Validate an app idea before you build it
A free evaluator for app and web-app ideas. You talk the idea through with a guide that keeps asking until each part is specific enough to test. Then you get a written report that scores seven parts of it from 1 to 4, shows the evidence for each, and says what is still unknown. It does not tell you the idea will work. It tells you what we found.
Free · No account · Read what happens to what you type below
What it is
Is my app idea good? Nobody can answer that from a headline, and most validators try. They return a score out of 100 and a paragraph that flatters.
This one asks first. It is a conversation with a guide, and the guide will not move on while an answer is vague. Who exactly has the problem? What do they do about it today? Why you? Then it researches your idea: who already serves the problem, what they charge, what people search for, and whether your own choices cancel each other out.
It is built for ideas for apps and web apps: mobile apps, SaaS tools, marketplaces, portals, booking and payment systems, internal tools. It is free, there is no account, and it is made by Rabblepop, a software development agency. If your idea turns out to be a good one, we would like to build it. You do not have to ask us.
How it works
- Tell it your idea. In your own words, as rough as you like. The first check is whether it is an app or a web app. If it is not, the guide says so and why, and you can start again with another idea.
- Answer the questions you have been avoiding. The guide works through the parts of the idea underneath, using the Lean Canvas, without the jargon. One answer can fill several parts. It never asks for something you have already said.
- Watch the checklist fill. A list beside the conversation shows what has been captured and what has not. You can read it, rewrite any line in your own words, and say "I don't know" where you do not. An unknown is shown as unknown. It never counts against you.
- Confirm the idea. Before any research runs you see the whole idea written out and agree it is right.
- Get the report. Research takes a minute or more. You get a written, scored report, and a link by email so you can come back to it.
The seven aspects
Every report scores seven aspects of your idea from 1 to 4 against a written standard. There is no overall score, because one number hides the part that matters. Each score comes with its reason and the evidence it rests on: a competitor's own pricing page, a search figure, a community found. If the evidence for a level is missing, the score drops to the level the evidence supports, or the aspect is shown as not yet known.
- Problem. Is it real, specific and painful enough that someone would act on it?
- Demand. Do people look for a solution? Search volumes and costs per click are fetched, never guessed.
- Gap. Who already serves this, what do they not do, and is there a real reason they have not?
- Your advantage. What do you have that cannot be bought or copied quickly?
- Reaching customers. Can you reach the first customers by a route you actually have?
- Business model. Who pays, how much, and does the money work?
- Buildability. Can a first version be built, and what would it contain?
Under the scores the report says who already does this and what they leave out, whether your own choices cancel each other, what a first version would contain, how the first ten customers could be found, and what is still unknown. It ends with a rough price band for having Rabblepop build that first version, and a way to talk to us.
A report can score low and still be useful. A 1 is shown with what was found that argues against the idea, so you know before you spend money.
What it is not for
- A brochure website. If you need a site to say who you are and what you offer, this is not the tool. Say so to the guide and it will tell you the same.
- A standard online shop. A shop built on Shopify or similar has well-trodden answers and does not need an idea check.
- A guarantee. No report can say whether your idea will work, bring you customers or make money. It says what the evidence found so far shows, and what you would need to find out next.
What happens to what you type
You are about to describe an idea that may matter to you, so here is what happens to it, before you type anything.
- What we store. The conversation, your idea as you typed it and as the guide summarised it, the report, your email address if you give one, a scrambled form of your IP address, and what each step cost us.
- Who sees it. Rabblepop staff, who can read the conversation and report on our website and are emailed a copy of each report. The companies that process it for us: Anthropic, whose AI models hold the conversation, search the web and write the report, in the United States; and DataForSEO, which receives search phrases drawn from your idea, not the idea itself. Our hosting and email providers carry it too.
- No confidentiality agreement. We do not offer or imply a non-disclosure agreement. Leave out anything confidential, anything you are not free to share, and anyone else's personal details.
- The report is AI. It is written and scored by AI, and nobody checks it before you see it. It is not professional advice.
- Coming back. A cookie keeps your evaluation in this browser for 30 days. If you give your email address, we send you a link that works on any device for 30 days from your last activity.
- How long we keep it. With no email address, 30 days after your last message. With one, 12 months from last contact. Then it is deleted.
The full detail is in our privacy notice.
Questions
Is my app idea good?
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Nobody can know that from an idea alone, and a tool that says it can is guessing. The evaluator scores seven parts of your idea against a written standard and shows the evidence behind each score, so you can see which parts stand up and which do not yet. Then you decide.
How do I validate an app idea?
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Validating means finding out whether real people have the problem, whether they would pay to solve it, and whether you can reach them, before you spend on building. The evaluator does the desk research for that: who already serves the problem, what they charge, what people search for. What it cannot do is talk to your customers. The report lists what you still need to find out by asking them.
How do I test an app idea?
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Start by making the idea specific enough to test: one kind of person, one problem, one way you would solve it. The conversation does that. The report then shows which parts have evidence behind them and which are still unknown, so you know what to test first.
What is the Lean Canvas, and do I need one?
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The Lean Canvas is a one-page way to lay out an idea: the problem, the customers, your solution, how you reach people, how you make money. The guide fills one underneath the conversation, so you answer plain questions and never see the jargon. You do not need to know it first.
Is it a startup idea validator?
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It is made for app and web-app ideas, not every kind of business. That is deliberate. Knowing the idea is software lets the report judge what a first version would contain and roughly what it would cost to build.
Is it really free? What is the catch?
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It is free, with no account. Rabblepop is a software development agency, and the evaluator is how some people find us. Every report ends with an offer to talk. You are not obliged to, and the report is the same either way.
Will you steal my idea?
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We do not offer a non-disclosure agreement, and we say so above. What we do is limit who sees your idea: Rabblepop staff in the admin, and the processors listed in the section above. If your idea is something you cannot describe to anyone without a contract, keep the sensitive part out of the conversation.
Start
It takes one conversation and a few minutes of honest answers. Free, no account.