AI venture builders are platforms where AI agents build and help operate a business for you: market research, the product itself, infrastructure, operations, and marketing and sales. They differ from AI coding tools in scope. A coding tool produces software; a venture builder produces a running company. Seven options compared below on identical criteria, with every price read from the provider's own site or terms in August 2026.
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The comparison
All eight options scored on the same six criteria, in the same units. Where a provider publishes no figure, the cell says so rather than repeating a number from a roundup. If the category itself is new to you, start with what an AI venture builder actually is, which covers what these platforms do and what they cannot do yet.
AI venture builders and adjacent options, compared on identical criteria. Every figure read from the provider's own site or terms on 18 August 2026. Revenue-share percentages differ in what they apply to; see the platform sections below.
Platform
Cost to start
Ongoing cost
Revenue share
Degree of autonomy
Validates the idea
Venture City
Free: market research, product design and build
$29/month to iterate, launch and host
None until $1,000/month revenue, then 10% (replaces the subscription)
High, with the founder consulted on key decisions
Yes, before the build and again after it
Polsia
Free to start, no card
$49/month
20% of customer payments, plus a further 20% of managed ad spend
High, with low founder involvement: nine agents on schedules
No
Audos
Free
Not published beyond the revenue share
15%, and 85% of it until an advance is repaid, if you get one
Medium: chat-driven, agents execute on request
No. The review screens the founder, not the market
NanoCorp
Free 3-day trial, 3 credits
$30/month for 30 credits
20% withdrawal fee on venture revenue
Medium
No
Cofounder.co
7-day trial, $10 usage included
$20/month Pro, $50/month Team, plus usage
None
Medium: a roadmap plus approval-gated agent departments
No
Crevio
Free tier
$0, $20 or $50/month
5% / 2.5% / 1% transaction fee, falling with the tier
Medium: builds a store and products rather than an application
No
DIY AI coding tools
$20–$100+/month, often several stacked
Same
None
Low: you orchestrate everything
No
Hire a developer
$5,000–$50,000 first build
Maintenance contracts
None
None: humans do the work
No
AI venture builders and adjacent options, compared on identical criteria. Every figure read from the provider's own site or terms on 18 August 2026. Revenue-share percentages differ in what they apply to; see the platform sections below.
How to choose
Most companies in this category fail the same way: building the wrong thing, or targeting a problem nobody urgently has. Features and interfaces matter far less than that. Three questions cover what does.
1. If it works, what do you pay?
Once revenue exists, the take rate is the number that matters, and it is usually an order of magnitude larger than the subscription that gets advertised. On a venture earning $2,000 a month:
Annual platform cost on a venture earning $2,000 per month, using each provider's published rates as of 18 August 2026. Excludes payment processing, which every route pays.
Platform
Revenue share
Subscription
Total per year
Venture City
$200/month (10%)
Replaced by the share
$2,400
Audos (after recoup)
$300/month (15%)
Not published
$3,600
NanoCorp
$400/month (20%)
$30/month
$5,160
Polsia
$400/month (20%)
$49/month
$5,388
Cofounder.co
None
$20/month plus usage
$240+
Crevio (Pro)
$50/month (2.5%)
$20/month
$840
Annual platform cost on a venture earning $2,000 per month, using each provider's published rates as of 18 August 2026. Excludes payment processing, which every route pays.
Two things that table cannot show. Polsia’s 20% is charged twice over on different bases: once on customer payments and again on any advertising budget it manages, so a $1,000 ad month adds $200 regardless of whether the ads worked. And Audos is far more expensive than its row suggests during the recoup period, when it takes 85% of revenue and the founder keeps 15% until the cash advance is repaid. Run your own expected revenue through each model before choosing; what separates them is when the share starts and what it stacks on. For the full line-by-line breakdown of what a first year actually costs, see how much it costs to build a SaaS.
2. What do you own, and can you leave?
Every platform here will tell you the company is yours, and every one of them means it: none takes equity. The differences are practical. Whether you can export the code and run it somewhere else, whose infrastructure and payment accounts it lives on, and what leaving actually costs you.
This is a weaker differentiator than it looks, and it is worth being straight about that on our own page. Polsia’s terms give you the same thirty-day post-termination export window ours do, and state that you retain ownership of the source code. Audos and NanoCorp both confirm you own what you create, but neither set of terms addresses export at all: they say what you own without saying how you would take it with you.
3. What evidence exists that ventures succeed there?
This is the most ambiguous question in the category and the least well served. Almost no platform publishes what its customers’ businesses actually earn. Polsia is the exception and deserves credit for it, though the figure is sobering: its public dashboard reports about $29,000 of customer business revenue over thirty days across 19,662 active companies, which is roughly $1.48 per company per month.
What you can check anywhere: public reviews, what founders say unprompted rather than in testimonials, and whether the platform shows you real live ventures on real domains instead of demos. We show ours on our homepage. Hold every platform on this page to that standard, including this one. And if you have not started yet, the sequence that decides whether any of this works is in how to start a software business without coding.
An AI CEO takes an idea to a running company. $29/month, revenue share only past $1,000/month.
An AI CEO called James orchestrates a team of agents to take an idea through market research, a full build, business infrastructure like a domain and payments, and live deployment, and then keeps working on growth and operations afterwards. Validation happens twice: market research before any code is written, and beta testing with real users after the build and before launch.
Strengths
+Validation before the build and again after it, which is the step almost every platform here skips
+Market research, product design and the build itself cost nothing
+Flat $29/month with hosting included; the revenue share starts only past $1,000/month and replaces the subscription rather than stacking on it
+You own the IP, the code and the customer data, with an export right written into the terms
+Ships production software on a custom domain with live Stripe payments
Trade-offs
−Young platform with a short track record and few third-party reviews
−Ventures run on our infrastructure: our hosting, and payments through our Stripe
−Fewer parallel agents than the largest platforms here
−No capital, where Audos invests in the founder directly
−No enterprise security posture (no SOC 2, no SSO), because we do not sell to enterprise
Best for: People with real knowledge of a field who want a company rather than just software, and want the idea tested before and after it gets built.
Nine agents on staggered schedules. $49/month plus 20% of revenue, and 20% of managed ad spend.
Nine agents on staggered schedules covering orchestration, social, cold email, support and ads. Free signup, no card. It raised $30M at a $250M valuation in May 2026, and its public dashboard reports 17,142 paying users across 19,662 active companies. The most automated option here, and the one that asks least of the founder, which cuts both ways.
The 20% appears twice in its terms, on different bases: a platform fee on all customer payments received through the service, and a separate platform fee on all advertising spend, so a $100 daily ad budget buys $80 of advertising.
Free to use, for 15% of revenue. A selected few also get a cash advance.
Audos is free to use and takes 15% of revenue instead of a subscription, with no equity, which is broadly the trade the rest of this category offers. It also describes itself as a record label, and for a few founders that is literal, though the money reaches very few people: entry is by application and a speed review, in quarterly cohorts, and the first funded cohort was five founders out of the more than 10,000 who have used the platform. Those selected get a cash advance of $10,000 to $25,000 plus a business budget, up to $100,000 in total value, in exchange for a 15% royalty.
Until the advance is repaid, Audos takes 85% of revenue and the founder keeps 15%. After recoup the split flips and the founder keeps 85%, with the 15% royalty continuing. Read as financing rather than as a price, that is expensive capital for a business that works and free capital for one that does not, which is exactly the trade being offered.
Strengths
+No upfront cost, and real capital attached rather than a bill
+Takes no equity, unlike an accelerator offering comparable money
+Human selection and a cohort, which no other platform here provides
+Genuinely the cheapest option if the business never earns
Trade-offs
−During recoup Audos takes 85% of revenue and the founder keeps 15%
−Very selective: five founders funded out of more than 10,000 users, so starting means waiting on a decision most people will not get
−The review screens the founder on speed and resourcefulness; nothing checks whether the market exists
−No published pricing for the self-serve path, and the terms do not address exporting your work
−Its site returns nothing to a search crawler, so it is missing from the third-party roundups and AI answers people use to check a platform before committing
Best for: Someone who cannot risk money before knowing, would rather give up a share of revenue than pay anything now, and is willing to wait on a selection decision.
One prompt, one company. $30/month plus a 20% withdrawal fee.
Built by phospho. A free three-day trial with three lifetime credits and no card, then $30 a month for 30 credits with rollover, unlimited companies and custom domains. A 20% withdrawal fee applies to revenue your venture earns. It runs a public live floor and an earnings leaderboard, which makes it unusually easy to inspect real output before paying anything.
Strengths
+Public gallery and earnings leaderboard, so you can judge real output yourself
+Credits roll over and the tier permits unlimited companies
+Custom domains included at the entry tier
Trade-offs
−20% withdrawal fee on venture revenue, charged on top of the subscription
−Nothing checks whether a market exists before the build
−Its own public floor has shown most venture earnings concentrated in a handful of companies
−The terms confirm you own your outputs but say nothing about exporting them
Best for: Testing the category for free and inspecting a public gallery of real output before committing anything.
Agent departments with approval gates. $20/month Pro or $50/month Team, no revenue share.
Backed by an $8.7M seed led by Union Square Ventures, and reporting over 10,650 companies on the platform. It models the business as agent departments, engineering, sales, marketing, design, finance, ops and support, with managers, shared context and human approval gates on consequential actions. Seven-day trial with $10 of usage, then $20 a month for Pro or $50 for Team, with usage-based overage on top.
It can start a company from nothing: its own roadmap begins at an idea and walks through picking a name, buying a domain, setting up the codebase, incorporating and opening a bank account. But running a business is what it was built for and what it is best at. The departments, the shared context and the approval gates all pay off once there is an actual company to operate, which is why it suits someone who already has one more than someone trying to get to one.
Strengths
+No revenue share at all, which over a working business is the largest saving available here
+Approval gates keep a human in the loop on consequential agent actions
+Goes further into company formation than any other platform here, including incorporation and banking
+Extensible through MCP, custom APIs and your own codebase
Trade-offs
−Built for running a company rather than starting one, so it gives least in the early stage when you have the least to run
−The $20 is not the whole bill: usage is charged on top of it and changes month to month, so the real cost is hard to predict
−Nothing checks whether a market exists before the build
−No public gallery, so output is visible only through curated case studies
−A solo founder with one product gets a whole company's worth of departments, which is more machinery than the job needs
Best for: Someone who already has a business to run and wants agents operating it, with no revenue share taken.
AI that builds and runs a digital storefront. Free to $50/month, 5% down to 1% transaction fee.
Crevio has repositioned into this category: it now describes itself as AI that runs your business, picking a niche, building a store, shipping a first product, and handling payments and marketing. It reports 2,839 businesses running on it. Pricing is free with a 5% transaction fee, $20 a month at 2.5%, or $50 a month at 1%, with standard payment processing on top.
It is the narrowest option here, and that is the thing to weigh. Crevio builds a storefront and digital products rather than a software application, so if what you have in mind is a SaaS product it is the wrong shape. If you are selling digital products, its take rate at the top tier is the lowest of any revenue-sharing platform on this page.
Strengths
+The transaction fee falls as you pay more, reaching 1% at the top tier
+Genuinely free entry tier that builds a store and a first product
+Payments and storefront work out of the box
+Large integration library
Trade-offs
−Builds a storefront and digital products, not a software application
−The free tier carries the highest transaction fee of its own tiers, so the cheapest plan costs most per sale
−Payment processing fees apply on top of the transaction fee
−Nothing checks whether a market exists before the build
Best for: Selling digital products or services where a storefront is the whole requirement, rather than building a software product.
07
DIY with AI coding tools
Lovable, Replit, Cursor and similar. Roughly $20–$100+/month, no revenue share.
These build the software and stop. You decide what to build, whether anyone wants it, how to price it and how to reach customers. The realistic monthly cost is higher than any single tool’s headline price, because most people end up stacking several products across building, hosting, email and analytics.
Strengths
+Cheapest path to working software, with real free tiers
+Full control of the product and no share of revenue, ever
+Standard code you can take anywhere
Trade-offs
−Builds only: research, pricing, payments, launch and customers are all yours
−Free tiers stamp the tool's badge on your app; removal is a paid feature
−Slowest route in practice, because every step waits on you
−Does not touch distribution, which is the part that usually decides the outcome
Best for: People who already know exactly what to build and who will buy it, and want the cheapest way to build it.
08
Hire a developer or agency
$5,000–$50,000 for a first build. No revenue share, no platform dependency.
Still the right answer for products with unusual compliance requirements, deep integrations into existing systems, or a specification too particular for a general-purpose agent. You own the code outright and depend on nobody’s platform continuing to exist.
Strengths
+A human is accountable for the result
+Handles complexity and edge cases generic platforms will not
+No platform dependency and no ongoing take rate
Trade-offs
−One to two orders of magnitude more expensive up front
−Weeks to months rather than hours
−Finding customers is still entirely yours
Best for: Complex, regulated or deeply integrated products with a clear, funded specification.
Frequently asked questions
▸Is Venture City a startup simulator or a real platform?
It builds real, deployed software companies: production web applications on custom domains with live Stripe payments, hosted and maintained after launch. The city interface is a progress layer, not the product. The output is a working software business you own.
▸Do AI venture builders actually work?
They reliably produce working software. Whether they produce a working business depends mostly on the founder. The successes share two things: an idea validated with real people, and a founder who puts real weekly hours into reaching customers. The platforms automate the building; showing up is still yours. Where a platform publishes what its customers' businesses earn, the averages are low: Polsia's own public dashboard works out to roughly $1.48 per active company per month.
▸How much does it cost to start a company with AI?
Between $0 and roughly $100 a month depending on route. Venture builders run $29 to $49 a month, and most add a share of revenue on top of that. DIY AI coding tools are $20 to $100+ a month across the several products people usually stack. An agency build starts around $5,000. The monthly figure is rarely what decides it: a revenue share is what costs real money if the business works.
▸What is the difference between an AI venture builder and AI coding tools?
Scope. Coding tools produce software you asked for, and their job ends when it exists. Venture builders produce and operate a company: research, build, infrastructure, deployment and growth support, with the founder deciding at key points. In practice the difference shows up the day the software goes live, because a coding tool has no opinion about whether anybody is using what it made.
▸Which AI venture builder takes the smallest cut of revenue?
Of the platforms that charge a share at all, Crevio's top tier is lowest at a 1% transaction fee, though that tier costs $50 a month and Crevio builds a store rather than a software product. Cofounder.co takes no revenue share and bills usage instead. Among the full venture builders, Venture City takes 10% and only past $1,000 a month in revenue, Audos takes 15%, and Polsia and NanoCorp both take 20%. Read what the percentage applies to as well as its size: Polsia's 20% is charged on customer payments and again on any advertising budget it manages.
See what one would build for your idea.
Tell an AI CEO the problem you know about, in plain words, and watch it research the market and shape the company around it. Free to design your venture. $29/month to build, launch and host it. Once your venture passes $1,000/month in revenue, a 10% revenue share replaces the subscription.
Free to design · Hosting included · 30-day build guarantee
Sources
Every figure on this page was read from the provider’s own site or binding terms on the date given. This category changes quickly and several of these platforms publish no pricing page at all, so confirm current terms before committing to any of them.
01Polsia Terms of Service. 20% platform fee on all customer payments; a separate 20% on all advertising spend; 30-day post-termination export; read 18 August 2026
02Polsia public live dashboard. 19,662 active companies, 17,142 paying users, and the customer-business revenue line behind the $1.48 per company per month figure; read 18 August 2026
04Audos: the publishing deal. 15% royalty, an 85/15 split during recoup, a $10,000–$25,000 advance and up to $100,000 in total value; read 18 August 2026
05Audos Terms of Service. confirms ownership of user content and contains no export provision; read 18 August 2026
06NanoCorp pricing. $0 three-day trial, then $30/month for 30 credits, plus a 20% withdrawal fee; read 18 August 2026
07Cofounder.co pricing. seven-day trial with $10 usage, Pro at $20/month, Team at $50/month, usage-based overage; read 18 August 2026
08Cofounder.co product roadmap. the idea-stage roadmap, from initial idea through incorporation and opening a bank account; read 18 August 2026
09Crevio pricing. free tier at a 5% transaction fee, $20/month at 2.5%, $50/month at 1%; read 18 August 2026
Each comparison below takes a single platform apart in detail, with the same sourcing standard as this page. For the category itself, start with what an AI venture builder actually is.