Build a Linktree Competitor With AI in Under 20 Minutes
I rebuilt a $1.3B app in 20 minutes with no code using Mocha AI. Here's the exact workflow, plus features Linktree doesn't even offer.
Linktree is worth $1.3 billion. It's a page with links on it. I rebuilt it in 20 minutes, for free, and mine has features theirs doesn't.
The tool is called Mocha AI. I just discovered it and I'm genuinely blown away. Most AI website builders let you describe what you want and spit out something generic. Mocha does that too, but it also fetches live data from competitor websites to inform what it builds. You give it URLs, it goes and reads them, and uses what it finds to shape the product.
That's not a small thing.
The problem with building apps without code#
If you've tried to build a real web app with no-code tools before, you know the ceiling you hit. You can get a front end working, but then you need Supabase for the database, Google OAuth for authentication, email APIs for notifications. Each one is a new tool to learn, a new integration to wire up. The app you imagined ends up taking days just to get the plumbing right.
Mocha removes that layer entirely. Authentication, databases, email, analytics. All of it is handled inside the platform. You describe what you want, and it ships working infrastructure, not just a mockup.
How I built it#
I started by telling Mocha to research four link-in-bio platforms: Linktree, Beacons, Carrd, and Link.bio. I gave it their URLs and asked it to fetch the features each one has, identify the target customer, find gaps, and suggest an MVP strategy for a competitor.
What came back was genuinely useful. It identified that Beacons targets professional creators, Carrd goes after non-technical users, and Link.bio is for budget-conscious Instagram and TikTok users. The shared complaints across all of them: high subscription costs, free tiers that look generic, analytics locked behind paywalls, and you can't remove platform branding without paying.
From that, Mocha suggested positioning the new app as a generous free tier alternative with full customization, no branding, and 90-day analytics included from day one. That's a real product strategy, not a template.
From there, I sent a follow-up prompt describing exactly what I wanted to build, told it to skip the QR code generator (never seen anyone actually use it), and hit send. Within minutes it had a working landing page, a link editor, and a dashboard UI.
The incremental build approach#
This is what makes Mocha different from other tools I've used. It doesn't try to build everything at once. After each stage, it prompts you with what to build next: landing page, authentication, database schema, analytics dashboard. Each step is small enough that you can review it, test it, and course-correct before moving on.
Non-technical founders will actually be able to follow this. It's not "paste a prompt and pray." It's a build log you're actively participating in.
Google authentication used to take me weeks to implement. OAuth flows, Google Cloud Console setup, callback URLs, the whole thing. In Mocha, I clicked one button. We were logged in with a Google account in under a minute.
What the finished app has#
By the end of the session, the app included:
- A public link-in-bio page with unlimited links, mobile responsive design, and full theme customization (colors, fonts, button styles)
- Google authentication so each user only sees their own data
- A link management dashboard with per-link click counts and traffic over time
- A contact form in the settings that users can toggle on or off
- Email notifications sent to the page owner every time someone submits the contact form
- A custom analytics dashboard showing where visitors come from and how they're using the app
Linktree charges $7 to $30 per month for a subset of that. Their analytics are paywalled. Their free tier has platform branding you can't remove. This app, built in one session, offers more at zero cost.
Use the Max model in Mocha when starting a new build. It does the competitor research and architecture planning in a single pass, which saves you from having to prompt-engineer your way to a coherent product spec.
The workflow before Mocha#
Before I found this tool, I ran a custom GPT to do the competitor analysis part. I'd paste in a prompt, get back a feature breakdown and positioning strategy, then feed that into whatever builder I was using. It worked, but it was two separate tools and extra steps.
Now I do all of it in one place. The research, the strategy, the build. You can still run both in parallel if you want to cross-check, but the Mocha-only workflow is faster and the output is usually better because the research context stays in the same session as the build.
This connects to something broader I've been thinking about with how I automate my workflow with AI tools: the goal isn't to find the most powerful tool, it's to find the tool that eliminates the most handoffs. Every time you copy-paste between platforms, you lose context and introduce friction. Mocha cuts that friction significantly.
What this means for your ideas#
If you've had an app idea sitting in a notes file somewhere because you assumed you'd need to hire a developer or spend weeks learning to code, that assumption is outdated.
The pricing is reasonable: free to start, $20/month for 1,500 credits. I used a fraction of that building this entire app. One session, one day, live on the internet.
The barrier isn't code anymore. The barrier is having a clear idea of what you want to build and being willing to iterate. If you can describe your idea in a paragraph, you can ship it.
If you found this useful, this video goes deeper into the original build: How I Built My Own Linktree App
Watch the full video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/6UtJePXGPX8
Some links below may be affiliate links. I only recommend tools I actually use, and it may give you a discount if you use my links.
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