Build fair.
Stay open.

What The Buildoff is

The Buildoff is a free weekly web-app build competition. The launch is a four-round pilot for individuals only: no teams, cash prizes, antes, or payments.

The prize is a one-week homepage feature, a dedicated X demo post that tags the builder, and a permanent place in the winners gallery. Every valid submission also appears in the weekly showcase with a project link and developer credit. The Buildoff promises this coverage, not impressions, followers, or customers.

Who can take part

An X account is the only way to sign in, and one X account creates one member.

You must be 18 or older to compete or win. You confirm this when you sign in.

The Buildoff is open worldwide. Where local law prohibits you from taking part, you may not enter.

• Voting requires an X account that is at least 30 days old.
• Anyone who claimed a place in a round cannot vote in that round's build ballot. Competitors may still vote on ideas and in other rounds.
• The poster of the winning idea cannot compete in the round built on that idea.

The four rules

1. 01

   No AI features

   Submitted apps must not include AI features, including optional local, hosted, or visitor-key features.

2. 02

   Keep it clean

   Nothing illegal, NSFW, or harassing.

3. 03

   No checkout traps

   Do not collect payments or credentials from visitors.

4. 04

   Build in the window

   Templates are fine. The competition-specific work happens during the 48 hours.

The Buildoff may remove an entry that breaks a rule and will state the rule publicly.

The week

All times are Eastern.

• Ideas: Monday 00:00 to Thursday 18:00.
• Draw: after a five-minute buffer, with verifiable public proof of the frozen pool and randomness.
• Idea vote: after the draw to Friday 18:00.
• Build: Friday 18:00 to Sunday 18:00, a 48-hour window. Twenty build places are available, and claims close Saturday 12:00.
• Build vote: Sunday 18:00 to Tuesday 18:00.
• Winner feature and weekly showcase: Wednesday 19:00.

Ideas

Each member may post one idea per week. Ideas are given freely: anyone else may build the winning idea, and posting an idea creates no ownership claim over builds of it.

Eligible ideas are public with the poster's X handle. Pending, rejected, or withdrawn ideas are not shown.

A poster may withdraw an idea before the eligibility freeze cutoff on Thursday at 18:05 Eastern.

Builds

Builders own their builds and keep every right to them.

By submitting, a builder permits The Buildoff to display and promote the entry's tagline, brief, technology tags, screenshots, live link, repository link, and builder handle on the site, in the weekly showcase, permanent winners gallery, homepage feature, share cards, and The Buildoff's own X posts.

Every valid submission appears in the weekly showcase. The web app must stay reachable in a browser for voters. Video is not part of the pilot.

Voting

Each eligible member gets one vote per ballot and may change that vote until the ballot closes. The last saved choice counts.

Individual choices are private and never published. Totals and rankings stay hidden until close and are published afterwards. Operators can audit raw votes to run the competition.

If the build ballot is tied, the winning idea's poster has 24 hours to choose among the tied entries. If the poster is unavailable, the earliest-submitted tied entry wins. If the build ballot closes with zero valid votes, the round ends without a winner.

What we store

The Buildoff stores your X user ID, handle, display name, optional bio and website, the X account creation date used for the voting rule, and your 18+ confirmation. It also stores ideas, build-place claims, entries, uploaded screenshots, and votes.

The Buildoff does not store an email address or payment data.

Public profile pages show your handle, display name, bio, website, eligible ideas, entries, and wins. Send removal requests to the contact in Changes and contact.

Operator discretion

The operator may remove rule-breaking ideas or entries with a public reason, skip a week, resolve a tie when the poster is unavailable, and recover a delayed draw using the same committed pool and randomness.

Every operator intervention is logged and stated publicly.

Changes and contact

These terms may change between rounds. The effective date is shown on this page.

Contact The Buildoff on X at @thebuildoff.