How I Fell in Love with Vibe Coding (and Built 20+ Apps to Prove It)

19 January 2026 · Mohammad Syed

I’m not a developer. Not in the traditional sense, anyway. My day job is as a software project manager, where I’ve had the privilege of working with some incredibly talented engineers. They taught me how to read a console, how to make sense of an error message, and what a function actually does. That knowledge was my foundation.

But I never wrote the code myself. I had ideas—tons of them. Little apps I wished existed, a personal website that felt truly me. For years, I tried the usual routes. I bought WordPress themes, tinkered with templates, but nothing ever felt right. It wasn’t mine.

Then, I subscribed to a few AI coding tools. Replit, Lovable, Bolt. And everything changed.

The Moment It Clicked

I think the falling-in-love moment happened when I built my first app, AuraTimer. It’s a simple Pomodoro timer, now part of my VextoApps suite. I typed what I wanted in plain English, and… it worked. Just like that.

It was a spark.

So I thought, “You know what? Let’s build my own personal website.” And I did. Then I built another blog for my cybersecurity journey, The Outback Oracle. And then I was like, “Well, this is crazy cool.”

That’s when I completely fell in love with it. With natural language, you can build apps that you had only dreamed of. It’s a superpower. It turns you into a superhuman. All the apps I’ve built for Vexto—I could have never done that myself. Not even with AI-assisted coding or by learning a programming language. It would have taken months, maybe years, just to get one app off the ground.

The Proof is in the Pixels (and the Stats)

I’m not just talking in hypotheticals. I went all in. My end-of-year wraps from Replit and Lovable came in, and the numbers were staggering even to me.

On Lovable, I was named a Vibe Coding Pro, landing in the top 1% of all builders on the platform. The stats were wild:

• 13 apps built (including Vexto, The Outback Oracle, and my personal site)
• 2,414 prompts sent
• 1,207,000 credits consumed

Over on Replit, I was named a Replit Pro and ranked in the top 5% of creators. The damage there:

• 22 projects created
• 100+ hours spent building
• Over 1,000,000 credits used

This wasn’t just a casual experiment. It was a deep dive. And it proved to me that this new way of building is not just possible; it’s incredibly powerful.

The Beautiful, Messy Reality of Vibe Coding

What surprised me most was how easy it was to start. But the real learning happens when you try to show your creation to the world. That’s when you learn the pain points. You have to make sure it’s secure, that every feature works, that it’s optimized for different screens.

And the frustration? Oh, it’s real.

There were times I would send the same prompt six times, and the thing just would not get fixed. I’d be staring at the screen thinking, “What’s going on?” I can barely understand code, so I can’t just dive into the codebase and see what’s wrong. There were moments I’d bang my head on the table and think, “Why am I doing this?” I’ve sworn at the agent, called it an idiot. And then I’d laugh at myself at the end of the day.

It taught me that planning is everything. You have to break down one massive idea into 20 or 30 smaller prompts. Build one function, test it, make sure it works, then move on.

And then comes the biggest realization of all: building is easy now. The hard part is distribution. How do you get people to actually use what you’ve built?

The Great Debate: Replit vs. Lovable

After trying the big three—Replit, Lovable, and Bolt—I adore Replit and Lovable. But if I have to pick a winner (and as a professional vibe coder now, I have to), I’m going with Lovable.

The interface, the UI, the UX—it’s just more welcoming. It’s soothing to the eye. You enjoy using it. And the credits seem to go further. On Replit, they dry out so quickly, which is a bummer when you’re building as a hobby. Lovable gives me more bandwidth to build, test, and tinker without breaking the bank.

Lovable for the win. Honestly speaking.

A Word for the Skeptics

I get it. For people whose bread and butter was traditional coding, this feels like a threat. Like the craft is dying.

I would say to them: embrace the change.

If you’re on X, you see it. The number of indie hackers bootstrapping their own businesses has exploded. If there were 50 before, there are a thousand now. Building is democratized. The new challenge isn’t writing the code; it’s finding the audience.

Yes, the industry will change. A project that needed 10 developers might only need 5 now. But it’s not about getting sad or upset. It’s about evolving. It’s about embracing the change and moving forward with it.

What’s Next? More Building, of Course.

Am I going to keep building? Absolutely. The first 20+ apps were about getting my hands dirty. My vision for 2026 is to launch one or two of these as proper SaaS products. Make a little money on the side.

I honestly feel that in 2026, vibe coding is going to get even crazier. People will have more power in their hands than ever before. And I can’t wait to see what new features Replit, Lovable, and Bolt release.

For the first time in my life, the gap between my ideas and a finished product is just a conversation. And that feels like magic.

Have you tried vibe coding? What’s your experience been like? I’d love to hear your stories.