Waitlists · checked 2026-10-14

Can I vibecode GetWaitlist?

YES· one-shottable

A waitlist is a form, a table of emails, a referral code per signup and a ranking query, and an agent can build that with a small admin page and a CSV export in one sitting. The parts that take care are keeping fake signups out and getting confirmation emails into inboxes, which a transactional email provider, a honeypot and a rate limit cover for a single launch. A few thousand signups sit comfortably in SQLite on a small server.

$15/moprice

$180you'd save a year

one sittingbuild time

—people replaced it

Before you start

What you need on hand.

DifficultyIntermediate · Some system setup or keys.

TimeAn evening; setting up the sender domain 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 covers a small launch.
DNS access to your sender domainSPF and DKIM records keep the confirmation mails out of spam.
A public addressA tunnel or a small VPS with HTTPS, so visitors can open the signup page.

Before you buildNew GetWaitlist accounts have no free plan, but the 7-day trial of Basic is enough to try the referral mechanics before you build your own.

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 referral waitlist to replace GetWaitlist. Requirements:

- Node.js 22 + TypeScript: a Fastify server with server-rendered pages (Eta) and a little
vanilla JS. `npm start` serves http://localhost:4900: signup page at /, a personal position
page at /me/<token>, admin at /admin.
- Storage: better-sqlite3 in ./data/waitlist.db. Table signups: id, email (unique, lower-cased),
confirmed_at, referral_code (8 random characters), referred_by, created_at, ip_hash,
utm_source, utm_medium, utm_campaign.
- Signup takes an email and an optional name, then sends a confirmation link through nodemailer
SMTP (settings in .env). A signup counts only after the link is clicked. Reject throwaway
domains using the `disposable-email-domains` list, add a honeypot field, allow 5 signups per
hour per IP (`@fastify/rate-limit`) and store IPs only as salted hashes.
- Ranking: each confirmed referral moves the referrer up REFERRAL_BOOST places (default 5, set
in .env), capped at 20 referrals per person. Compute the position in one SQL query and cover
it with tests on a fixture of 10 people.
- /me/<token> shows the position, a copy button for the referral link (/?ref=<code>) and a
top-10 leaderboard with first names only, which can be switched off in .env.
- Admin: one password in .env (signed cookie). A table with search, sort and filters
(confirmed, referred); CSV export of every column; a form that emails all confirmed signups
in batches of 20 a minute, each with an unsubscribe link.
- /embed.js renders the signup form inside any site; POST /api/signup accepts JSON from the
origins listed in ALLOWED_ORIGINS.
- Single owner. No accounts, no telemetry, local-first. Outbound calls: SMTP only.
- Out of scope: several waitlists, custom domains, A/B tests, payments.
- README: exposing the page through a tunnel or a small VPS, and the SPF and DKIM records the
sender domain needs.

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 GetWaitlist.

Add a CSV import to the waitlist app in this folder. Requirements:

- An admin page that takes the CSV exported from GetWaitlist, or any CSV with an email column.
- Read the header first, show the proposed column mapping and wait for my confirmation.
- Keep created_at when the file has a date column; rebuild referred_by from a referrer
  email column when there is one.
- Mark imported people confirmed only if the file says so; otherwise queue one confirmation mail.
- Skip duplicates and print a summary: imported, skipped, failed rows.
- Update the README.

Add invitations to the waitlist app in this folder. Requirements:

- An admin action "Invite the next N" that picks the N best-ranked confirmed people who have
  not been invited.
- Each invite email carries a single-use link at /invite/<token> that expires after 7 days;
  opening it marks the person accepted and redirects to INVITE_REDIRECT_URL from .env.
- The admin table shows invited, accepted and expired counts.
- Send in batches of 20 a minute and log failures.
- Update the README.

Harden signups in the waitlist app in this folder. Requirements:

- Add Cloudflare Turnstile: site and secret keys in .env, token checked server-side before any
  signup is stored.
- Flag, but do not delete, signups whose IP hash or email pattern repeats (same hash 3 times,
  plus-addressing floods) and show a Flagged filter in the admin table.
- Exclude flagged signups from referral boosts until I unflag them.
- Update the README with how to get Turnstile keys.

What you lose

A hosted widget you paste into Webflow, Framer or Squarespace without writing code
Someone else handling email deliverability, bounces and unsubscribes
Ready-made Slack and Zapier connections and signed webhooks
Traffic and UTM analytics dashboards
Team logins and live chat support

Why people still pay

Founders pay to be live in minutes on whatever site builder they already use, with a leaderboard and automatic emails that need no care while they build the actual product.

Moatexecution polish infrastructure scale

Do the math

GetWaitlist or your own copy?

Over

Your usage

Count my time3h ×$/h

GetWaitlist, 1 yr$180

Your own copy, 1 yr$41running + build session

You keep$139pays for itself in the first month

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

Leaving GetWaitlist

Take your data, then cancel.

1 · Take your data out of GetWaitlist

1Open the dashboard and export your signups as a CSV: the pricing FAQ says you can do it at any time.
2Basic and above show the referrer and the UTM parameters of each signup in the dashboard. The FAQ doesn't say whether the CSV carries those columns, so run a test export before you cancel.
3The documented public API needs no authentication and covers signups and waitlist info; a much larger authenticated API exists but is only documented on request.

2 · Cancel GetWaitlist

1Cancel in the dashboard; the FAQ says there is no need to contact anyone.
2The plan stays active to the end of the billing period, and the dashboard shows the date.

Accounts created before 12 June 2025 keep the free tier, so an old free account is cheaper left alone.
Confirmation and position emails come from GetWaitlist's mail domain unless you're on Pro with your own sending domain. Tell people about the new sender before you switch.
The signup widget sits on your site as a pasted snippet: keep it live until the new form is online, then remove it.
Yearly billing is about 33% off, but plan the move before you pay for a year.

Checked 2026-10-14 against GetWaitlist's docs: 1, 2, 3

The escape hatch

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

ListmonkOpen sourceAGPL-3.0 mailing-list and newsletter manager with public signup forms and double opt-in; it has no referral ranking.★ 24k · active Oct 2026 · docker to self-host
WebVisit ↗WaitlyOpen sourceMIT Next.js template with Notion as the list and Upstash Redis for rate limiting; no referral mechanics.★ 83 · active Feb 2026 · one-click install
WebVisit ↗FormZeroOpen sourceMIT form backend that deploys to your free Cloudflare account; it collects the signups, you add the ranking.★ 83 · active Apr 2026 · one-click install
WebVisit ↗

All 5 free alternatives to GetWaitlist ›

The numbers

GetWaitlist pricing

Plan	Monthly	Annual, per month	What you get
Legacy free	$0/workspace	$0/workspace	Unlimited signups and waitlists, API access, CSV import and export, UTM tags per signup, automated (non-custom) emails.
Basic	$15/workspace	$10/workspace	Unlimited waitlists and signups, your logo on the widget, API and webhooks, leaderboards, custom questions, phone numbers, Slack, CSV export, referrer and UTM per signup, email blasts, live chat support.
Advanced	$50/workspace	$33/workspace	Basic plus no GetWaitlist branding on the widget, hidden position counts, permitted signup domains, personal-email blocking, Zapier, moving a signup's position through the API.
Pro	$250/workspace	$167/workspace	Advanced plus custom email templates and offboarding emails, sending from your own domain, traffic and UTM analytics, multi-user team access.
Enterprise	custom	—	Custom features and onboarding.

Free tier: Legacy free accounts only; new accounts start on the trial.
Billing: Monthly, or yearly at about 33% off ($10, $33 and $167 a month for Basic, Advanced and Pro). Cancel any time in the dashboard; the plan runs to the end of the period.
Hidden costs: None listed: signups and waitlists are unlimited on every plan, so the bill doesn't grow with the list. The jumps are for removing branding, sending from your own domain and analytics.
Source: getwaitlist.com

Also on the list

Tally$29/mo · FormsYES

Typeform$39/mo · FormsKINDA

Kit (formerly ConvertKit)$39/mo · NewslettersKINDA

Questions

GetWaitlist, briefly

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

Ask a question ›

No free plan for new accounts: the free tier only exists for accounts created before 12 June 2025. New accounts get a 7-day trial of Basic.

Yes. An AI coding agent such as Claude Code, Codex or Cursor can build a usable personal version in one session with the prompt on this page, running on your own machine.

About $15 a month on the Basic plan, $180 a year (checked 2026-10-14).

A hosted widget you paste into Webflow, Framer or Squarespace without writing code; Someone else handling email deliverability, bounces and unsubscribes; Ready-made Slack and Zapier connections and signed webhooks; Traffic and UTM analytics dashboards; Team logins and live chat support. If any of those matter to you, keep paying.