I built a free AI-powered Linktree alternative that generates your page algorithmically — Xefna

SM Shahbaj — Thu, 14 May 2026 18:07:31 +0000

I got tired of every link-in-bio page looking exactly the same.

You know the look — white background, rounded buttons stacked in a
column, maybe a profile picture at the top. Linktree. Beacons.
Bio.link. They all look identical. Your page looks like everyone
else's page.

So I built Xefna.

What is Xefna?

Xefna is a micro-site engine that uses AI and algorithmic design to
generate a completely unique digital identity for every user — not
a template, not a button list. It analyzes your content and builds
a layout, color palette, and typography specifically for you.

Every Xefna page looks like a custom-coded portfolio. No two pages
look the same.

How it works

You go to xefna.com and hit Magic Start
Type a short prompt or bio — something like "I'm a music producer and visual artist from Dhaka"
The AI engine extracts your brand essence and generates your entire page — layout, colors, typography, structure
You customize links and content in the visual editor
Your page is live instantly at xefna.com/yourname

The whole thing takes under 2 minutes.

What makes it different from Linktree

Feature	Linktree	Xefna
Design	Static button list	Algorithmically generated
Setup	Manual	AI-powered from a single prompt
Uniqueness	Everyone looks the same	Every page is distinct
Feel	Generic	Custom-coded portfolio
Price	Free tier	Free tier

The tech stack

For the devs curious about what's under the hood:

React 19 + TypeScript + Vite (SPA)
Express server for SSR meta tag injection (so profiles are crawlable by Google and social platforms)
Supabase (PostgreSQL) for user data and profile storage
Cloudflare Pages + CDN for edge deployment globally
Google Gemini AI + OpenAI for the Magic Start generator
motion/react for micro-animations
Tailwind CSS for styling

The SSR part was the most interesting engineering challenge —
since it's a React SPA, user profile pages at xefna.com/username
needed to return real HTML to Googlebot and social crawlers
(for OG previews). The Express server detects the User-Agent and
injects pre-rendered HTML + meta tags before serving.

What I learned building this

This is a micro-startup I founded in April 2026. A few honest takeaways:

SSR meta injection is underrated. Most SPA tutorials skip this entirely but it's critical for SEO and social sharing.
AI generation UX is hard. Getting the prompt-to-page flow to feel magical rather than frustrating took many iterations.
Cloudflare Pages + Supabase is an incredible free stack. Zero infrastructure cost at this stage.

Try it

👉 xefna.com — completely free, no credit card

I'd genuinely love your feedback. Especially from devs — what
would you want from a link-in-bio tool that you can't get from
Linktree today?

Drop a comment or reach out on X: @xefnalabs

Building a "Local-First" Expense Tracker with zero server costs

SM Shahbaj — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 20:26:21 +0000

As developers, we tend to follow a common practice: frontend + api + database. Yet, when I decided to develop the Sheet Manager application, I wanted to break this paradigm. I wanted to create an application which is 100% private, offline, and completely zero-cost.

And Local-First architecture helped me achieve that.

The Architecture

There is no reason why your sensitive financial data should be stored on some PostgreSQL or MongoDB instance somewhere on the cloud. Instead, all of it is stored in the user's browser.

Persistence: I implemented a wrapper for IndexedDB which allows us to handle very large sets of structured data (in comparison to LocalStorage). Plus, unlike LocalStorage, it does not block the main thread.

Performance: Being client-side only makes our UI super responsive since there are no API calls and the latency becomes simply the execution of JavaScript code.

Privacy: This is the main advantage of local-first applications. I literally have no way of accessing the data users enter since it's being stored on their own computers. For a finance application, that's an incredible feature.

The "Zero-Cost" Infrastructure

Can we make a production-ready application without any bills whatsoever?

Hosting: Using Cloudflare Pages and GitHub Pages as the frontend hosting services.
Database: Free (It's inside the user's browser).
Analytics: Keeping analytics light and simple to stay away from trackers.

Challenges of Local-First Development

This was not as easy as it sounds. Developing without backend adds its challenges:
Data portability: In case the user clears browser storage, how can we provide him/her with the option to import/export data? Implemented a JSON/CSV export/import system.
Sync across multiple devices: This is something I want to tackle soon by using WebRTC or Peer-to-Peer synchronization technologies._

Why did I develop this?

In addition to being a software engineer, I'm also very privacy-conscious (I don't even use Facebook and Twitter). We over-engineered the idea of "the cloud" into every tiny utility. Sheet Manager became a proof that we don't necessarily need servers to develop beautiful dashboard-based applications.

Take a look at the project yourself: Sheet Manager

What do you think about the idea of local-first development? How are you handling data persistence nowadays?

DEV Community: SM Shahbaj