited people never pay | More apps and people need a paid plan |
| Dome | Everything, there are no paid plans yet | No AI, ready-made modules only |
| Replit | Building, plus invite-only publishing | Credits run out quickly, and the project stays public |
| Claude Artifacts | Small apps inside Claude chat | Sharing is a link anyone can open |
| Lovable | Building, five credits a day | Private publishing costs about $50 a month |
| Base44 | Building, 25 credits a month | No private apps until you pay |
| Whacka | Building and publishing | Apps go offline 14 days after publish |
| Wabi | Starting out on iPhone | Credits meter creation, $20 a month for more |

## Which free plans keep the app private?

Podda's free plan keeps every app invite-only: there is no public link and no search listing, and the people you invite sign in on their phones without paying anything. Replit's free plan includes invite-only publishing too, though everyone signs in with a Replit account and the project behind the app stays public. Dome is the odd one out: free and private outright, with no AI at all, if ready-made modules cover what your group needs.

## Which are free to build but paid to keep private?

The big builders. On Lovable, the free plan publishes every app as a link anyone can open, and a private audience is a Business-plan feature at about $50 a month. On Base44, private apps are for paid plans only, starting at $16 a month billed annually. Both are very good at building, and the bill arrives when you want the door closed. The full comparison is in [Lovable alternatives that keep your app private](/blog/lovable-alternatives-for-private-apps).

## Where does free run out fastest?

Watch for the quiet limits. Whacka's free apps go offline 14 days after you publish them. Replit's build credits are spent per change and are hard to predict. Lovable's five daily credits and Base44's 25 monthly credits go quickly once you start refining. None of this is a scandal, but it is the difference between a free app and a free trial of an app.

## What about free apps inside ChatGPT or Claude?

Claude can build small free apps in the chat, called artifacts, and for something personal they are lovely. Sharing one means publishing a link that anyone who has it can open, and unpublishing permanently deletes whatever the app saved. ChatGPT's version, Sites, starts private to you but needs a paid plan and shares through a workspace. Either way, the chat is the right place to build and the wrong place for your group to live.

## What is the actual free path, start to finish?

Connect Podda once and describe the app to ChatGPT or Claude. Then invite your family and friends. The [free plan](/pricing) has room for a few apps and the people you invite, and the people you invite are never charged. When you outgrow it, that is a nice problem, and [the best ways to build a private app for your family](/blog/best-ways-to-build-a-private-app-for-your-family-2026) lays out every alternative.

Connect Podda to [ChatGPT or Claude](/guides/connect) and make the first one today.