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I built my own ManyChat with Claude Code

In March, ManyChat cut its free plan from 1,000 contacts down to 25. My comment to DM setup broke overnight. So I opened Claude Code and built my own. Here is the whole story, and the product it turned into.

By Ryan Frizelle · 5 min read

Here is what happened. On March 2nd, ManyChat changed its plans. The free tier dropped from 1,000 contacts down to 25. Twenty five. If you run any kind of creator account, you pass 25 people in about a day.

I was using ManyChat for one thing. Someone comments a keyword on my post, they get a DM with a link. That is it. Comment GUIDE, get the guide. It is still the best way I have found to turn a post that pops off into email subscribers and actual customers.

After the change, keeping that running meant a paid plan. Pro is $29 a month for 2,500 contacts. Want the AI features on top? That is another $29 a month. And the whole thing is priced per contact, so the bill climbs as your audience grows. You get charged more for winning. That part always bugged me.

The pricing model is the real problem. You pay more every time your account grows. A viral month should feel great, not show up as a bigger invoice.

So I decided to build my own

I am not a developer. I studied computer science in college, but I have spent my whole career in marketing and growth, not writing code for a living. What I do have is Claude Code, and at this point I trust it to build real things I actually use.

The feature is not complicated once you break it down. Watch for comments with a keyword. When one shows up, send that person a DM with a link. Do not DM the same person twice. Do not reply to yourself. Log every send so I can see it worked.

I opened Claude Code, spent about 15 minutes planning it out, and let it build. The plan is 90% of it. I cannot say this enough. A solid 15 minute plan saves you hours of fixing things later. Every single time.

What I actually ended up with

It started as a little comment to DM script. Then I kept adding to it, because once you are building your own thing, you are not stuck with whatever ManyChat decided to ship.

Here is what it does now:

  1. 1.One inbox that pulls in the comments and DMs from YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. No more bouncing between six tabs.
  2. 2.AI that drafts replies in my actual voice, not stiff bot language. It picked up how I talk.
  3. 3.Comment to DM with no flow builder. I set a keyword, pick the link, done. No dragging boxes around a canvas for an hour.
  4. 4.One flat monthly price. It does not go up when my audience does.

That last one is the whole point. I built the thing I wish ManyChat had been for creators like me.

How I built it (the actual method)

This is the same thing I teach in the course, so here is the short version. I did not open Claude Code and type build me a ManyChat. That gets you garbage every time. I planned first.

Here is the workflow:

  1. 1.Write out exactly what you want in plain English. The keyword, the DM, the rules for who gets it and who does not.
  2. 2.Have Claude turn that into a real plan before it writes a single line of code.
  3. 3.Let it build the first version. You will get about 80% of the way there.
  4. 4.Refine it by just talking. Do not send the DM twice. Add Instagram. Show me a log of everything that went out.

You do not need to know how to code to do this. You need to know what you want and how to describe it. That is the whole skill, honestly.

The tool I built

BetterReply

One inbox for your comments and DMs, AI replies in your own voice, and comment to DM with no flow builder. Made for solo creators. One flat price that does not climb as you grow.

Try BetterReply

Should you build your own, or just use mine?

Honest answer? If you want to get good at building with Claude Code, build your own. You will understand your own tools way better, and you will start to notice how much of the software you pay for every month is pretty simple under the hood.

If you just want the comment to DM and the one inbox without building anything yourself, I turned mine into a real product. It is called BetterReply. It does everything I described up top, it is made specifically for solo creators, and it does not charge you more for growing your audience.

Either way the lesson is the same. When a tool you rely on makes a change you hate, you are not stuck anymore. You can just build the version you actually wanted. That still feels a little unreal to me, and it is the whole reason I make this stuff.