Choosing your AI coding assistant
The four kinds of tools that write code for you, what each costs, and how to pick one.
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Some owners and managers want to try building a small tool of their own with AI. These guides cover the services you're likely to run into along the way: where the code is kept, where the app runs, where the data lives, and how the app sends texts, email, and invoices.
Each guide starts with a one-page summary. A longer article follows if you want the detail. The examples come from restoration and remodeling work, but the steps are the same for any home services business.
Read what helps. Skip what doesn't. There's nothing to buy here.
New to this? Start with Choosing your AI coding assistant. The other guides make more sense once you've picked one.
GitHub
A safe copy of your app's code, with a history of every change.
Read the guideVercel
Putting your app on a real web address, and why a business app belongs on the paid plan.
Read the guideNeon or Supabase
Where your app's data lives. Two common choices, and how to tell them apart.
Read the guideTwilio
Texting from your app, and the business texting registration you have to finish first.
Read the guideResend
Sending and receiving email from your app, on a subdomain that won't touch your office email.
Read the guideStripe: automating collections
Invoices with a pay link, automatic reminders, deposits and balances, and what it costs.
Read the guideThese guides are general information, not legal or tax advice. Vendor prices and screens change often, so check the vendor's page before you pay. Each guide shows the date its prices were last checked.