Build Something Real: The Serverpod Hackathon
A six-week online hackathon to build a real full-stack app with Serverpod. Dart and Flutter under the hood, agentic coding fully supported, no setup required. Winners announced live at the Full Stack Flutter conference.
Why this exists
Most vibe-coding tools live in a browser tab. You describe an app, something appears, but the moment you want a real app, you are trapped in an app builder.
Serverpod is the other approach. It's an open-source full-stack framework you download and run on your own machine, the backend, the database layer, the generated client, the deploy path, all of it. It was built for the Flutter and Dart ecosystem, and it's built to be driven by coding agents.
On 10 September, Serverpod ships its biggest release to date. This hackathon is six weeks to find out what people actually build with it.
What you'll build
One full-stack app. Yours. Any domain, any idea, as long as Serverpod is the backend.
A good submission is small and finished rather than huge and broken. Teams reliably complete about a quarter of what they plan, so pick one user, one problem, one flow, and make that part genuinely work.
Who this is for
Developers who want a backend that isn't three services glued together
Flutter and Dart developers, obviously, this is home turf
Vibe coders and indie hackers who've hit the ceiling of browser-based tools
Anyone at a startup deciding what to build their next product on
First-time hackathon participants. Genuinely. There's a track for you and mentors on call.
You don't need Dart experience. You don't need backend experience. You need six weeks and something you want to exist.
How it works
Register right here on Luma. That's the only signup you need to do. Free, two minutes.
Install nothing, or install everything. Already have Dart and Flutter? Start there. Don't have them? Download App Studio on 10 September and you're set. That's the whole setup.
Solo or up to four people. Both work, plenty of people win solo. The team formation board opens with registration.
Build. Six weeks, fully async, on your own schedule from anywhere. Three checkpoints along the way so you don't lose the thread, and mentors in Discord the whole time.
Win. Everyone competes towards the total of $20,000 worth of prizes.
What you get, win or lose
A real app you own, Serverpod Cloud credits to keep it running, mentor access to the Serverpod core team including the founder, and a shot at $20,000 worth of prizes.
Key dates
14 August. Registration opens.
10 September, 09:00 CEST. Kickoff. Serverpod's release goes live, plus a kickoff stream covering what shipped, how to start, and how judging works.
14 October. Submission deadline.
22 October. Winners announced live at the Full Stack Flutter conference.
Checkpoint dates are on the BuilderBase event page and go out by email once you're registered.
Judging criteria
30% Does it work. It runs, the core flow completes, nothing critical is faked.
25% Use of the Serverpod stack. Doing real work, not sitting behind a static page.
25% Craft and technical creativity. Rough is fine, careless is not.
20% Usefulness. A clear user with a clear problem, and this helps.
Submissions get an AI-assisted first pass that checks the entry requirements, then human judges score every eligible entry. AI does not pick the winners.
Agentic coding is welcome here
Point your agent at it and vibe-code the whole thing if that's how you work. The Serverpod stack was built to be driven that way. There is no penalty for AI-generated code in this event. Using AI well is a skill we want to see.
Where the hackathon actually happens
Register here on Luma and you're in. There is no second form.
We'll email you access to BuilderBase, the platform this hackathon runs on. That's where everything happens once you're registered:
Form your team or find teammates
Claim your Serverpod Cloud credits and event resources
Hit your checkpoints
Submit your project
See the results
You'll get your invite within 24 hours of registering.
The community lives in Serverpod's Discord, and you can join that right now: serverpod.dev/discord. Mentors, help channels and the checkpoint threads are all in there.
About BuilderBase
BuilderBase is the infrastructure for running world-class hackathons. It handles the whole event: applications, team formation, resources and credits, mentor support, submissions, judging and results. Serverpod is the host, BuilderBase is the environment you build in.
About Serverpod
Serverpod is an open-source app and web server built for the Flutter and Dart ecosystem, used by 4,500+ developers with around 500 apps built on it. Stockholm-based, backed by €4.4M. Serverpod Cloud is the managed hosting layer.