I built an AI regex tool for overseas users – here’s the stack and what’s working so far
Hey IH đź‘‹
I built Forge Regex: describe a pattern in plain English → get a working regex, with live testing, explanations, replace preview, and code export.
đź”— https://regex.ststudio.top
Why I built it
I was tired of the “ChatGPT writes regex → paste into regex101 → tweak → repeat” loop. I wanted one place that both generates and lets you verify.
What’s live
- NL → JS-compatible regex (DeepSeek)
- Live match highlighting + short explanations
- Replace preview
- Export to JS / Python / Go / Java / .NET
- Free: 5 gens/day
- Pro: $9/mo via Paddle (MoR) – unlimited + share links
- Email magic-link login to keep Pro across devices
Stack
Next.js, DeepSeek, Paddle Billing, SQLite, Resend, self-hosted
What’s hard / what I learned
- Payment for a China-based indie: Stripe / Lemon Squeezy were painful; Paddle worked better as MoR.
- Checkout price bugs are easy: UI said $9 while Price ID still pointed at a $1 test price. Always verify the live Price ID.
- “Paid but plan not showing” needs email login + webhook sync, not only a browser cookie.
- Shipping CN WeChat/Alipay early was a distraction – I’m focusing on overseas customers first.
Where I need feedback
- Is $9/mo reasonable vs free 5/day?
- What’s the #1 feature you’d need before paying?
- Any dealbreakers vs regex101 + ChatGPT?
Thanks – happy to share more on Paddle, quota design, or SEO.
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Solving that "ChatGPT + regex101" context switching loop is super slick. For $9/mo, it might be a bit steep for devs who only write complex regex twice a month. Have you considered a cheap one-time credits pack alongside the monthly sub? Might convert way more casual users.
I tried the guest flow, and the “2 trials left” counter makes the limit easy to understand. One thing confused me, though: the post says Free includes 5 generations a day, while the live pricing page says 8 a day after sign-in. That makes the $9 question harder to judge because people aren’t evaluating the same free plan. I’d make the three states explicit in one line near the counter: “2 guest tries • 8/day with a free account • Pro: unlimited, cloud history, and share links.” Then repeat it after a successful generation, when upgrading becomes relevant. $9 doesn’t feel obviously high to me; the bigger issue is whether repeat users understand the Pro value before they hit the limit.
The pricing question may depend less on whether $9 feels reasonable and more on what actually pushes someone past the free workflow.
Have you seen any pattern yet in what frequent users are doing that makes 5 generations/day meaningfully limiting, rather than enough for most regex work?
Looks nice!
My #1 feature would be a history or library I generated.
Many things I need multiple times, but with time between and building a library in the tool would be important to come back to the tool and continue using it