Customer support · checked 2026-10-19

Can I vibecode Featurebase?

KINDA· weekend project

The feedback half is a sitting's work: a public board with votes, a roadmap, a changelog and a widget, and open-source boards such as Fider already do most of it. Featurebase now sells the whole support suite, so a replacement also needs a shared inbox with email in and out, a chat widget, a help center, workflows and an AI agent that answers from your docs. An agent can build the board, changelog and a basic inbox in a weekend; the parts that stay hard are reliable email threading and an AI agent you would let talk to customers.

$29/moprice per seat

$348you'd save a year

weekendbuild time

—people replaced it

Before you start

What you need on hand.

DifficultyIntermediate · Some system setup or keys.

TimeA weekend; email in and out is the slow part

Claude Code, Codex or CursorAny of them can run the prompt.
Node.js 22better-sqlite3 compiles a native module, so build tools must be installed.
SMTP credentialsA transactional provider's free tier is plenty for one product.
An IMAP mailboxOnly if customers should be able to answer by email.
A public addressVoters and the widget need HTTPS access: a small VPS or a tunnel.

Before you buildFeaturebase Free has one seat, one board and one roadmap with unlimited posts. If you are a solo maker with a single board, you may never need to pay.

1. Install one agent: Claude Code, Codex, Cursor.
2. Make an empty folder and open it in the agent.
3. Paste the prompt below, press enter, and answer its questions as it builds.

The prompt

Build me a product feedback and support hub to replace Featurebase. Requirements:

- Node.js 22 + TypeScript: a Fastify server with server-rendered pages (Eta) and a little vanilla JS.
`npm start` serves http://localhost:4860: the public board at /, roadmap at /roadmap, changelog at
/changelog (RSS at /changelog.xml) and admin at /admin.
- Storage: better-sqlite3 in ./data/hub.db: posts (title, body, status, tag), votes, comments,
changelog entries, and conversations with messages. An FTS5 index on posts powers search.
- Board: visitors sign in with an emailed magic link (nodemailer, SMTP settings in .env), post a
request, comment and vote once per email. While someone types a title, show similar posts from
FTS5 to cut duplicates.
- Statuses: under review, planned, in progress, shipped. Moving a post to shipped emails everyone
who voted for it with a link to the matching changelog entry.
- Widget: <script src="/widget.js" data-site="..."> adds a corner button that opens the board in an
iframe plus a contact form; the host page can pass the visitor's email in data-email.
- Support inbox: contact-form messages become conversations in /admin; replies go out over SMTP and
the customer's answers come back through IMAP polling (`imapflow`, every 60 seconds), threaded by
the Message-ID and References headers.
- Admin: one password in .env (signed cookie). Escape every user-supplied field on output and
rate-limit posting per IP.
- Single owner. No accounts beyond voters' emails, no telemetry. Outbound calls: SMTP and IMAP only.
- Out of scope: an AI support agent, SSO, SLAs, multiple brands, live chat with typing indicators.
- README: SMTP and IMAP setup, serving the board on a subdomain behind HTTPS, and a warning that
inbound threading breaks when a mail provider strips the References header.

Opens your agent with the prompt filled in, you press enter. Or copy it and paste it into an empty folder.

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Then keep going

Next prompts, same folder.

The first prompt builds the core. Run these one at a time in the same folder to grow it into your own Featurebase.

Add a Featurebase importer to the feedback hub in this folder. Requirements:

- A command `hub import-featurebase requests.csv` for the CSV from Settings > Data > Imports & Exports.
- Map title, content, author email, status, labels and vote count to posts, tags and votes; create a
  voter record per author email without sending any email.
- Print a dry-run summary (new posts, unknown statuses, rows skipped) and write nothing until --apply.
- Running it twice must not duplicate posts: match on title plus author email.
- Update the README with the export steps and a note that the CSV has no comment history.

Add suggested replies to the support inbox in this folder. Requirements:

- A DOCS_DIR in .env pointing at Markdown files; index them in SQLite with FTS5 and, when
  EMBED_API_KEY is set, with embeddings from an OpenAI-compatible endpoint.
- In a conversation, a "Suggest reply" button retrieves the 5 closest passages and asks the chat model
  for a draft that cites file names; the draft lands in the reply box, never sent automatically.
- Say "no matching docs" instead of drafting when nothing scores above a threshold in .env.
- Log which passages were used for each draft.
- Update the README with what text is sent to the model.

Extend the feedback hub in this folder. Requirements:

- A command `hub changelog-draft --repo owner/name --since 2026-10-01` that lists merged pull requests with
  the GitHub CLI (`gh pr list --state merged --json ...`).
- Group them by label (feature, fix, other) and write a draft changelog entry per week in /admin as
  unpublished, never published automatically.
- When a PR body contains "Closes request #12", link that post and offer to mark it shipped.
- Update the README with the gh login step and an example cron line.

What you lose

The Fibi AI agent that answers customers from your docs and runs custom actions
A help center with search and multilingual articles
Workflows, SLAs and round-robin assignment for teams
Integrations with Slack, HubSpot, Salesforce and similar tools
Revenue and segment data attached to every vote, and the mobile app for the inbox

Why people still pay

One subscription replaces a feedback tool, a help desk and a chat widget, and the votes sit next to the customers and revenue behind them. Small teams like the per-seat price compared with the big help desks, and the AI agent can take first-line questions away from a founder's inbox.

Moatintegrations execution polish switching costs

Do the math

Featurebase or your own copy?

Seats

Over

Your usage

Count my time12h ×$/h

Featurebase, 1 yr$348

Your own copy, 1 yr$46running + build session

You keep$302pays for itself in the first month

Estimate · Runs on a free tunnel or a $5 VPS; SMTP at this volume fits free tiers. The build is token usage on your agent plan.

Leaving Featurebase

Take your data, then cancel.

1 · Take your data out of Featurebase

1Open Settings > Data > Imports & Exports and click Export Data. The CSV takes up to about 30 seconds and opens in a new tab; the download link expires, so save it within 24 hours.
2The CSV covers every Request in the workspace (not just the filtered list): request details, author information, labels, status and form values. It does not include discussion or activity history, and merged requests appear only as the one they were merged into.
3You need the permission to export Requests.
4Changelog entries, Help Center articles and support conversations had no export in what we read: copy articles out by hand and ask support about conversations.

2 · Cancel Featurebase

1Open Settings > Billing.
2Click Cancel subscription at the bottom right.
3You keep access until the end of the current billing period and are not billed again.
4Contract customers cancel or pause through their Account Manager.

Data is not deleted on cancel, but once the subscription ends you can only reach settings until you resubscribe, so export first.
The feedback portal, Help Center and Workflows pause automatically; you can keep the Free plan with one seat.
Refunds cover the last payment only, requested within 30 days through live chat or support@featurebase.app. Annual plans end at term and get no prorated refund.
There is no pause option: cancelling is the only way to stop billing.

Checked 2026-10-19 against Featurebase's docs: 1, 2, 3, 4

The escape hatch

Don't feel like building it? These are already free.

FiderOpen sourceAGPL-3.0 feedback portal where users post and vote on ideas; Go, with a Docker image and a PostgreSQL database.★ 4.6k · active Oct 2026 · docker to self-host
WebVisit ↗QuackbackOpen sourceAGPL-3.0 board, roadmap and changelog aimed at Canny and UserVoice users; self-hosting needs PostgreSQL and file storage, shipped in one Compose file.★ 321 · active Oct 2026 · docker to self-host
WebVisit ↗LogChimpOpen sourceFeedback tracking and roadmap tool; AGPL-3.0 outside its ee folders, which carry a separate licence.★ 1.1k · active Oct 2026 · docker to self-host
WebVisit ↗

All 5 free alternatives to Featurebase ›

The numbers

Featurebase pricing

Plan	Monthly	Annual, per month	What you get
Free	$0	$0	1 seat, 1 feedback board, 1 roadmap, unlimited posts and comments, live chat, shared inbox and ticketing, mobile app.
Growth	—	$29	5 boards, 5 roadmaps, embeddable widgets, custom domain, email channel, AI replies and macros, the Fibi AI agent over chat, AI Copilot (10 free conversations per seat a month), API, MCP and webhooks.
Professional	—	$59	Everything in Growth plus Slack support, workflows, round-robin assignment, SLAs, Salesforce and HubSpot integrations, SSO, 10 boards and roadmaps, board privacy and custom post fields, 20 free Lite seats.
Enterprise	—	$99	Everything in Professional plus multi-brand workspaces, custom admin roles, unlimited boards, Azure DevOps integration, custom invoicing, 50 free Lite seats.

Free tier: One seat, one board, one roadmap; no AI, widgets, custom domain or email channel.
Billing: The pricing page lists only the yearly rate per seat. The help center confirms monthly plans exist but publishes no monthly price. The page's meta description advertises a 10-day free trial of all features. Cancel in Settings > Billing; access runs to the end of the period. Annual plans end at term without a prorated refund; a refund of the last payment is possible within 30 days on request.
Hidden costs: The Fibi AI agent costs $0.49 per successful resolution on top of seats. AI Copilot beyond 10 free conversations per seat a month is $19 per seat a month. Every person who answers customers needs a paid seat; Lite seats are free up to 20 (Professional) or 50 (Enterprise). Startups under two years old with fewer than six employees can apply for 86% off.
Source: www.featurebase.app

Also on the list

Canny$99/mo · User researchYES

Intercom$39/mo · Customer supportKINDA

Help Scout$30/mo · Customer supportKINDA

Questions

Featurebase, briefly

Not answered here? Tell us and we'll add it.

Ask a question ›

Free covers 1 seat, one feedback board and one roadmap with unlimited posts, plus live chat and a shared inbox; no AI.

Kinda. The core is a weekend build with the prompt on this page, but real gaps remain: The Fibi AI agent that answers customers from your docs and runs custom actions, A help center with search and multilingual articles.

About $29 a month on the Growth plan per seat, $348 a year (checked 2026-10-19).

The Fibi AI agent that answers customers from your docs and runs custom actions; A help center with search and multilingual articles; Workflows, SLAs and round-robin assignment for teams; Integrations with Slack, HubSpot, Salesforce and similar tools; Revenue and segment data attached to every vote, and the mobile app for the inbox. If any of those matter to you, keep paying.