I am not a coder. I want to be very clear about that before we go any further.
I’ve been building WordPress sites for 15 years. I know my way around a CMS, SEO necessities, Themeforest best and worst themes, every possible page builder, shitloads on hosting. But actual code? Dreamweaver probs about it. HTML/CSS at the basic level. React? No. Hard no. That was always “someone else’s job.” For which I used to pay a pretty penny.
Then one night I bought a tool called Greta on AppSumo and everything got a bit out of hand.
The AppSumo email I should have ignored
I was procrastinating. The email landed. “Build full-stack apps with AI prompts.” I’d heard that before. I clicked anyway because I always click.
Greta. Founded February 2025 by Shubham Nigam — ex-Amazon, ex-LinkedIn. California startup, pre-seed, 11-50 people. That checked out. I bought it.
Then I opened it. Typed a prompt. Something I’d been turning over for months — a real estate calculator. Something that would take rental income, expenses, mortgage data, and spit out actual yield figures. The kind of tool I’d been meaning to have someone build for me.
It built it. In about an hour.
I had Stripe connected in 20 minutes after that.
I stared at the screen for a while.
The “I need more of this” problem
I upgraded Greta to Tier 4 before I went to bed. Not because I hit a limit. Because I knew I was going to want more of whatever that feeling was.
Vibe coding. That’s apparently what it’s called. You describe what you want. The AI builds it. You iterate. You feel like an absolute genius despite having no idea what the code actually says. Take the mickey out of me — I’m fine with it.
Greta is still genuinely good for this. 3.9 tacos from 194 AppSumo reviews. The common complaints: credit usage can feel tight, and the AI prompts need to be specific or you get something vague. Both true in my experience. Worth knowing going in.
It’s also sold out now. So if you’re reading this late — that ship has sailed. Sorry.
The rabbit hole
One app in an hour broke something in my brain. I spent the next two weeks trying every AI builder I could find.
I tested Replit. Genuinely impressive — great for developers, excellent community, solid for more technical builds. If you can code and want AI assistance, Replit is probably your tool. I am not that person.
I needed something that met me where I was. Non-technical. Impatient. Building real things, not prototypes.
How I ended up at Base44
I found Base44 while still chasing that Greta feeling. Tried it. Built the real estate calculator there properly — the version I actually use now.
I haven’t left.
What Base44 does differently, for someone like me: the “Discuss” mode. Before you build anything, you can just… talk through the idea. The AI asks the right questions, flags things you haven’t thought of, helps you get the brief right before a single line of code gets written. For a non-coder that’s enormous — it’s the difference between building the right thing and building the wrong thing very efficiently.
Then there’s the Super Agents. That’s what’s running this blog, among other things. Automations that actually work without requiring a developer to set them up. Connected to my WordPress site, publishing content, managing affiliate links, firing off reminders. All of it.
The credit limits are also genuinely generous. I’ve built things I thought would blow the budget and they didn’t. For someone who spent a year anxious about AI tool costs, that matters.
What I actually use each for now
Greta — MVP builds. When I have a new idea and want to see if it’s viable in an afternoon. Fast, fun, and nuts-good for getting something in front of someone quickly. RIP the AppSumo deal though.
Base44 — everything that needs to actually work. Apps I use in production, automations, Super Agents, anything with integrations or logic that needs to hold up over time.
I’m still not a coder. I’m just someone who can now build things. That’s a genuinely different life from two years ago and I’m not being dramatic about it.
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. I earn a small commission if you buy — at no extra cost to you.
