Lovable
Builds the board, roadmap and admin views quickly with Supabase auth.
Feedback · updated 2026-11-03
Can you vibe code a Canny-style feedback board?
Easy: Yes, easily A public feedback board with voting and a roadmap is an easy, high-value vibe coding project for your own product.
4–8 h
MVP build time
$0–$46/mo
Your running cost
$79/mo
Canny Pro
up to $948
Saved per year
The honest verdict
Canny's core is posts, votes, comments and statuses, which is straightforward CRUD. The price jumps quickly once you have more than a handful of tracked users, so a self-built board for your own product saves real money. The parts that need attention are spam on a public board, identifying voters without friction, and integrations with tools like Jira or Linear, which you can mostly skip.
Canny is feature request boards with voting, roadmaps and changelogs for product teams. This page is about building your own version for personal or internal use, or to learn how this kind of product works, not about copying Canny to compete with it. How we grade.
What's easy and what's hard
Easy with AI
- Posts with upvotes and comments
- Status labels and a roadmap view
- Admin moderation and merging duplicates
- Email notifications when a status changes
Hard (where AI won't save you)
- Spam and abuse on a public form
- Identifying users from your app (SSO) without a separate signup
- Two-way sync with issue trackers
- Deduplicating similar requests
Canny feature checklist
Difficulty is for a solo builder using an AI coding tool. Skip means not worth building yourself.
| Feature | Difficulty | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Feedback posts | Easy | Title, description, author and board. |
| Voting | Easy | One vote per user enforced with a unique constraint. |
| Comments | Easy | Threaded comments with admin badges. |
| Roadmap and statuses | Easy | Planned, in progress and done columns. |
| Status-change emails | Medium | Notify voters through Resend or SES with an unsubscribe link. |
| Login from your app (SSO) | Medium | Sign a token in your app so users vote without a new account. |
| Merge duplicates | Medium | Move votes and comments to one post. |
| Jira or Linear sync | Skip | Webhooks both ways are fiddly; link issues manually instead. |
Build time and running costs
Your own version vs Canny, at personal or small-team scale.
Build time
- Working MVP for yourself
- 4–8 h
- Polished, relied on daily
- 3–5 days
- MVP time at $50/h equals
- 4 months of Canny
Canny price (checked 2026-11-03)
Pro: $79/mo billed annually
Pro starts at $79/month billed yearly for 100+ tracked users; the free plan allows 25 tracked users.
Source: canny.io/pricing. Prices change; check before deciding.
| Running cost | Per month | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Hosting | $0–$20 | Free tier is enough for most products. |
| Database and auth (Supabase) | $0–$25 | Posts, votes and comments. |
| Notification email | $0–$1 | Resend free tier covers 3,000 emails a month. |
| Total | $0–$46/mo | Saves up to $948 a year vs Canny Pro. |
Recommended vibe coding tools
Starter prompt
Paste it into your tool, then ask for a plan before any code. Edit the specifics to match what you need.
prompt.txt
Build a public feedback board for my own product. Stack: Next.js, Supabase (auth and Postgres), Resend for email. Data model: boards (id, name), posts (id, board_id, title, body, author_id, status open|planned|in_progress|done|closed, merged_into), votes (post_id, user_id, unique together), comments (id, post_id, author_id, body, is_admin), subscriptions (post_id, user_id). Features: 1. Public board listing posts sorted by votes or newest, with search. 2. Sign in with magic link or Google to post, vote and comment; voting is one per user. 3. Roadmap page grouping posts by status. 4. Admin tools: change status, merge duplicates (moving votes and comments), delete spam, pin posts. 5. Email voters when the status of a post they voted on changes, with an unsubscribe link. Security: row level security so users can edit only their own posts and comments and only admins can change status; sanitize all user content to prevent XSS; rate-limit posting and voting; keep voter emails private; add a simple honeypot field against bots.
Security pitfalls to check
AI tools often get these wrong by default. Check each one before anyone else uses the app.
- 01Rendering user-submitted Markdown or HTML without sanitizing leads to stored XSS.
- 02Votes enforced only in the UI can be inflated with direct API calls; use a unique constraint.
- 03Exposing voter emails in API responses leaks your users' contact details.
- 04Missing row level security lets any user change post statuses.
- 05Public boards attract spam; rate-limit and moderate from the start.
Indie makers who built a real feedback business
They went far past the prototype: support, payments, reliability and years of iteration. Their profiles show what that took.
Csaba Kissi built Featurenest
Feedback portal for feature requests and bug reports.
$3.9K MRRPaulo Castellano built Changelogfy
Feedback, roadmap and release notes, $3.9K MRR.
Or just use these indie-made tools instead
If you need Canny's job done rather than a project, these are built and supported by independent makers.
Featurenest
featurenest.com
Feedback portal for collecting feature requests and bug reports, prioritizing ideas, sharing a public roadmap and announcing releases.
by Csaba Kissi
Glink
glink.so
Feedback boards, roadmaps, changelogs and discussions to keep users in the loop.
by Kitze
Changelogfy
changelogfy.com
Feedback collection, release notes, roadmap and knowledge base platform for product teams.
What building it teaches you
You learn row level security, rate limiting and moderation for user-generated content.
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Vibe coding Canny: FAQ
Can you vibe code a Canny-style feedback board?
Easy. A public feedback board with voting and a roadmap is an easy, high-value vibe coding project for your own product.
How long does it take to vibe code a Canny-style feedback board?
A working personal or internal MVP takes about 4–8 h with a tool like Lovable. A polished version you would rely on every day takes about 3–5 days, mostly spent on spam and abuse on a public form.
How much does it cost to run your own Canny alternative?
Expect $0–$46/mo at personal or small-team scale (hosting, database and auth (supabase), notification email). Canny Pro costs $79/mo (checked 2026-11-03), so the most you would save is $948 a year, before counting your time.
Can I build my own feature request board instead of paying for Canny?
Yes. Posts, votes, comments and a roadmap are simple CRUD, and a working board takes a few hours with a vibe coding tool.
How much does Canny cost?
As of November 2026 Canny's Pro plan starts at $79 a month billed yearly, and the free plan covers 25 tracked users.
What are cheaper Canny alternatives?
Indie-made boards such as Featurenest, Glink and Changelogfy cover feedback, roadmaps and changelogs at lower prices.
Is it legal to build your own Canny clone?
Building your own tool that solves the same problem is common and generally fine. Copying Canny's code, design assets, brand name or content is not. Use your own name and design, respect their terms of service, and get proper advice if you plan to sell it. This page is not legal advice.