Manus AI: Can It Replace Your Entire AI Tech Stack? (Complete Review)
Manus AI has emerged as a game-changing agentic AI platform that promises to consolidate your entire AI workflow into a single tool. But can it truly replace your current AI tech stack and help entrepreneurs build businesses with just a few prompts?
What You'll Learn
How Manus AI differs from existing AI tools like ChatGPT and V0
The core capabilities and limitations of Manus AI for business creation
A real-world test case: building a DocuSign clone with Manus
Practical applications for entrepreneurs and startup founders
Current limitations and considerations before adopting Manus AI
The All-in-One AI Solution
The typical AI workflow today involves using multiple specialized tools:
ChatGPT or Claude for ideation and planning
V0 for design work
Specialized coding assistants like Cursor, Lovable, or Bolt
Additional tools for deployment and growth
Manus AI aims to replace this fragmented approach with a single integrated platform that handles everything from research to code generation to deployment.
How Manus AI Works
Unlike traditional AI assistants, Manus operates as a multi-agent system with distinct components working together:
Autonomous research - Manus crawls the web, captures screenshots, and gathers information independently
Planning - It creates detailed project plans based on its research
Execution - It writes code, designs interfaces, and attempts to deploy applications
Error handling - It can troubleshoot issues with minimal human intervention
The key difference is its ability to control a browser and interact with websites directly. This enables it to research, plan, and execute tasks more comprehensively than other AI tools.
Testing Manus AI: Building a DocuSign Clone
To test Manus AI's capabilities, we attempted to build a DocuSign clone using a simple prompt: "Create a DocuSign clone."
The Process
Manus immediately began researching DocuSign, visiting the website and capturing information about its core features
When asked to focus specifically on the e-signature functionality, it adjusted its plan accordingly
It created a project structure using Next.js, setting up routes, authentication, and core e-signature features
It developed key components including document upload, document management, and signature field placement
What Worked Well
Autonomous research and planning were impressive
Code structure and organization followed best practices
Core functionality was properly identified and implemented
Human intervention was minimal throughout the process
Limitations Encountered
Deployment proved challenging and ultimately failed
Context limitations caused performance degradation with complex tasks
The system occasionally crashed when handling large projects
Some functionality required local deployment and manual review
Practical Applications for Entrepreneurs
Manus AI shows particular promise for:
Research and analysis - Gathering information from multiple sources
Simple application development - Creating basic web applications and games
Website optimization - Analyzing and improving SEO
Data extraction - Scraping and processing information from websites
These capabilities make it especially valuable for non-technical founders who have ideas but lack the development skills to execute them.
Current Limitations
Despite its impressive capabilities, Manus AI has several limitations:
Context limitations - Performance degrades with complex, information-heavy tasks
Deployment challenges - Getting applications from development to production remains problematic
Stability issues - The platform occasionally crashes, especially during resource-intensive operations
Daily usage limits - Currently restricted to approximately 10 sessions per day
The Future of Agentic AI
Manus AI represents a significant step toward true artificial general intelligence (AGI). By combining multiple specialized AI functions into a single platform, it provides a glimpse of how AI might evolve in the near future.
For entrepreneurs and startup founders, tools like Manus AI reduce the technical barriers to entry, enabling more people to transform their ideas into functional products without extensive development resources.
Should You Use Manus AI?
Manus AI shows tremendous promise for:
Non-technical founders looking to prototype ideas
Small teams with limited development resources
Entrepreneurs exploring multiple business concepts simultaneously
Anyone looking to automate research and analysis tasks
However, it's important to:
Be mindful of data privacy when using the platform
Have realistic expectations about its current capabilities
Understand that human review and intervention are still necessary
Consider the platform's origin and potential security implications
Conclusion
Manus AI represents a significant advancement in agentic AI, offering a more integrated approach than the fragmented AI tools most users rely on today. While it can't yet fully replace your entire AI tech stack, it demonstrates where the technology is heading.
For entrepreneurs and startup founders, Manus provides an unprecedented opportunity to rapidly prototype and iterate on business ideas with minimal technical knowledge. As the platform matures and resolves its current limitations, it may well become an essential tool for business creation.
The question isn't whether tools like Manus AI will transform business creation (spoiler: it will), but how quickly entrepreneurs will adapt to this new paradigm.