Polling for your ideal DIY setup (paid/free)
I just spent $300 (in 2 weeks) vibe coding a full self hosted genealogy app. This was my first real attempt at letting AI do all the work and I am impressed at what it can do (I am a software dev with 10+ yr of experience).
What I am looking to understand is what people use and how you optimize for cost(if any)/ token usage.
So in your post, can you share -
- IDE/CLI if any
- Subscriptions if any
- Self hosted or not (ollama or otherwise)
- Which models and for which task
- Your output - how many lines of code? Live links to apps?
- Your cost per month to develop it
- Token usage per month
- Any AGENTS.md tips
- Any SKILLS.md tips (I use Matt pococks repo)
- Anything else you want to share about this
Posted May 1, 2026, 9:15 PM UTC
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