Canny
Collect feature requests, merge duplicates, publish statuses, and maintain a roadmap
The core loop is buildable, but a dependable replacement becomes a real weekend or multi-day project. For Canny, collect feature requests, merge duplicates, publish statuses, and maintain a roadmap. The hard boundary is customer identity, integrations, changelog, prioritization, and team workflow, plus participant network, synthesis workflow, and collaboration.
Build verification: not recorded. How we judge buildability
What you give up
- customer identity, integrations, changelog, prioritization, and team workflow
- large participant panel
- recording and transcription infrastructure
- advanced research repository
- enterprise governance
Why people still pay
People still pay for Canny because people pay either for access to participants or for a research repository that keeps evidence usable across an organization. The recurring cost buys recruitment, consent, scheduling, media storage, transcription, tagging consistency, notifications, search, and retention, not just the visible interface.
Your build guide
The stack, security requirements, and agent rules for a focused replacement.
Before you start
- A supported Node release, PostgreSQL, HTTPS for a shared deployment, and a backup destination. Begin with one workspace and explicit owner/member permissions.
- Implementation components: Next.js App Router and TypeScript for server-rendered pages and validated mutations. PostgreSQL with Drizzle migrations; Better Auth sessions for a small private workspace.
- Scope boundary: customer identity, integrations, changelog, prioritization, and team workflow; large participant panel
Use these project rules and optional skill references alongside the prompt. Review each skill before adding it to your agent; the AGENTS.md export includes the same guidance.
Optional external skill: vercel-react-best-practices — Improve React and Next.js data fetching, rendering, bundle size and server performance. Review its instructions and compatibility before use; it does not grant deployment, data-access or publication permission.
Optional external skill: supabase-postgres-best-practices — Review PostgreSQL schemas, queries, indexes, pooling, concurrency and row-level security. Review its instructions and compatibility before use; it does not grant deployment, data-access or publication permission.
Optional external skill: web-design-guidelines — Review web interfaces for accessibility, keyboard focus, forms, navigation and interaction quality. Review its instructions and compatibility before use; it does not grant deployment, data-access or publication permission.
Project rule — data model: feature requests, unique supporter votes, duplicate/merge history, statuses and subscriber notifications
Project rule — preserve this invariant: A user contributes one vote per canonical request; merging two requests unions supporters instead of summing duplicate votes.
Project rule — acceptance evidence: Merge requests supported by the same person and count that person once; undoing a merge restores the original discussion provenance.
Implementation plan
Phase 1
Scope and fixtures. Implement this bounded workflow: Accept feature requests, search before posting, merge duplicate suggestions and publish a roadmap plus changelog. Keep the original request URL redirect and explain status changes with an editor note. Record prerequisites, select representative user-owned fixtures and document the unsupported features: customer identity, integrations, changelog, prioritization, and team workflow; large participant panel
Phase 2
Durable model. Model feature requests, unique supporter votes, duplicate/merge history, statuses and subscriber notifications Add migrations or a versioned document format, explicit validation, stable IDs and a visible import-error report. Preserve this rule: A user contributes one vote per canonical request; merging two requests unions supporters instead of summing duplicate votes.
Phase 3
Complete the first useful path. Implement the workflow's input, review and output interface, with clear controls and explicit empty/error states. Commit related database changes in one transaction. Use version checks for competing edits and an outbox for external notifications; retry delivery independently of saving the record.
Phase 4
Permissions and integration failure. Authorize every record read and mutation on the server using its workspace membership; validate payloads, protect mutations against CSRF, and escape user-authored HTML. Request integration credentials and permissions only for the enabled feature; show a disconnected state instead of mock results.
Phase 5
Portable handoff. Export versioned JSON plus attachments and a readable CSV summary. Restore into a separate database and compare record IDs and attachment checksums before switching. Include setup, operating limits, fixture walkthrough and shutdown/restart instructions in the README.
Phase 6
Acceptance scenarios. Merge requests supported by the same person and count that person once; undoing a merge restores the original discussion provenance. Repeat the workflow after restart and with a denied permission or unavailable dependency; show recoverable failure rather than a success placeholder.
WORKING SLICE Accept feature requests, search before posting, merge duplicate suggestions and publish a roadmap plus changelog. Keep the original request URL redirect and explain status changes with an editor note. Build this scoped Canny-inspired workflow with a documented data model and visible failure states. Architecture - Next.js App Router and TypeScript for server-rendered pages and validated mutations. - PostgreSQL with Drizzle migrations; Better Auth sessions for a small private workspace. Prerequisites and limits A supported Node release, PostgreSQL, HTTPS for a shared deployment, and a backup destination. Begin with one workspace and explicit owner/member permissions. Outside this release: customer identity, integrations, changelog, prioritization, and team workflow; large participant panel Data model and correctness feature requests, unique supporter votes, duplicate/merge history, statuses and subscriber notifications Invariant: A user contributes one vote per canonical request; merging two requests unions supporters instead of summing duplicate votes. Commit related database changes in one transaction. Use version checks for competing edits and an outbox for external notifications; retry delivery independently of saving the record. Security and privacy Authorize every record read and mutation on the server using its workspace membership; validate payloads, protect mutations against CSRF, and escape user-authored HTML. Recovery and export Export versioned JSON plus attachments and a readable CSV summary. Restore into a separate database and compare record IDs and attachment checksums before switching. Implementation order 1. Phase 1 — Scope and fixtures. Implement this bounded workflow: Accept feature requests, search before posting, merge duplicate suggestions and publish a roadmap plus changelog. Keep the original request URL redirect and explain status changes with an editor note. Record prerequisites, select representative user-owned fixtures and document the unsupported features: customer identity, integrations, changelog, prioritization, and team workflow; large participant panel 2. Phase 2 — Durable model. Model feature requests, unique supporter votes, duplicate/merge history, statuses and subscriber notifications Add migrations or a versioned document format, explicit validation, stable IDs and a visible import-error report. Preserve this rule: A user contributes one vote per canonical request; merging two requests unions supporters instead of summing duplicate votes. 3. Phase 3 — Complete the first useful path. Implement the workflow's input, review and output interface, with clear controls and explicit empty/error states. Commit related database changes in one transaction. Use version checks for competing edits and an outbox for external notifications; retry delivery independently of saving the record. 4. Phase 4 — Permissions and integration failure. Authorize every record read and mutation on the server using its workspace membership; validate payloads, protect mutations against CSRF, and escape user-authored HTML. Request integration credentials and permissions only for the enabled feature; show a disconnected state instead of mock results. 5. Phase 5 — Portable handoff. Export versioned JSON plus attachments and a readable CSV summary. Restore into a separate database and compare record IDs and attachment checksums before switching. Include setup, operating limits, fixture walkthrough and shutdown/restart instructions in the README. 6. Phase 6 — Acceptance scenarios. Merge requests supported by the same person and count that person once; undoing a merge restores the original discussion provenance. Repeat the workflow after restart and with a denied permission or unavailable dependency; show recoverable failure rather than a success placeholder. Acceptance Merge requests supported by the same person and count that person once; undoing a merge restores the original discussion provenance. Use real source data or clearly labeled fixtures. Explain unsupported input and provider failures; do not fabricate analytics, delivery receipts, accuracy claims or security guarantees. Optional agent guidance Optional external skill: [vercel-react-best-practices](https://github.com/vercel-labs/agent-skills/blob/main/skills/react-best-practices/SKILL.md) — Improve React and Next.js data fetching, rendering, bundle size and server performance. Review its instructions and compatibility before use; it does not grant deployment, data-access or publication permission. Optional external skill: [supabase-postgres-best-practices](https://github.com/supabase/agent-skills/blob/main/skills/supabase-postgres-best-practices/SKILL.md) — Review PostgreSQL schemas, queries, indexes, pooling, concurrency and row-level security. Review its instructions and compatibility before use; it does not grant deployment, data-access or publication permission. Optional external skill: [web-design-guidelines](https://github.com/vercel-labs/agent-skills/blob/main/skills/web-design-guidelines/SKILL.md) — Review web interfaces for accessibility, keyboard focus, forms, navigation and interaction quality. Review its instructions and compatibility before use; it does not grant deployment, data-access or publication permission. Project rule — data model: feature requests, unique supporter votes, duplicate/merge history, statuses and subscriber notifications Project rule — preserve this invariant: A user contributes one vote per canonical request; merging two requests unions supporters instead of summing duplicate votes. Project rule — acceptance evidence: Merge requests supported by the same person and count that person once; undoing a merge restores the original discussion provenance.
$ open in your agent (prompt prefilled, you press enter), copy the prompt or copy or download AGENTS.md
prompt copied. want to know what dies next week?
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Alternatives to building your own
all 4 free alternatives to Canny →· no votes, no pay-to-list · just what's real
Canny pricing
| plan | monthly | annual (per mo) | what you get |
|---|---|---|---|
| free | $0/workspace | $0/workspace | 25 tracked users; 5 managers; unlimited contributors, feedback and boards. |
| pro | — | $79/workspace | Starts at 100 tracked users; 10 managers; unlimited contributors.Starting annual-equivalent price. |
| business | — | — | Starts at 5,000 tracked users; custom managers, security, integrations and service terms.Quote required. |
free tier25 tracked users; 5 managers; unlimited contributors, feedback and boards.
billingMonthly + annual; the public Pro card exposes the annual-equivalent rate and says annual billing saves 20%; Business is custom.
hidden costsWithout a spend cap, exceeding the tracked-user band can automatically move the account to the next tier and create a prorated charge; with a spend cap, Canny stops tracking new users. Autopilot users count toward tracked-user usage.
pricing sources checked 2026-08-12 · pricing source ↗
Questions about Canny
Can you build your own Canny with AI?
Partly. The core loop is buildable, but a dependable replacement becomes a real weekend or multi-day project. For Canny, collect feature requests, merge duplicates, publish statuses, and maintain a roadmap. The hard boundary is customer identity, integrations, changelog, prioritization, and team workflow, plus participant network, synthesis workflow, and collaboration.
What does the Canny build prompt cover?
The prompt starts with this scope: Accept feature requests, search before posting, merge duplicate suggestions and publish a roadmap plus changelog. Keep the original request URL redirect and explain status changes with an editor note. Full-product capabilities excluded from the comparison include: customer identity, integrations, changelog, prioritization, and team workflow; large participant panel; recording and transcription infrastructure. Follow the implementation plan and its prerequisites before expanding the build.
How do I use the prompt, AGENTS.md and agent skills?
Start with the Canny prerequisites and stack, then copy the prompt into your coding agent. Save the project rules as AGENTS.md in the project root. Linked skills are optional packages or source instructions for specific tasks; review their current contents and install only those matching the chosen stack. A skill does not supply API credentials or verify the finished app.
How long will this Canny project take?
The catalogue estimate is multi-day for the limited scope. Setup, integration approvals, debugging, deployment and ongoing maintenance can add time. This is an estimate, not a delivery guarantee.
What would I give up by replacing Canny?
customer identity, integrations, changelog, prioritization, and team workflow; large participant panel; recording and transcription infrastructure; advanced research repository; enterprise governance. People still pay for Canny because people pay either for access to participants or for a research repository that keeps evidence usable across an organization. The recurring cost buys recruitment, consent, scheduling, media storage, transcription, tagging consistency, notifications, search, and retention, not just the visible interface.
What price is this guide comparing against?
The recorded Pro plan is $79/mo (annual billing, per month), checked 2026-08-12. Check the linked pricing source before buying. Building your own also has hosting, API and maintenance costs; the recorded amount is not a guaranteed saving.
What can I use instead of building Canny?
ClearFlask: Feedback, duplicate merging and a real roadmap; deployment is the least lightweight part. Quackback: Canny's whole loop in one Compose file, including duplicate merging; young, fast-moving, and worth pinning. Sleekplan Indie: Unlimited feedback, a roadmap and a changelog for one admin; branding and the default workflow are the rent. Compare all listed options at https://howtovibecodeit.dev/canny/alternatives. Check each option's license, hosting needs and feature limits.