Open your accounts

These are the services this course uses. Only the first two matter today. Everything else can wait until the module that needs it, and one of them is a nice-to-have you may never bother with. Opening them all now is fine if you would rather get the admin over with.

Open these today

• GitHub: an online home for your project, where every version is kept. Free for private repositories.

• Supabase: where your app remembers things and logs people in. Free tier to start, paid as your data and traffic grow.

Open these when you reach the module that uses them

• Modal: runs heavy or slow jobs off the phone, like reading a receipt. Free tier to test, then pay for what you use. Needed in module 7.

• Stripe: charges cards and sends the money to you. No monthly fee, a cut of each charge. Needed in module 8.

• Resend: sends sign-up emails, password resets and receipts. Free tier to try, paid by volume. Needed in module 5.

• Vercel: hosts your marketing site. Free hobby tier. Needed in module 6.

• Expo: builds and tests your app on a phone. Free account, paid build minutes if you build often. Needed in module 3, and only if you build with React Native.

Optional, whenever you like

• CodeRabbit: reviews your pull requests and comments like a careful teammate. Paid after a trial. Genuinely optional, and worth it once other people touch your code.

Only when you are ready to publish, and both cost money

• Apple Developer Program: required to publish on the App Store. 99 USD a year.

• Google Play Console: required to publish on Google Play. 25 USD once.

Most of these let you sign up with an account you already have instead of inventing another password. Sign in with Google is the one most people already have and the quickest way through a form. Sign in with GitHub is worth choosing for the developer tools, Vercel, Supabase and Expo, because those services then already know which GitHub account is yours and the next lesson has less to do.

Whichever you pick, use the same one everywhere. Signing up to Vercel with Google and Supabase with GitHub is how people end up locked out of their own project six weeks later, staring at an account they cannot remember creating.

Think of GitHub like a cloud filing cabinet with an endless undo button. It holds your project and every change you make to it, so a bad day is never a lost day.

Git takes the snapshots on your computer. GitHub stores those snapshots on the web. You need both, and today you are opening the web side.

Pick a username you can put on a CV. You will see it often, and so will other people. No jokes you will outgrow.

Turn on two-factor authentication now. It adds a one-time code to your login, which stops most account theft. Doing it today saves pain later, because some tools require it.

One project lives in one repository, often shortened to repo. Make new repos private by default while you are learning, so you choose what goes public and when.

GitHub is free for private repos. Paid plans are for teams and advanced features, which you do not need to start.

Vercel hosts your marketing site and any small web companion your app needs. It can connect straight to GitHub, so updates go live when you merge code. Cost: free to start; team plans add speed and features.

Expo gives you an account for their build and testing tools, so you can run your app on a phone without wrestling with local setup. Cost: free account; paid build minutes and extras when you need them.

CodeRabbit reviews your pull requests and leaves comments like a careful teammate. It points out bugs and style issues before they reach users. Cost: paid after a trial; check their site for current pricing.

All three offer sign-up with Google or with GitHub. Use whichever you picked earlier, and use it for all of them. For these three in particular, GitHub has a small edge: they can see your repositories straight away.

Supabase is where your app keeps what it must remember: user accounts, saved items, and settings. It also handles logging people in. Cost: a free tier to start; paid plans when your data and traffic grow. Sign up with Google or GitHub, whichever you chose for everything else.

Modal runs slow or heavy work away from the phone, like reading a receipt image or generating a report. Cost: free tier with limits; pay for what you use beyond that.

Resend sends the routine messages your app needs: welcome emails, magic links, password resets, and receipts. Cost: free tier to try; paid plans by email volume.

You will create API keys and connect these to your agent in the next setup step. Today you are opening the accounts and confirming you can sign in.

Stripe is the checkout counter for your app. It handles card details, sends receipts, and moves funds to your bank. You do not store card numbers yourself, which keeps you safer.

There is no monthly fee. Stripe takes a cut of each successful charge. The exact rates depend on card type and country, and they are listed in your Stripe dashboard.

Sign up now so testing is easy. Your account will start in test mode. You can create test products and fake charges without money moving.

To accept real money, Stripe will ask for identity and business details. That verification can take time, but you do not need it to build and test.

Turn on two-factor here as well. Payments attract attackers. A one-time code blocks most of them.

Apple Developer Program costs 99 USD a year. For an individual, enrollment is usually quick. For a company or other organization, Apple requires a D-U-N-S number from Dun & Bradstreet. Getting that number is free and can take days. Apple then verifies your legal entity. If you plan to ship under a company name, start this early.

Google Play Console is a 25 USD one-time fee. Google now verifies every new developer’s identity, which also takes time.

One rule trips people up: a personal Google Play developer account created after 13 November 2023 must run a closed test with at least 12 testers, opted in continuously for at least 14 days, before you can release to production.

Honest options:

• No rush: skip both today and return in the shipping module.
• Want to ship fast: start both now, even before the app exists. The clocks run while you build.
• Shipping under a company: start Apple’s D-U-N-S step today, whatever else you decide.