Why merebase

You needed one app.
They sold you a platform.

Every SaaS tool started as a solution to a real problem. Then it became a business. Then it became a platform. Then it raised prices and started doing fifty things you don’t need. merebase is the alternative that doesn’t do that.

Get the free plugin → Read the manifesto

Free WordPress plugin · GPL v2 · Open source · Your data stays on your site

The pattern

Every platform follows the same arc.

It starts with a genuine problem. Someone builds a clean, focused tool that solves it. People start using it. The tool works. Then the investors arrive and the tool becomes a platform. The platform grows. Features multiply. The pricing tier that used to include what you need quietly moves up to the next one. The thing you actually use is buried under features you don’t.

You stay because switching looks like a project. And next year the price goes up again.

This is not a bug in the SaaS model. It is the model. The business incentive is to expand the platform, not to keep the tool small and focused. Lock-in is a feature. Complexity keeps you paying.

merebase is built on a different assumption. Your WordPress site is already running. Your data should stay there. The infrastructure for a focused app — auth, storage, access control, version history — should cost you nothing, not $49 a month per seat.

Sound familiar?

You might be here because of one of these.

We are not trying to replace any of them. We are offering a different approach for the cases where a focused custom app is a better fit than a general platform.

Notion / Monday / ClickUp

"It does everything except exactly what we need."

Great for general work management. But when your use case is specific — a custom job tracker, a client intake flow, a staff checklist with your own logic — you end up hacking a general tool into shape. With merebase, you build the exact tool and deploy it.

Retool / Bubble / Webflow

"It is either too complex or too locked in."

Low-code platforms work until they don’t — and then you are stuck, because your app only runs inside their environment. merebase apps are plain HTML and JavaScript. They run on your own site. You own them completely.

HubSpot / Salesforce / Pipedrive

"We are paying for a CRM and using it as a spreadsheet."

Full CRM platforms are built for sales teams with complex pipelines. If you need a focused client tracker or a simple relationship log, the right answer is often a small custom app — not a $150/month platform doing 90% of things you don’t use.

Xero / QuickBooks / FreshBooks

"I just need to track this one thing."

Accounting platforms are excellent for accounting. But companies often use them to track operational data that has nothing to do with accounting — because it is the only shared tool they have. A focused merebase app handles that without the invoice overhead.

ServiceM8 / Tradify / Deputy

"It almost fits. Almost."

Vertical SaaS for trades and field services is great for standard workflows. When your business has a non-standard process — a custom checklist, a specific sign-off flow, a report format that does not exist in the platform — a custom app built with AI and deployed with merebase is often faster and cheaper than finding a workaround.

Wix / Shopify / Squarespace

"I want to build something on my own domain."

Website builders are great for websites. But apps need different things — user auth, data storage, access control, version history. merebase gives you all of that on a WordPress site you already own. No monthly app platform fee on top of your hosting.

The answer

A different architecture entirely.

merebase is not a platform. It is a free WordPress plugin. Install it on any WordPress site and you have everything an app needs already running — magic link auth, key/value storage, entity and relation data, access control by email or domain, version history with rollback.

Your app is a single HTML file. Or a zip. You build it with whatever AI tool you use — Claude, Cursor, ChatGPT, anything. You deploy it in one command. It lives at a clean URL on your own domain. Your data stays in your own WordPress database. Nothing is hosted on our servers. Nothing changes if you stop using merebase.

The plugin is free. Open source. GPL v2. The infrastructure that used to cost $49 a month per seat now costs you nothing, because you already have WordPress hosting.

What’s included

Everything your app needs. Built in. Free.

Install the plugin once and every app you deploy has all of this already running.

Magic link authentication

No passwords to manage. Users get a one-click login link by email. Sessions last 30 days. Works on every app, automatically.

Key/value data storage

Persistent data for your app. Read and write from the browser. No separate database to provision. No API keys to manage inside the app.

Entity and relation storage

Structured records with relationships — customers, jobs, contacts, anything. Shared across apps. Query by type, status, or app.

Access control

Public, private, by individual email, or by email domain. Set it per app. Change it any time. No separate permissions system to configure.

Version history and rollback

Every deploy is versioned. Up to 50 versions kept. Roll back to any previous version in one click. No Git required.

Deploy from any AI tool

One curl command. Works with Claude, Cursor, ChatGPT, or anything that can write HTML. No build pipeline. No npm. No config files.

For AI builders

You built it with Claude. Now what?

This is the problem nobody talks about clearly. You prompt your way to a working app. It does exactly what you need — a job tracker, a form, a calculator, a dashboard. It lives in a chat window. You cannot share it. You cannot give your team a link. The moment you close the tab, it is gone.

merebase solves exactly that. The plugin injects a small context object (window.MB) into every app — your app ID, the API base, your deploy status. Your app uses that to read and write data. Claude already knows the pattern. You describe what you want, it builds something that works with merebase out of the box.

Deploy it with one command. It is live on your own domain in under a minute. Version history keeps every deploy. Roll back if something breaks. Share the link with your team or set it public for anyone. No separate hosting. No separate backend. No invoice for it next month.

Get the deploy instructions →

You needed one app.They sold you a platform.