A poll with a few options and a shareable link is genuinely simple — the same shape as this register's Doodle build, just deciding on an option instead of a meeting time.
Build it
Effort: an eveningRunning cost: $0/mo to start
Why CanICodeThis says Build it
A poll with a question and a fixed set of options is basic CRUD
A shareable link with no login required (anonymous voting) is a common, well-understood pattern
Tallying votes and showing the leading option is a simple aggregation
The parts that'll cause problems
Preventing the same person from voting twice, without requiring an account, needs some form of lightweight fingerprinting or a magic-link approach
Ranked-choice voting (rank options by preference) is real, different tallying logic than simple pick-one
Real-time results updating live as votes come in adds a WebSocket layer beyond a page that just refreshes
How I'd build this
frontend
Astro or Next.js
database
Turso (SQLite)
hosting
Cloudflare Pages
MVP scope
Create a poll with a question and options
A shareable link, no login required to vote
A results view showing vote counts
Postpone to v2
Duplicate-vote prevention without accounts
Ranked-choice voting
Live-updating results
What it actually costs to build
AI agent — with a subscription (Claude Pro/Max, Cursor, etc.)
$0 marginal
AI agent — pay-per-use API, no subscription
$16–$27 one-time
Hosting, once it's running
$0/mo (free tier)
Domain name, if you want your own
~$12/yr
Existing tools solving a similar problem typically run $6.95–$6.95/mo — see how they compare below.
The build prompt
Build me a group decision poll: create a poll with a question and a fixed set of options, share a link, let anyone vote with no login required, and show a results page with vote counts. SQLite behind a small API. Skip ranked-choice voting and live-updating results for v1.