# How to Vibe Code Your Own Any.do (and Stop Paying for It) > To-do list, calendar, planner and reminders - Site: https://any.do - Category: Productivity & Task Management - Platforms: Web app, iOS app, Android app, macOS app, Windows app - Verdict: **Solid side project** (68/100 vibecodeable) - Estimated effort: 3-4 weeks of focused coding ## Verdict You can build a fully functional personal web clone of the task lists, daily planner, and Kanban boards, but real-time multi-device sync and calendar protocol integrations require serious engineering patience. Replicating the core loop—tasks, lists, 'My Day', and a Kanban board—is a great weekend project using a modern full-stack framework. However, trying to match the sprawling ecosystem of native desktop apps, Apple Watch companions, WhatsApp webhooks, and strict two-way CalDAV calendar synchronization will bog you down in tedious edge-case debugging. If you just want a clean task manager for yourself, build the Next.js personal subset; if you need production-grade multi-platform sync, keep paying for Any.do. ### What you can't replicate - The 40-million-user active network and brand trust - Native wearable (watchOS, Wear OS) apps optimized for battery and micro-interactions - Certified deep integrations with enterprise messaging and calendar APIs ## What it does Cross-platform productivity suite unifying tasks, daily planners, shared family/team Kanban boards, calendars, and AI-assisted workflows. ### Core features - Task CRUD, subtasks, and category tags - Daily Planner ('My Day') active task queue - Kanban project boards with drag-and-drop workflow columns - Calendar and date-based scheduling view - Time-based and recurring reminders engine - AI task breakdown helper and natural language parser - Collaborative shared boards with role-based permissions ## The business ### Pricing - Personal: Free — Basic lists, tasks, reminders, calendar, and device sync. - Premium: $7.99/mo — For power users managing work and life. - Family: $9.99/mo — For households managing shared projects and lists. - Teams: $7.99/mo per member — Collaborative workspaces and advanced project management. ### Funding $9M raised. - Seed - Early Venture Investors: AME Cloud Ventures, Flint Capital Founded 2011. Team size: 50-100+. ## The hard parts - Reliable offline-first multi-device sync with conflict resolution for concurrent edits - Two-way third-party calendar protocol synchronization (Google/Outlook/CalDAV) - Cross-platform push notifications and strict background execution limits on mobile - WhatsApp webhook messaging bridge and natural language intent extraction ## How to vibe code Any.do ### Prerequisites - Node.js (free): Required runtime for running the Next.js frontend and build tooling. - GitHub (free): Version control and automated deployment trigger for your hosting provider. - Anthropic API Key (pay-as-you-go): Powers the AI task breakdown and natural language parsing features. ### Recommended AI tools - Claude Code: Agentic terminal coding assistant that can scaffold the database schema, API routes, and UI components across multiple files autonomously. - Cursor: AI-native code editor ideal for iterative UI polish, tailwind styling adjustments, and reviewing diffs on complex views. ### Stack - Frontend: Next.js (React) with Tailwind CSS and shadcn/ui components - Backend: Next.js App Router API Routes / Server Actions - Database: Turso (SQLite at the edge for lightweight single-user relational tasks) - Auth: better-auth for simple self-hosted TypeScript authentication - Payments: None (Personal-use clone) - Other: Anthropic API for natural language task parsing and AI breakdown, Lucide React for productivity iconography ### Hosting - Cloudflare (Hosting the Next.js application frontend and API edge functions via OpenNext, plus Turso database storage.): $0/mo ### Build guide 1. **Project Scaffolding & Database Schema** — Initialize the Next.js project with Tailwind CSS, shadcn/ui, better-auth, and connect to Turso SQLite database. ``` Create a new Next.js 16 project configured with TypeScript, Tailwind CSS, and App Router. Set up better-auth for email/password authentication with a local SQLite adapter using Turso. Create a database schema with tables for 'users', 'lists', 'tasks' (fields: id, user_id, list_id, title, notes, due_date, is_completed, priority, category_tag, created_at), 'subtasks' (fields: id, task_id, title, is_completed), and 'boards' for Kanban workflows. Ensure all foreign keys have proper cascading deletes and indexes on user_id and due_date. ``` 2. **Core Task List & CRUD API Routes** — Build server actions and API endpoints for creating, updating, completing, and deleting tasks and lists. ``` Implement robust Next.js Server Actions for task and list management. Create actions to create a list, fetch all lists and tasks for the authenticated user, update task status (toggle completion), edit task titles and notes, assign category tags, and delete items. Include input validation using Zod schemas for all mutations. Ensure proper revalidation of the dashboard path after each mutation. ``` 3. **Daily Planner ('My Day') UI** — Build the daily planner view allowing users to curate and review tasks scheduled specifically for today. ``` Create a responsive dashboard page representing the Any.do 'My Day' planner view. The UI should feature a prominent header displaying today's date, a quick-add task input bar supporting natural language scheduling hints, an active task checklist grouped by status, and a completed tasks accordion. Include keyboard shortcuts (e.g., 'N' to focus input, Enter to submit) and smooth animations when checking off tasks using Tailwind and framer-motion. ``` 4. **Kanban Project Boards** — Build a multi-column Kanban board view for project management with drag-and-drop task status updates. ``` Build a Kanban board view component in Next.js allowing users to organize tasks across custom status columns (e.g., 'To Do', 'In Progress', 'Done'). Implement drag-and-drop card reordering and column shifting. Ensure state updates optimistically on the client while persisting changes via server actions to the database. Add filters for priority and category tags. ``` 5. **Calendar & Reminders View** — Develop a calendar grid and time-based reminder notification scheduler. ``` Create a calendar month and week grid view that visualizes tasks based on their 'due_date'. Allow users to click any day cell to instantly create a task scheduled for that date. Implement a lightweight client-side reminder checker that polls or checks due tasks against the current browser time, triggering browser Notification API alerts when an active task's reminder time is reached. ``` 6. **AI Task Breakdown & Natural Language Input** — Integrate Anthropic API to parse natural language strings into structured task metadata and automatically break down complex goals into subtasks. ``` Integrate the Anthropic API (Claude Sonnet model) into the task creation workflow. When a user types a natural language phrase like 'Meeting with Sarah tomorrow at 3pm #work high priority', send a prompt to parse the text into structured JSON containing title, due_date ISO string, category_tag, and priority. Additionally, add an 'AI Break Down' button on task detail views that calls an API route to generate 3-5 actionable subtasks and automatically inserts them into the subtasks table. ``` ### Cost vs paying **Starting costs (one-time):** - AI Coding Assistant subscription (Claude Pro / Cursor): $20.00 - Total: ~$20 one-time **Ongoing costs (monthly):** - Cloudflare Pages & Turso SQLite DB: $0.00 - Anthropic API usage for AI task breakdown: ~$2.00/mo - Total: ~$2/mo - Paying for the SaaS instead: $7.99/mo (Premium) - Build time: 40 hours - AI tool credits: $20 (Claude Pro / Cursor) - Break-even: Building is for personal learning rather than financial savings, given the low $7.99/mo cost of the real product. ## Sources - [Any.do Official Website & Pricing Pages](https://any.do) - [Startup Nation Finder - Any.do Profile](https://startupnationfinder.com) - [Tracxn - Any.do Company Profile](https://tracxn.com)