This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Khue Pham
On Today's Agenda
- The Hackathon Opportunity: Why I Jumped In
- The Ultimate Low-Cost Tech Stack
- Let the Building Begin! From Image to UI
The Hackathon Opportunity
Bolt announced its Hackathon two months ago, but I only decided to join near the end. Partly because I used to think AI tools were like v0—not great for building UIs. Plus, I was already happy with my setup of Cursor and Windsurf. A year or two ago, AI code assistants were riddled with bugs, but they've gradually evolved to the point where they can now code the entire frontend.
However, after trying out Loveable and Bolt, I feel like the options for UI generation have multiplied. The GitHub integration is incredibly fast for pushing code. Just by registering for the Bolt hackathon, I was given 1 million free tokens to build with, along with tons of coupons for other tools. Most importantly, it gave me free access to the RevenueCat payment gateway.
I had also signed up for another gateway called Ruul, which has the advantage of accepting crypto (USDT). However, RevenueCat waives its fees for revenue under $2.5k/month. I decided to use RevenueCat for web payments, Bolt to build the new app, ChatGPT to help shape the idea, and Gemini to choose the app's name and write the Terms & Conditions.
The Ultimate Low-Cost Tech Stack
Here is the complete stack I've assembled for this project:
- Logo & Banners: Canva
- Manual UI Design: Figma
- AI Frontend Generation: Bolt AI
- Domain: Namecheap (already purchased, so I didn't use the free one from the Hackathon).
- Database: Supabase
- Web Server & Deployment: Netlify
- CDN & DNS: Cloudflare
- Email: Google Workspace (I'm lucky to have a grandfathered free Basic plan from 2011, as they no longer offer it. A good alternative is Lark by Bytedance—I've already registered a few accounts just in case they follow Google and drop their free tier ^^!).
- App Store Account: Apple Developer
I'll deal with other security considerations later on during the project. Today's task is to register for the Apple Developer account to push the app to the Apple Store. The cost is $99, which came out to about 1.2 million VNĐ according to the developer site notification.
Total Projected Cost: $7 for the domain + $99/year for the Apple account. Everything else is free.
Let the Building Begin!
Alright then, time to build the interface! Bolt's ability to convert an image into a web interface is excellent. You can find a design you like on a site like UI8, take a screenshot, and feed it to Bolt. Then you just ask it to replicate the image for your idea, swapping out this or that section.
I'm determined to build an MVP with core functions, a smooth end-to-end flow, minimal bugs, and basic security. Therefore, I'm not stressing over the UI being perfect; as long as I think it looks good and isn't buggy, it's a win.
I repeated these steps for the Login, Signup, Pricing, and Dashboard screens... and in a flash, I had dozens of commits. It's been a while since I've felt this productive.
This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Khue Pham
Khue Pham | Sciencx (2025-07-08T11:01:52+00:00) Day 3/100: Assembling the Toolkit on a Shoestring Budget 🛠️💰. Retrieved from https://www.scien.cx/2025/07/08/day-3-100-assembling-the-toolkit-on-a-shoestring-budget-%f0%9f%9b%a0%ef%b8%8f%f0%9f%92%b0/
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