Can AI replace Clerky?
A consolation build is possible, but the paid product's decisive value sits outside a solo rebuild. For Clerky, track startup formation facts and generate review-required internal checklists. The hard boundary is specialized startup legal workflow, vetted documents, filings, cap-table context, and expertise, plus expert judgment, compliance, and regulated services.
01What it costs
Checked Aug 10, 2026 · source: clerky.com.
| Plan | Monthly | Billed yearly | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|
| Company Lifetime Package | — | — | $819 one-time; formation, expedited government fees, first-year registered agent, and unlimited standard fundraising, hiring, commercial, and maintenance paperwork |
| Pay Per Use | — | — | Delaware incorporation $427 one-time including $203 expedited state fee; post-incorporation $299; stock plan $199; SAFEs $9/use; convertible notes $19/use; unlimited security issuances $99 per 6 months |
Hidden costs: The lifetime package excludes third-party charges and nonstandard maintenance. Registered-agent renewals after the included first year, state filing fees outside included formation, foreign qualification, and partner/legal work can add cost.
02Could AI build it for you?
The core job: Collect startup formation facts, generate internal checklists, fill clearly labeled templates, track versions and approvals, and repeatedly state that the output requires qualified review.
What a working version needs:
- self-hosted deployment
- PostgreSQL
- jurisdiction-specific templates supplied by the user or counsel
- secure backup
Editorial comparison targets the Company Lifetime Package plan and a internal questionnaire and template tracker DIY substitute. Recheck price before merge.
03What you'd give up
- specialized startup legal workflow, vetted documents, filings, cap-table context, and expertise
- legal advice
- jurisdictional assurance
- filing and registered-agent network
- continuous regulatory monitoring and liability
People still pay for Clerky because the durable value is expert accountability and regulated execution; document generation alone cannot supply either. The recurring cost buys law changes, jurisdiction, template provenance, access, signatures, filings, deadlines, evidence, retention, security, and professional liability, not just the visible interface.
04Free and cheaper alternatives
Law-firm-built startup questionnaires that generate formation and financing documents, an answer summary, and review checklists; useful drafts, not your lawyer.
cooleygo.com →05The build prompt
Paste this into an AI coding tool (such as Claude, ChatGPT, Lovable or Replit) to build your own version. Read the verdict first: this one is hard to get right.
Build a closest honest personal substitute for Clerky in an empty repository. Use Next.js 15, TypeScript, PostgreSQL, Drizzle ORM, and a versioned Markdown template engine; do not offer alternative stacks. The core loop is: collect startup formation facts, generate internal checklists, fill clearly labeled templates, track versions and approvals, and repeatedly state that the output requires qualified review. Make the first run work locally with one documented command. Store all user data locally by default and make export straightforward. Put secrets in .env, ship .env.example, and never commit credentials. Create versioned questionnaires, reusable fact fields, conditional sections, templates, and approval states. Show the source, jurisdiction, owner, reviewed date, and expiry date for every template. Generate DOCX and PDF drafts with prominent draft and review-required labels. Keep an immutable audit log of answers, template version, generation time, downloads, and approvals. Add role-based access, retention, export, encrypted backups, and a deadline calendar. Display legal-review warnings before generation and again before any final download. Include clear empty, loading, success, and recoverable error states. Add input validation, safe filenames, and graceful handling of unavailable APIs. Write focused tests for the core transformation and one end-to-end happy path. Create a README with setup, architecture, permissions, data location, and backup steps. Do not add accounts, billing, telemetry, analytics, or a hosted control plane. Do not claim to reproduce proprietary data, network liquidity, regulated access, or frontier infrastructure. Deliberately leave out legal advice or guaranteed compliance. Deliberately leave out government filings, identity verification, and registered-agent services. Deliberately leave out automatic consent decisions or deployment without qualified review. Finish by running the tests and listing the exact commands used.
06Open-source starting points
- docassemble: Open-source expert-system platform for guided interviews and document assembly.
App prices, verdicts, alternatives and build prompts are adapted from Can I Vibecode It? (MIT License, © 2026 Rob Hallam). Each price shows the date it was checked and its source. Prices change; confirm on the vendor's site before you decide.
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