We love community-based apps built on no-code! When we found out about this one, we had to dive in and find out more. We spoke to Samantha Shaibani about her creation on Adalo, Moonifest.

Here’s her story!

Hi, I'm Sam Shaibani. By day, I’m a Senior Product Designer at Adalo, where I contribute to building simple and intuitive no-code software. By night, I manage my side business: Moonifest. It’s an app that guides people in manifesting alongside the moon phases. I live with two amazingly gorgeous, crazy Bengal cats  🐈 🐈

My journey with manifestation

I started manifesting with the moon around 2018 when I joined a women’s intuition group. It was there that I learned about different spiritual practices including moon phases, goddess energy, archetypes, divination, clairvoyance, and so much more.

These practices helped me build trust in myself and experience an overwhelming amount of personal growth. They opened doors to an entirely new way of living by listening and trusting my instincts. Something that is deeply ingrained in all women — if we choose to access it.

I believe at our very core, we all crave meaningful human connection. But before we can connect honestly and authentically with others, we have to heal and create that connection with ourselves. So I built Moonifest to do just that - help us build a deeper connection within and find our authentic thoughts, beliefs, and actions through manifesting alongside the moon phases.

What is Moonifest about?

“Moonifesting” is the act of manifesting with the moon. It’s a practice of setting intentions and connecting with the 8 moon phases to guide you in fulfilling them. Moonifesting involves deep reflection, gratitude, and a lot of trust in the universe.

My goal is to empower women to connect with the moon and work with its energy. Every time you open the app you'll see the current moon phase, a short description of the energy forecast, and reflection questions to prompt introspection.

On each new moon (the beginning of a moon cycle) you are prompted to set an intention to declare what it is you are manifesting. To add to the holistic practice, there are visualized meditations available to purchase!

Using Adalo to build Moonifest

The website was created using Squarespace, and I built the Moonifest app using my favorite no-code software, Adalo!

When I first found Adalo back in 2019, I knew right away that it would be the best tool to build on. It's simple, easy to use, and had the right amount of complexity that I needed to create what I had in mind.

Back then since the team was so small, there was a public Slack channel for Adalo employees and makers to connect, collaborate, and support each other while building. It was fun and I felt like a part of the team simply by being included in the community.

It's definitely tricky being a non-developer in a developer world. Well at least AppleDeveloper and AppStoreConnect are the developer world! That was the trickiest part for me.

Figuring out the ropes of all the dev-stuff when there were no "non-coder" definitions of things. Lots of googling, asking friends, and leaning heavily on the Adalo community for support!

Fast forward to February of 2020, Moonifest won Adalo App of the Month! I got to connect with more of the Adalo team, was featured on the showcase page, and got a free Adalo t-shirt. *blushing*

Building in public

Just like moon rays, Moonifest is a transparent and open startup. Because it’s not a venture-capital funded company, all costs to create, maintain, and update the Moonifest App comes out of my own pocket. I’m all about transparency, so I’ll share what I pay per year to run the app.

• Website Hosting (Adalo): $700 annually
• Website Domain (Google Domains): $30 annually
• Website Hosting (Squarespace): $144 annually
• Apple Developer Account: $99 annually
• Google Play Registration Fee: $25 annually
• Email /Subscription Platform (ConvertKit): $1,020 annually

Total: $2,018 annually

From working on Adalo to working with Adalo

I share all this history to make a simple point. I saw Adalo live out their purpose, mission, and values by experiencing it first hand. I experienced the way Adalo engaged with their community, the way they value their makers, and the power that easy no-code tools can provide to the world.

So when a position opened up to help design their product, it was fate that the stars finally aligned!

Create something that solves a real problem

Since launching the app in January 2020, Moonifest app has helped women set over 28,500 intentions! We have over 38k users on Moonifest, and have crossed nearly 32,000 downloads.

My advice to makers in the process of building something, or thinking about building something: Focus on solving a real problem, and care about the impact of your product on the world!

That’s what I hope to do with Moonifest – inspire and surface the divine feminine in all humans. Reconnect with the ancient wisdom that knows we are all beings from the same source. Spread love, light, and high vibrations across the universe.

Thanks for sharing your story with us, Sam! You can follow Moonifest and her work here. Click here to download Moonifest on the App Store or on Google Play Store.