TheBetterChecklist
TheBetterChecklist
A Telegram bot checklist built for wedding planning - and everything that comes after.
Why I built it
When your messaging app is your second brain, your checklist should live there too
Telegram's native checklist is a Premium feature - and collaborative use requires both parties to subscribe too. For wedding planning with my fiancée, that meant either paying for something that still fell short, or staying on Google Sheets, which worked on desktop but became a mess on mobile. We already used Telegram to store ideas, save food places, and plan trips together. It made more sense to bring the checklist there than to install yet another app. (I have 174 apps on my phone, which boggles me to this day 🤯)
How it came together
Built for two people, across two phones (and laptops), on two different operating systems
Built for two people on two operating systems, a handful of choices mattered more than the rest.
Started with a real gap
Google Sheets was our default but its grouping and filtering were desktop-only. On mobile it was confusing. Building our own was the cleanest path.
Designed for equal access
The core requirement: both of us could add tasks, mark as done, and reorder - without either of us needing a subscription. No second-class collaborators.
Built around how we actually plan
The bot supports multiple checklists with categories inside each. Our "Life Admin" checklist covers wedding prep, honeymoon, upcoming travel, room renovation, and our BTO journey - all in one place.
Shipped, then iterated
An iOS bug was preventing new items from being submitted via the keyboard. We caught it because she's on iPhone and I'm on Android - accidental but effective cross-platform testing. Fixed, and still being refined as we use it.
See it in action
A shared command centre for two people planning a life together
TheBetterChecklist is live and in active daily use. It supports multiple checklists, categories, progress bars, deadlines, reordering, and collapsible completed items. Every addition, edit, and deletion is logged for transparency as well. What started as a wedding planning tool has grown into something we use to track everything we're building together.
Get started
A Telegram Mini App that opens straight into your personal checklist - no download, sign-up, or account required.
What I learnt
The best products solve a problem you're personally tired of having
Vibe coding changed what's possible
A year ago, building a Telegram bot with collaborative features, audit trails, and deadline tracking felt like a developer's project. Now it's a weekend build. The gap between "I have an idea" and "it works" has never been smaller.
When you can build anything, you want to build everything
Vibe coding unlocks a kind of creative restlessness. The bottleneck isn't skill anymore - it's deciding what's actually worth building, and being honest about what you'll actually use.
The possibilities are endless - and so is the wallet
Every feature addition, every API call, every hosted service adds up. Building for yourself is freeing, but it also means you're the one signing off on the bills. Scope creep hits different when it comes out of your own pocket.
What's next
On the roadmap
Task assignment
Assign any task to a specific group member so ownership is clear from the start. No more 'I thought you were doing that.'
Priority levels
Flag tasks as high, medium, or low priority so the most important things are always visible at a glance.
Sort by priority
Automatically reorder tasks within a category by priority level, so your list always surfaces what matters most.