Can you build an app with AI if you can't code? 15 months, 7 builds

Yes, you can. I can’t code, and in the past 15 months I’ve built seven working apps with AI. It costs me about $60 a month and 15 to 20 hours a week. The building turned out to be the easy part.

What have I built?

Seven things since June 2025. Four are still going.

Build	What it does	Status
Mobius One	Helps software companies collect the money they’re owed	Shelved
Brand governance	Checks marketing images against a company’s brand rules	Shelved
Yave	An AI assistant for Spanish-speaking businesses, starting with real estate agencies and clinics	Building
Zozobra	A pipeline for making documentary videos	Shelved
Detekta	Tests what AI agents actually do	Building
Mobius1	Shows a small IT or security team what their company is exposing online	Building
Pen Pal	A Kindle you write questions on by hand, and it writes back	Working

Each one has its own page with the story.

What does it cost?

About $60 a month. This is the whole bill:

Tool	Monthly cost
ChatGPT	$20 (a family account)
Claude	$20
OpenCode Go	$10
A server for my AI assistant	$9

I wanted my own software company for years. I had plenty of ideas, and getting even one app built cost more than I could spend. Now the tools cost about the same as a few streaming subscriptions.

How much time does it take?

I build for 15 to 20 hours a week, around a full-time job.

My fastest build was Pen Pal. It took about three weeks and 205 saved changes to get from nothing to a Kindle that answers handwritten questions. Yave has been going since January 2026 and isn’t finished.

So it takes somewhere between three weeks and “ask me again next year”.

What is the work like if you don’t write code?

I describe what I want. The AI writes the code. I test it and say what’s wrong. Then we go again.

My job is to be a very picky customer. I can’t read the code, but I know exactly what I want the thing to do, and I keep sending it back until it does.

It is closer to managing a contractor than to programming. I’ve flipped 13 houses with my wife, so that part felt familiar.

What was hard?

Three things.

When I started, the AI models weren’t good at design. Getting a site to look right was frustrating. That has improved a lot.

Keeping the code organized as a project grew was a constant hassle.

And you can’t see most of what you’ve built. With a wood project I can see every step. With software I only see the screen, which is a tiny piece of what’s there. That is how I ended up with apps I had no idea how to secure, which I wrote about in the four security gaps I didn’t know about.

What doesn’t AI do for you?

Find customers.

Three of my seven builds are shelved, and none of them were shelved because the AI couldn’t build them. Mobius One went well until my cofounder lost interest, and I didn’t know finance well enough to carry it alone. With two others, taking them to market was harder than building them. I also set Detekta aside for a while, because I didn’t know enough about AI agents yet. It’s back on the board now.

AI can build the product. It can’t knock on doors for you, and it can’t give you ten years in an industry you’ve never worked in.

So is it worth it?

For me, yes. I can build the first version of an idea myself now, which I couldn’t afford to do before.

I’ve narrowed seven builds down to four, and I’m working on getting one launched. If you want to watch how that goes, follow along on LinkedIn.

Quick answers

Can you build an app with AI if you can't code?

Yes. I can't code, and I've built seven working apps in 15 months by describing what I want, letting the AI write the code, and testing every version myself.

How much does it cost to build apps with AI?

I spend about $60 a month. That covers ChatGPT at $20, Claude at $20, OpenCode Go at $10 and a $9 server.

How long does it take to build an app with AI?

My fastest build, a Kindle app called Pen Pal, took about three weeks at 15 to 20 hours a week. Bigger ones have taken months and are still going.

What is the hardest part of building an app with AI?

Getting it in front of customers. The AI can build the product. It can't find the people who need it, and it won't tell you how to secure what it built unless you ask.