I’ve been working in tech long enough to watch entire industries get reshaped by tools that people initially dismissed. Like me. With Canva. I should know better. If you’ve heard the term “vibe coding” and rolled your eyes a little, I get it. The name doesn’t exactly inspire confidence. But the short version: it’s building websites and apps by describing what you want to an AI — no coding experience required. I’d been aware of it for a while but never had a real reason to try it.
That changed when I needed a better way to manage my design check reviews. I’d already built a workable solution in WordPress using WooCommerce and Forminator, but it was held together with duct tape. I wanted something cleaner — an app with login and authentication, user roles, and dashboards.
Before touching any platform, I had Claude generate a full MVP (minimum viable product) spec doc based on what I’d already built. Going in with a clear spec meant I wasn’t just prompting blindly — I had a roadmap.
The Platforms
I tested three: Base44, Ideavo, and Lovable.
Base44 was a solid starting point. Ideavo came into the picture when I hit Base44’s free tier limits for the day, but it didn’t stick — I ended up deleting that project. Lovable is where things clicked, plus they let me build freely on International Women’s Day. The interface made sense, the builds were clean, and once I upgraded to a paid account, I could make my own code edits directly.
Integrations That Actually Worked
This is where it got genuinely useful. I connected my existing Stripe account for payments — not a test account, my actual Stripe — and linked GitHub for version control and backups. Both integrations worked without drama. With a paid account, I launched a beta and invited real users to test the system. The whole thing, from first prompt to beta launch, took a few days.
My background in site development and writing specs for tech projects definitely helped me move faster. But the platforms themselves were doing real work. And what I built genuinely surprised me — a complete app with authentication, user roles, dashboards, Stripe integration, GitHub-connected version control, and custom branding. In a few days.
The Cost Question
A decade or two ago, getting a developer to build something like this — with proper auth, payment processing, user roles, and custom branding — would have run several thousand dollars minimum. Realistically more, depending on the scope and who you hired. And that’s before any revisions.
I spent a few days in conversation with an AI, paid for one platform upgrade, and walked away with a working beta that real users were testing. The math is definitely mathin’ on this one.
I understand why people hear that and immediately think about developers losing work. It’s a fair concern and worth taking seriously. But for someone like me — a designer who’s always needed to rely on others for the technical build — this changes what’s possible without a team. That’s not nothing.
What Actually Surprised Me
I expected to be impressed by the convenience. What I didn’t expect was how much the process felt like working with a collaborator rather than issuing commands to a tool. When I had Claude build out the MVP spec before touching any platform, it wasn’t just transcribing my notes — it was thinking through the problem with me.
I’ve spent decades watching technology promise to make things easier. This one actually delivered. And now I’m sitting here wondering what else I’ve been putting off for no good reason.