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Build your own client engagement tracker with Base44 instead of paying for a full marketing suite

who Cody Luongo, a freelance media consultant in Charleston, South Carolina, in Business Insider

The problem

He needed a way to quantify the public relations impact he achieved for clients. He tried Semrush on a free trial but didn't want to pay $199 to $499 a month when he only wanted one or two features.

What happened

He pays $40 a month for Base44 instead of a $199-$499 monthly subscription. "I'm constantly amazed by the ability to build a product like this that does exactly what I want it to do." The article doesn't list the app's metrics. In the same story, consultant Amin Astaneh warns that solo owners should only build tools they have time to debug and maintain.

Quoted in the source: Cody Luongo, freelance media consultant. Source: Business Insider: 5 solo business owners share how they are using AI to create custom tools (Kelly Burch) (2026-04-09) · Added 2026-10-18.

How to set it up yourself

1. What Cody Luongo built: a Base44 app that tracks audience engagement for the media and PR work he does for clients, in place of a Semrush subscription he only needed one or two features from.
2. Before building, write down the 3-5 numbers clients actually ask about (placements, estimated reach, social shares, referral visits) and where each comes from (a CSV export, Google Analytics, a sheet you keep). If a number has no export, the app can't track it.
3. In Base44, start on the free plan and describe the app in the builder chat with the prompt below. Test it by importing one past month of a real client's data and comparing every total with your spreadsheet.
4. Give each client a login that shows only their own dashboard, export the code with GitHub sync (Builder plan and up) so you aren't locked in, and set a monthly reminder to import new data. Keep only tools you can fix yourself when they break.

Copy-paste prompt

Build a web app called {APP NAME} for my media consulting business. Clients: {CLIENT LIST}. Each month I import a CSV with columns {COLUMNS, e.g. date, outlet, headline, URL, estimated reach, social shares, referral visits}. For each client, show a monthly table, totals and month-over-month change for {METRICS}, and a one-page summary I can export as a PDF. Each client logs in and sees only their own data. Don't calculate any metric that isn't in the CSV.

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