What to Use Replit For

After using Replit to build my GTD (Getting Things Done) app, which I blogged about in How I build my dream GTD app , I had a ton of people reach out to ask more about it. I got questions like:

• Can I build this AI startup idea I’ve got with Replit?
• Can I build this Web 2.0 idea I’ve got with Replit?
• Can I rebuild my CRM with Replit?
• Can I rebuild my ERP with Replit?

Plus a bunch of other variations. I did my best to answer them, and I figured I’d share some thoughts here.

Prototyping with Replit

Where I think Replit really shines is prototyping new applications. Say you’ve got an idea brewing in your organization—Replit’s perfect for that. Back in my consulting days, I worked a lot in the innovation funnel for big corporates, focusing on digital stuff. I’d run design sprints—week-long sessions where we’d pull together cross-functional teams to brainstorm how to grab new market opportunities. We’d use 4×6 sketching to whip up quick product designs that tackled customer needs. By the end, after all the excitement, leadership would always ask, “How fast can we build this?” The usual answer? “Well, the dev pipeline’s full with updates for existing products.” So, we’d often end up hiring a third-party vendor to team up with the product team on these shiny new ideas.

Here’s the thing: in those early stages, these ideas haven’t been battle-tested in the real world. There’s always this tug-of-war between building a quick prototype and making something robust and scalable. Honestly, I think we over-engineered a lot of those prototypes way too soon. They’d either get scrapped or need a ton of tweaking before hitting product-market fit.

Replit changes the game. It lets your own product teams build those first versions without needing a third-party vendor—at least not right away. The apps you make with Replit have modern, solid architectures, and if you set up the right guidelines, even your prototypes can be secure and follow good design principles. Once it starts gaining traction or finding product-market fit, you can bring in a vendor to polish it up and take it further.

In the startup world, I’ve met many builders with big ideas who think their only option is to shell out $50k to $500k on a developer or dev team to get that first version out and test the market. With Replit, you can skip that hefty upfront cost, DIY it in the early days, test your fit, and grow your user base. It’s way cheaper too. I built my GTD app mostly on Replit’s $25 USD monthly tier, with just an extra $20 in usage fees when I went over my quota. Total spend so far? Maybe $100 USD.

So, for prototyping and initial builds, Replit’s a powerhouse—I’d recommend it to anyone. Now, can it handle massive, large-scale deployments? I’ve got some doubts after a few experiences, and I’ll dig into that in another post.

Rebuilding Internal Applications

Then there’s the question of rebuilding internal apps with Replit— a super interesting question. My take? Sometimes it’s a “don’t bother,” sometimes it’s a hard “yes,” and it all boils down to price versus functionality.

A colleague asked if they should rebuild their online store on Replit. I checked out what they were paying for Shopify and the features they got—no way. You can’t beat Shopify’s value, especially with their startup pricing tiers.

Another friend was curious about ditching a custom SaaS platform running their business. That one was trickier. The price was higher, the functionality lower, but it was still just hundreds a month—not enough to justify the switch.

It’s all about that price-to-functionality ratio. In my recent businesses, though, I’ve hit so many moments where the SaaS tools we used felt overpriced for what they delivered—or for what we actually used. I would’ve killed for something like Replit to build my own versions back then. I can name a dozen enterprise SaaS apps that charge a fortune for features nobody touches. I reckon there’s a shake-up coming for the SaaS industry once companies catch on to Replit and similar platforms. They’ll start eyeballing their tools, figuring out what’s worth keeping and what they could rebuild in-house with stuff like Agentic AI tools.

The Inflection Point We’re Living Through

What started as a simple experiment to build a personal GTD app has become a window into a fundamental shift in how software gets created and consumed. We’re at an inflection point where the traditional boundaries between users and builders are dissolving.

Think about what this means: every business leader frustrated with their current tools, every entrepreneur with a brilliant idea but no technical co-founder, every team that’s been told their feature request is “on the roadmap” for the third year running—they all now have an alternative. The question isn’t whether this will disrupt existing software markets, but how quickly.

What Comes Next

I’m convinced we’re in the early innings of this transformation. The tools will get better, the infrastructure will mature, and the economic advantages will become impossible to ignore. But the real catalyst will be success stories—businesses that save hundreds of thousands of dollars by building custom alternatives, startups that reach product-market fit without raising capital for development, individuals who solve their own problems instead of waiting for someone else to do it.

If you want to check out my app, the one that spawned these series of blog posts, I’ve now given it a name, and a domain. Here is a screenshot below for those that have been asking.

You can access it at http://nextlygtd.app. Give it a go and tell me how you think I could improve it.

What’s the first thing you’d build if you could build anything? I’d love to hear about it in the comments—and maybe even help you figure out if Replit could make it happen.