Question 1

Who is Aatman (AJ) Jain?

Accepted Answer

I'm Aatman Jain, but everyone calls me AJ. I'm a 15-year-old developer and Base44 Partner in Belfast, Northern Ireland. I've shipped 20+ apps for real clients, and I make free guides and open-source tools for people building on Base44. More on the about page.

Question 2

How do you pronounce Aatman?

Accepted Answer

Aa-soft t-mun. Or just call me AJ. Everyone does.

Question 3

How old are you?

Accepted Answer

I'm 15. I've been building full-time for 18 months and freelancing for the past year. Judge the work, though. The reviews are word for word from Base44.

Question 4

Where are you based?

Accepted Answer

Belfast, Northern Ireland, in the UK. I work remotely, so where you are doesn't change much. I'm on UK time.

Question 5

What does being a Base44 Partner mean?

Accepted Answer

Base44 Partners are independent builders that Base44 points people to when they want help with development, design, consulting or integrations. I've been one for about a year. My Partner profile is at app.base44.com/@a-j, with a 5.0 rating from 9 reviews. I don't work for Base44; I'm independent. There's more on what being a Partner means.

Question 6

How did you get started?

Accepted Answer

I started programming during COVID and slowly picked up Python, JavaScript, HTML, CSS, R and C#. I found Base44 in 2025 and my first real app went live the week I signed up. Then came plenty of mistakes, the Base44 Discord, my first paying client and, eventually, becoming a Base44 Partner. The long version is on my story.

Question 7

What is Best Build?

Accepted Answer

Best Build is the award The Gridiron Guide won at Base44's Big Game App competition in 2026. I built it with my dad. It explains American football for people as confused as I was, with four tools: AI Coach, The Field, Game Situations and The Glossary. Here's the case study.

Question 8

What do you do when you are not coding?

Accepted Answer

I'm up around 5 AM for a run. I play cricket and golf, I like chess, and I read The Hunger Games and Harry Potter. I'm vegetarian, I'm colour blind, and my favourite pen is a black Sharpie S-Gel. I have opinions about mice and phones too.

Question 9

What do you actually do?

Accepted Answer

I design and build full-stack apps, mostly on Base44. That covers UI/UX design, full app builds, backends and integrations like Stripe and Resend, security reviews, SEO and performance, and AI agents and automation.

Question 10

Are you looking for an internship?

Accepted Answer

Yes, that's what I want most right now. I'm looking for a remote internship with a team I can learn from fast. Rust, desktop apps, UI and difficult problems are where I'd love to go deeper. Details are on the internships page.

Question 11

Do you take on freelance work?

Accepted Answer

Yes, thoughtful freelance web work. I work best with people who know good work can't be rushed and care about the details. Here's how I work.

Question 12

How much do you charge?

Accepted Answer

I don't publish rates. Every project is different, and a number on a web page can't know what yours needs. Get in touch and I'll tell you honestly if I'm the right fit.

Question 13

How long will my project take?

Accepted Answer

It depends on the project, and I'd rather give you an honest estimate than a nice-sounding one. Once I understand the problem I'll tell you roughly how long it'll take and what could make it longer. I can move fast (Hattle went from a paper sketch to shipped in 8 hours), but good work can't be rushed.

Question 14

How do we keep in touch during a project?

Accepted Answer

Mostly email, with regular updates and links you can click through. I explain things in plain English and flag problems as soon as I find them. Good communication comes up in my reviews a lot, and I'd like to keep it that way.

Question 15

Can you fix an app someone else built?

Accepted Answer

Yes. A lot of my work starts that way. I go through what's there, tell you what's solid and what isn't, and then we decide whether to fix it or rebuild parts of it.

Question 16

Do you only build on Base44?

Accepted Answer

Mostly, yes. I'm a Base44 Partner and it's the platform I know deepest. I'm also learning Rust and desktop apps with Tauri. If your project genuinely needs a different stack, I'll say so up front rather than take the work and figure it out later.

Question 17

Who owns the app when it is finished?

Accepted Answer

You do. When the work is done and paid for, the project and its assets are yours, and I walk you through how it all fits together so you are not dependent on me.

Question 18

Will my app look like it was made by AI?

Accepted Answer

Not if I can help it. Most AI-built apps look the same because nobody overrode the builder's defaults. I make the design decisions on purpose instead: type, colour, spacing and layout that were chosen, not accepted.

Question 19

How do I get started?

Accepted Answer

Email me at hello@aatmanjain.com or use the contact form. Tell me what you're building, what's in the way and any links I should see. I read every message myself.

Question 20

What is Base44?

Accepted Answer

Base44 is a no-code AI platform for building full-stack apps, websites and AI agents. You describe what you want in plain English and it builds the design, data and functionality, with a managed backend, logins, integrations and hosting built in. There's also a developer platform with an SDK and CLI if you'd rather write code. I've been building on it since 2025.

Question 21

What is Base44's backend, and what does BaaS mean?

Accepted Answer

BaaS means backend as a service: a ready-made database, logins, file storage and server code, so you only build the app. Every Base44 app gets one: entities for data, auth, row-level security, backend functions, integrations, connectors and agents. My free course What's BaaS? explains it in 12 five-minute lessons, no code needed.

Question 22

Is my Base44 app secure by default?

Accepted Answer

Not completely. Base44 handles platform security like encryption, but your app's access rules are your job, and Base44's docs say so. An entity with no rules is open to everyone, even people who never signed in. Add row-level security to every entity, keep API keys in secrets, and run the security scan before you publish and whenever you add entities or change rules.

Question 23

What's the difference between a backend function and an integration in Base44?

Accepted Answer

A backend function is your own code running on Base44's servers (on Deno), for things like calling an API with a secret key or handling a webhook. An integration is a ready-made service you call in one line, like sending an email, calling an AI model or uploading a file. Use an integration when one does the job, and a function when you need your own logic.

Question 24

Should I use automations or workflows in Base44?

Accepted Answer

Workflows. Base44's docs say workflows replace automations: apps created from 6 July 2026 use workflows, and older apps can switch over. Workflows can chain several steps, branch on conditions and wait between steps. They need the Builder plan or above.

Question 25

What is a Base44 Superagent?

Accepted Answer

A Superagent is a personal AI agent that takes real action for you. You describe what you want in plain English, and it works in the background: running scheduled jobs, reacting to events in your connected tools and messaging you on channels like WhatsApp or Telegram. A chatbot waits for you to ask. A Superagent does the work. I wrote a free Superagents Guide that explains all six parts.

Question 26

Can a Base44 app rank on Google?

Accepted Answer

Yes, with some care. Base44 says it serves crawlers a rendered version of your pages, and its automatic SEO features are designed for apps on a custom domain. In my own testing the rendered version didn't show up for every app, so check what bots actually receive. Set a real title and description for every page and add structured data. More in SPA SEO and prerendering.

Question 27

How do I send emails to people outside my Base44 app?

Accepted Answer

Base44's built-in SendEmail can email anyone who has signed up to your app, on any plan. To email outside addresses you need a paid plan and a verified custom domain on the app, and it sends one recipient per message. If you want your own sending domain and more control, connect Resend, which needs the Builder plan.

Question 28

Can I use Claude Code or Cursor with Base44?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Base44 publishes official skills for AI coding agents (npx skills add base44/skills), a CLI and an MCP server, so tools like Claude Code and Cursor can work with your Base44 project. You can also connect your app to GitHub and work on the code locally. I pay for Claude Code and Codex, and use both.

Question 29

Where can I watch old Base44 Office Hours sessions?

Accepted Answer

Base44 runs live Office Hours with its team every week. I keep an unofficial, community-made archive of every session up to #70 at unofficial-events.base44.app, with searchable recaps and question banks.

Question 30

What happened to AI with AJ and aiwithaj.dev?

Accepted Answer

AI with AJ was my old brand, at aiwithaj.dev. It's merging into this site, and aiwithaj.dev will redirect here. Same person, same work, my own name on the door. The old blog posts aren't coming across: the blog here is a fresh start.

Question 31

How do I get your newsletter?

Accepted Answer

Sign up on the newsletter page with just your email. I also post on Substack. If you ever want off the list, email me and you're off.

Question 32

Where else can I find you?

Accepted Answer

On X as @aiwithaj_, on GitHub, LinkedIn, YouTube and Substack, and in my Discord. Everything's on the links page.

Question 33

What is this site built with?

Accepted Answer

Base44, React, Tailwind CSS and Vite, with framer-motion for the moving bits. There's an admin panel behind it for posts, projects and messages. The details are in the colophon.

Question 34

Can I use your guides and skills for free?

Accepted Answer

Yes. The Superagents Guide, What's BaaS?, The Gridiron Guide and the unofficial Office Hours archive are all free. My skills and tools are open source on GitHub; check each repo for its licence. Start with the resources page.

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