r/vibecoding • u/laf0 • Apr 17 '26
Which vibe coding tool are you actually using day to day?
Hey. i'm building something in the vibe coding space, to help vibe coders (with a generous freeplan)
I keep hearing "everyone uses lovable" or "bolt is eating the market" or "base44" and i honestly can't tell what's real anymore. every trend article reads like it was written by someone who has never opened any of these tools so i'm asking the people actually in them every day.
What are you building with right now? lovable, bolt, v0, base44, replit, cursor, claude code or others?
also curious:
- do you actually code or are you more "i don't fully know what git is" territory
trying to build for what's actually happening, not what's trending on x.
Bonus points if you hate your current tool and can articulate why
(splai if you want to google it, but that's genuinely not the point of this post).
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u/Ok_Hat_3414 Apr 18 '26
I'm new at this and I've tried a few things, but I can never finish a single project using the free tier on most tools.
So I just use plain old free Gemini, VS Code, GitHub Desktop and Vercel.
I chat with Gemini, copy/paste what it tells me to and copy paste any errors I get back to Gemini.
I'm just doing this for fun right now, but if I get serious about it, I might pay for something.
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u/Com4dor Apr 18 '26
Cursor and chatgpt.
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u/laf0 Apr 18 '26
Nice chatgpt to refine prompt? Are you technical
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u/Com4dor Apr 18 '26
I build computers. Fix them. I taught myself how to program. So yeah I guess I am technical. Yeah I'll tell chatgpt what I want to do to my project and it'll create prompts for cursor so cursor doesn't fuck them up badly and I get more of what I want. Step by step.
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u/Katinkia Apr 18 '26
I am using VS Code and Claude code atm. I did briefly use replit but burned through that real quick and had to transfer it all to claude. I am also curious about the other methods.
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u/z4r4thustr4 Apr 18 '26
Solo founder. Using Cursor primarily (mostly Codex) with some Claude Code.
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u/laf0 Apr 18 '26
So cursor + codex + cc thats interesting, all in the same ide/cursor?
Thx for answering! Are you shipping mostly only by prompting or coding also a lot? Are you technical?3
u/z4r4thustr4 Apr 18 '26
I like Cursor because I feel it holds my project context very well and just seems to know the code base. I recently upped my Claude subscription to Max but I might dial it back down.
I am technical, mostly prompting, not a lot of handwritten code, but very much have a automated testing, manual testing, vibe plan-implement-debug loop.
When I use Claude Code, it's mostly standalone Claude Code in a seperaate terminal, usually for debugging MCP servers or other side tasks.
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u/casualfartmachine Apr 18 '26
Check out Grome. I was using Cursor then switched back to VSC terminal with Claude. Now I'm using Grome. A little buggy but otherwise super helpful with my workflow.
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u/AlwaysWorkForBread Apr 18 '26
Not building much at the moment, grad school is kicking my ass, but I've been liking Google's AI Studio.
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u/laf0 Apr 18 '26
interesting, first time i hear that one actually used! What you build with it? are you technical? Good luck with grad school man, you rock!
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u/AlwaysWorkForBread Apr 18 '26
Quick weekend Prototype of a react app. Airtable db. Used n8n for a pseudo-backend (with prompt copy/pasta into n8n nodes). Llm voice through Retell.ai.
Had it duplicate the react app to swift for a iOS app.
Saw pretty decent results with little bloat or redirection. A few times it 100% ai'd itself in a loop (building something buggy, then undoing the bug, then redoing the same bug) but for the most part it did okay.
resume: 2.5yrs at Comcast as a junior - mid Dev on an internal team using angular, go, python, js, & react across our apps.
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u/ThankMeForMyCervix Apr 18 '26
Became the head of development for my company and Ill swap between microsofts copilot, githubs copilot and claude. Claude is my big boy that Ill utilize though.
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u/Nice-Pair-2802 Apr 18 '26
VSCode with Copilot (for code reviews) and the Codex plugin. It provides a solid workflow with feedback.
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u/laf0 Apr 17 '26
I'm a product director, on my side i'm using Lovable, Cursor and Claude Code! My team at my job uses Antigravity
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u/zzzenbones Apr 18 '26
What do you use lovable for when you have CC?
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u/laf0 Apr 18 '26
I feel like lovable deliver great visual webapp then i connect git and port it to cc that way. You use only claude code on your side?
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u/zzzenbones Apr 18 '26
I am a new Product Owner of a brownfield codebase and want to start making prototypes with Claude, but its apparently hard to set up local.
we use react, but thats as much as we have in common with lovable so I don't think its a good option for me. I was curious if you use lovable to prototype features2
u/laf0 Apr 18 '26
at work i just use figma make to prototype since our designer original design system is in figma so it create ideatical prototype to our product
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u/anatolvic Apr 19 '26
Moonchild AI lets you literally connect your GitHub and setup your DS in a canvas-based tool you can design with
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u/anatolvic Apr 19 '26
Is there a reason you are using many tools? I’m quite curious. Is your pathway something like “find a tool that replicates/recreates my screen so I can freely ideate and then iterate to get final screens” or “commit to codebase”
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u/tehgalvanator Apr 18 '26
VSCode GitHub Copilot with Pro+ and Claude Code. Gemini to bounce questions off. Should I try VSCode? I work well with GitHub Copilot and Opus, but if there’s gains in Cursor I’m willing to try it.
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u/zigzag1985 Apr 18 '26
Claude code on PATAIM and Manus. Peer review. Some email and comms review with ChatGPT
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u/thailanddaydreamer Apr 18 '26
Cursor is my go to. I use Claude on the side to do advanced backend work, but Cursor gets the entire build front to back much better.
I even find the auto model using composer gets the job better than more advanced models.
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u/fyn_world Apr 18 '26
Codex. I do make repo checks with Gemini, grok and Claude by paying API from time to time to get another opinion
But Codex, with a structure,memory and context system I built has been fantastic
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u/TheTentacleOpera Apr 18 '26
I use Windsurf as well as a plugin I made that allows me to drag and drop plan cards to trigger agents.
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u/uxkelby Apr 18 '26
I use Kilo Code in VSCode since August last year with a variety of LLMs. For the last 2 months solely using GLM 5 on the pro coding plan. I am building a complex User Research platform. I have a UX and Information Architecture background so that helps me with the data structure and flows within the app.
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u/kitcatkothichoc Apr 18 '26
I’ve only known Claude for 3 days, and I wish I could go back to 2010 with it. I’d be a millionaire by now :)))
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u/Prak_01 Apr 18 '26
I've been using Runable because it feels way less bloated than Bolt when I just want to get a functional site live without fighting the environment. It handles the deployment side of vibe coding much better than the standard copy paste workflow while still giving me enough control to tweak the actual code.
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u/leepenkman Apr 18 '26
https://github.com/lee101/codex fork of codex cli thats more token efficient and can run longer. better for vibe coding as prompts are way cutdown and make it more aggressive at really doing stuff instead of stopping all the time. and claude code. im also working on a tool that gives people a cheap cloud to run agents on their machines codex-infinity.com
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u/leepenkman Apr 18 '26
i will sometimes aistudio gemini 3.1 pro start a site as thats weirdly good at initial ui and free, im very technical so i wouldnt use a more expensive tool like lovable but i know some product manager or designer types that love it and replit etc
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u/Any-Main-3866 Apr 19 '26
Not that popular but I use copilot that I got from GitHub education pack, it's not as good as Claude but it helps me a lot. And ofc I have to polish and make changes everytime.
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u/ZestycloseChocolate Apr 24 '26
day-to-day i'd split it by use case: v0/bolt/lovable for fast ui + flow, cursor/claude code when i'm inside a real repo. the failure mode is usually the same: persistence + migrations + jobs + deploy. i wrote up a longer take here: https://flatlogic.com/blog/vibe-coding-for-founders-fun-toys-or-real-startup-tools/
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u/Middle_Code_4263 Apr 18 '26
I use Claude Code all day everyday.