We live in times where most of us with a few minutes can print software. And even though that’s the case, most are still paying thousands a year for commercial saas products that should be free.
So I created a Free Open Source Self-hosted project for anyone on the internet. I’m still building most of the parts. I will give access to all, but first to a small group of people. I created this small form with one of those open source apps.
But why doing it for free ?
Why not. Since I began using AI to create apps almost a year ago, around May 25, I noticed how close we are to killing software. Back then I started with Lovable then evolved into more sophisticated setups, soon after I realized that there’s no reason for paying for things anymore.
I started building my own. I created some for my wife, for friends, for random people I met, just for fun. At some point I had a long list of mini apps that I tried to monetize but as we all know today more than ever distribution is king, those apps ended up nowhere. Now they will serve a purpose if get discovered.
And after the hacks of last week, cause by “human slop” > I don’t want to hear any engineer mention ai slop. Ai saved the internet last week, let that sink in.
Stop Complaining and Build
Now the other week I saw a thread of someone complaining about some subscription cost and I wonder why you don’t stop complaining and build your own. But I realized that maybe there’s a small barrier when it comes to building them. So I decided to create an open source project where I will put those mini apps out there.
Named the project Yare Monster.
Yare meaning » quick, agile, nimble, or ready to act « And monster, it was a cool domain.
It’s not only open source but also self hosted, there’s no need to create an account in Yare Monster. Anyone can run a script, use CLI, the MCP plugins or drop a text guide into ChatGPT and follow a simple installation guide.
Self hosted means you use your own GitHub account, your own Supabase accounts and your own Cloudflare accounts, all are free tiers. There’s no subscription needed unless you create a monster out of the monster. Lol
All of those offer free plans with substantial free usage limits.
Building One App a Day
With that I have the task of creating one of these standalone apps every day in my evenings, just me and Claude. I have two rules to build them, have to be simple to install and functionally similar in essence to what others charge for.
I created Yare Forms to replace form tools that charge $500/yr min, and limit responses. A light document signer Yare Sign ,another one called Yare Links as a free replacement for tools that let you have one url with all your links.
And the idea is not to build the free versions of the apps, no. It’s to get almost the full pro or premium versions.
I also created one called Yare Launcher that holds all the apps in one install and you can use all the apps, same login same database. You connect one time, one Git, one Supabase and one Cloudflare account with several free workers and you are up and running.
How It Works if Anyone Wants to Install
You go to yare.monster, you select the app, there’s a mini guide. Launcher will let you choose if you want a guide to drop on your favorite agent, if you want us to guide you step by step, or use a CLI if you are more advanced. Simple. Very simple.
You need a GitHub account, a Supabase account, and a Cloudflare account.
Follow the instructions, wait for the install, it’s simple as a push to Git, that will trigger Cloudflare (hosting) to deploy your front end, then you can use Claude, Codex or Cursor to push the database migrations into Supabase. Takes 5 min.
You go to your url like
forms.yourdomain.comand you put your credentials and that’s it.
Your apps. Your infrastructure. Your data.
Yare Monster is designed for self-hosting. Your apps run on infrastructure you control, using your own GitHub, Supabase and Cloudflare accounts. Yare Monster does not centrally host your application data.
What About Updates?
Normally I will keep the main Git updated and I will find a way to push a notification into the apps via a simple channel. A document can be read on the version and how many versions are behind, version control inside the app.
That’s just your app reading the repo and comparing the installed version to the one available, no installer, nothing automatic, you are still in control.
To update is just let Claude know “please update my app.”
What I’m Building/Built so far
Some of this are finished, some are not or yet not open to the public only those who apply to the Waitlist » JOIN THE WAITLIST
Yare Launcher: installs every Yare app at once, with one login.
Yare Links: a link-in-bio page on your own domain. Alternative to Linktree, Beacons, Stan.
Yare Forms: forms and surveys. Alternative to Typeform, Jotform, Google Forms.
Yare Pages: build and host your own website with your AI assistant. Alternative to Squarespace, Wix, Webflow.
Yare Sign: send documents and collect signatures. Alternative to DocuSign, Dropbox Sign, Adobe Acrobat Sign.
Yare Groups: community chat with channels, threads and announcements. Alternative to Discord, Slack, Circle.
Yare Crypto: a view-only crypto portfolio tracker. Alternative to CoinStats, Zerion, DeBank.
Yare Transfer: send big files with a link. Alternative to WeTransfer, Dropbox Transfer.
Yare Bill: invoices as PDF, paid and unpaid at a glance. Alternative to FreshBooks, Invoice2go, Zoho Invoice.
Yare Looks: try outfits and hairstyles on a photo of you. Alternative to paid virtual try-on apps.
Yare Book: a booking page for your time. Alternative to Calendly, Acuity, Cal.com’s paid plans.
Yare Skills: a free library of skills for AI assistants. Alternative to paid prompt and skill packs.
Yare Lingo: short daily language lessons. Slef-hosted alternative to Duolingo Super, Babbel.
Yare Chat: a private, invite-only messenger. Alternative to WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal groups.
Yare MCP: lets your AI assistant install and deploy any Yare app.
Yare Persona: a personal AI assistant with its own name, tone and memory. Alternative to ChatGPT Plus, Character.ai.
Yare Blocks: a printable weekly time-block planner. Alternative to Sunsama, Akiflow, paid planner templates.
Yare Analytics: cookie-free website analytics. Alternative to Plausible or Fathom
Yare Dash: revenue and churn dashboards for Stripe. Alternative to Baremetrics, ChartMogul, ProfitWell.
Yare Flash: flash cards with spaced review. Alternative to Quizlet Plus, Anki’s paid apps.
Yare Fonts: free fonts for personal and commercial use. Some fun project I did.
Yare Canvas: a simple design editor. Alternative to Canva.
Yare Meet: quick P2P video calls from a link. Alternative to Zoom, Google Meet.
Yare Contacts: a lightweight contact manager. Alternative to HubSpot CRM, Pipedrive, Folk.
Yare Fit: a training log with charts. Alternative to Strong, Hevy