How I Converted a $200k/Month Website Into a Native iPhone App With Rork

Kristoffer · September 26, 2026 · 11 min read

Carrd is a one-page website builder that reportedly makes over $200,000 every month. There's no bloated dashboard and no code, just a clean editor, and millions of websites have been built with it. It was built and is still run by one person.

It also has no mobile app.

So I turned it into one. In this post I convert Carrd into a native iPhone app called PocketPage, without writing a single line of code. Claude Code researches the whole website and writes one master build prompt, Rork builds the first version, and then I do every single improvement from my phone with the Rork Max app, ending with the app published to TestFlight.

Every prompt is included in full so you can run the same process on any website you like.

Why converting a website into an app is normally hard

Most people underestimate what's inside an app like this. A Carrd-style builder needs a drag-and-drop site editor, templates, publishing, user accounts, payments, and a native feel, all rebuilt from scratch for iOS.

Done the traditional way, that's months of learning Swift and Xcode, or tens of thousands of dollars in developer fees. The process below compresses it into minutes:

1. Claude Code browses the entire Carrd website and writes one master prompt that covers everything about it.
2. Rork turns that prompt into a real native iOS app.
3. Rork Max on my iPhone handles testing and every iteration after the first build.
4. TestFlight gets the app onto a real phone as an installable app.

The website we're converting: Carrd

Carrd lets you pick a template, edit the text and images, hit publish, and have a live website within a few minutes. People use it for portfolios, landing pages, link-in-bio pages, waitlists, basically anything that fits on one page.

Why Carrd works

There are three criteria almost every viral app follows, and Carrd hits all three:

• It solves a common, frustrating problem. Getting a website online is overwhelming for most people. Normal website builders have hundreds of options, and hiring a developer costs thousands. Carrd strips all of that away.
• It keeps things simple. Its core function fits in three words: one-page websites. Anyone understands it instantly.
• It's naturally shareable. Every Carrd site gets shared by its owner, because that's the point of a website. Free sites also carry a "Made with Carrd" badge, so every published site is free marketing for Carrd.

The gap

Carrd only exists on the web. There's no Carrd app in the App Store.

Think about who uses Carrd: creators, freelancers and small business owners. These people live on their phones. A native iPhone app that lets you build and publish a whole website from your pocket is a real product with a proven market behind it.

Step 1: Claude Code writes the master prompt

The biggest mistake beginners make is opening an AI app builder and typing "make me a website builder app." Vague prompts give you vague results: a generic, half-broken layout with no real logic anywhere.

The most important thing before generating a single screen is a proper master prompt that covers everything. Instead of writing it myself, I had Claude Code research the entire Carrd website like a product analyst would. Open Claude Code in your terminal and paste this:

Go to carrd.co and research the entire product. Browse the landing page, the features, the template gallery, the demos, and the pricing page. Understand every core feature: the one-page site editor, the elements users can add like text, images, buttons, forms and embeds, the templates, the publishing flow, custom domains, and what's free versus paid.

Then write one single, complete build prompt for an AI mobile app builder called Rork that recreates this entire product as a native iOS app called "PocketPage" - a one-page website builder that lives on your phone.

The prompt must cover: every core feature adapted for mobile, every screen and the navigation between them, a touch-friendly site editor, a template gallery, a publishing flow with a shareable live URL, onboarding, user accounts, a free tier with a "Made with PocketPage" badge and a Pro tier with custom domains and unlimited sites, and a premium native iOS design direction.

Write it so the builder can work fully autonomously without asking me anything. Save the entire thing into a file called rork-prompt.md.

Claude Code then browses Carrd on its own: the landing page, the templates, the pricing, taking notes as it goes. It's one of my favorite ways to use Claude Code, because it does hours of product research in a few minutes.

The result, rork-prompt.md, is a complete blueprint of Carrd reimagined as a mobile app: every feature, every screen, the data structure, the free versus Pro split, and the design direction. Nothing is built yet, but the plan is already more solid than what most people start with.

Want to swap in a different website? Change carrd.co, the app name and the feature list in the prompt. The structure works for any web product.

Step 2: The first build in Rork

Next, the prompt goes to Rork, an AI builder that makes real native iOS apps from a single prompt. Rork writes real native code and streams a live iPhone simulator straight into your browser, so the preview isn't a mockup. It's a real iOS app built with the same technology App Store apps use.

The process:

1. Go to rork.com.
2. Paste the entire contents of rork-prompt.md into the chat.
3. Send it and wait a few minutes while the agent sets up the screens, the editor, the templates and the accounts.

What the first build got right

• Onboarding. A proper onboarding flow, and the design already looks native.
• Template gallery. Clean, minimal, modern templates that look like real Carrd templates.
• Editor. A real mobile editor. I could tap a text element to edit it, change images, and move things around.

It was a very good first draft. But clicking around in a browser simulator is one thing. The real test of a mobile app is how it feels in your hand.

Step 3: Test it on a real iPhone with Rork Max

Rork has its own iPhone app, Rork Max, and you won't find it on the App Store. Rork Max runs the apps you build as real native code inside itself, which Apple doesn't allow in App Store apps, so you install it from your browser instead.

To install Rork Max:

1. Go to rork.com/ios/install and sign in to your Rork account.
2. Connect your iPhone with a USB cable.
3. Sign in with your Apple Developer account.
4. Turn on Developer Mode in your iPhone settings.
5. Press install.

It takes about five minutes, and after that everything happens on your phone. Inside Rork Max you'll see all your Rork projects. Tap the new one (PocketPage for me) and it downloads and opens as a real native app.

Twenty minutes earlier this was a website in a browser. Now it was running on my iPhone.

What I found on the phone

• Account creation. Sign up with name, email and password, or Continue with Apple. I never asked for Sign in with Apple; Rork added it on its own.
• A free plan already wired in. The "Your Sites" dashboard showed "1 of 3 free sites used" with a gold upgrade button, so the monetization structure from the master prompt was there from the start.
• A problem. Why was one of my three free sites already used on a brand-new account? Rork had seeded a demo site called "Alex Rivera - Designer", marked as Live. That's fine for testing, but a new user should never start with someone else's demo site, and it was counting against the free limit. Note it down as a fix.
• Templates tab. Categories for profiles, landing pages, forms and portfolios, with some templates marked PRO. The premium templates were already tied to the free versus paid model.

The foundation was impressive, but there were things to clean up. From here, every change happens on the phone.

Step 4: Fix the bugs from your phone

Rork Max isn't just a preview tool. It has the full AI chat built in, which means you can keep building your app from your phone, lying on the couch, with no laptop and no terminal.

Iteration 1 fixed the two bugs I hit in the editor:

Two fixes in the editor. First: when I tap a text element near the bottom of the screen, the keyboard covers it and I can't see what I'm typing. Keep the selected element visible above the keyboard while editing. Second: template preview images load with a blank space - add smooth loading placeholders so the gallery never looks broken.

After reloading the preview, tapping a text element near the bottom scrolled it up above the keyboard automatically, and the template gallery showed clean loading placeholders instead of blank squares. Both bugs fixed in a few minutes, from my phone.

This fix-and-reload loop is what makes solo app development practical in 2026.

Step 5: Make it feel premium

The app worked, but it needed to feel premium. Design builds trust in the first three seconds, and if a website builder looks cheap, nobody will trust it with their business or pay for it. Iteration 2:

Make the entire app feel like a premium consumer product. Refine the spacing and typography across every screen, add subtle animations when opening the editor and switching to preview, improve the empty states for new users with no sites yet, and add clear feedback when a site publishes successfully. Do not change any functionality.

Notice how vague that prompt is. I didn't specify fonts or animation timings, because Rork Max makes those design decisions well on its own. The line "Do not change any functionality" is the important part: it keeps a design pass from breaking what already works.

The difference was night and day:

• The template gallery fades in smoothly.
• Opening the editor and switching to preview feel buttery.
• Publishing a site shows a proper success screen with the live link ready to share.
• The empty state for new users invites you to create your first site instead of showing a blank screen.

Step 6: Add the feature that makes money

Carrd makes its money from Pro subscriptions. Free users get the basics, and people pay for custom domains, more sites, and removing the badge. PocketPage uses the same proven model. Iteration 3:

Add a Pro subscription with a paywall. Free users can publish one site, and every free site shows a small "Made with PocketPage" badge. Pro unlocks unlimited sites, custom domains, premium templates, and removes the badge. Add a clean upgrade screen that shows the benefits clearly, and put tasteful upgrade prompts at the natural moments - when a free user tries to create a second site or remove the badge.

The badge is the same growth trick Carrd uses: every free website your users publish becomes a small advertisement for your app, so the marketing is built into the product.

To test it, I tried to create a second site on my free account, and the upgrade screen appeared exactly where it should: clear benefits, one clean price, no confusion. The app now had a real business model, and I still hadn't touched my computer.

Step 7: Publish to TestFlight

Turning a project into an installable iPhone app used to require a Mac, Xcode, code signing and provisioning profiles. Rork compresses that into a few taps. You need one thing: an Apple Developer account, which costs $99 a year at developer.apple.com.

1. Inside Rork, open the publish option and choose App Store / TestFlight.
2. Package the app: name, icon and description. Do this properly, because it's what people see before they ever open your app.
3. Sign in with your Apple ID and enter the six-digit two-factor code.
4. Rork uploads the build, signs it, and pushes it through App Store Connect to TestFlight.
5. When it's done, Rork gives you a TestFlight link. Open it, follow the steps, and redeem the code in the TestFlight app on your iPhone.

PocketPage then downloads onto the phone like any App Store app.

The final test as a brand-new user

With PocketPage installed from TestFlight, I did one last run-through as a completely new user: went through onboarding, picked a template, edited the headline, swapped in a photo, and hit publish.

The result was a live website on the internet, built in about a minute, entirely from a phone. When I tried to make a second site, the Pro paywall appeared right on cue.

Recap: the whole process

A website builder run by one person became a mobile app built by one person, without writing a single line of code.

Frequently asked questions

Can you convert any website into a mobile app?

You can use the same process for most web products. Point Claude Code at the site, have it write a master prompt for a native app version, and build from there. Keep in mind this rebuilds the product as a native app; it doesn't wrap the existing website. Build your own version with your own name, branding and content rather than copying another company's assets.

Do I need a Mac or Xcode to publish with Rork?

No. Rork handles code signing and the upload to App Store Connect. You do need an Apple Developer account ($99 a year) to publish to TestFlight and the App Store.

Why isn't Rork Max on the App Store?

Rork Max runs the apps you build as real native code inside itself, which Apple doesn't allow for App Store apps. You install it from rork.com/ios/install with a USB cable, your Apple Developer account and Developer Mode turned on.

Why use Claude Code for the prompt instead of writing it myself?

Because the first build is only as good as the prompt. Claude Code can browse the whole website, catalog every feature, screen and pricing tier, and turn that into a spec the builder can follow without asking questions. That takes minutes instead of hours.

If you want the exact prompts, guides and the full system I use to build and launch apps like this, it's all inside BuildWithAI: step-by-step guides, boilerplates, my Claude Code setup, and a community of builders shipping apps every day.