Vibe coding
Vibe coding a business: what to check before, during and after the build
Cursor, Lovable and Claude Code made building an app cheap. Finding people who will pay for it is still the hard part. This guide covers the decision at each stage, with prices and rules checked on vendor pages.
Updated
Key takeaways
- Four stages, one decision each: pick an idea that is not already done, check that someone will pay, build only what v1 needs, then launch where your buyers are.
- An NBER working paper (revised September 2026) found new apps rising sharply across four big software marketplaces with no rise in total usage. Shipping is no longer the bottleneck.
- Prices, plan limits and store rules on these pages were checked on vendor pages in October 2026, and each page shows when.
- Olune checks demand: search phrases, public complaints and competitors. It does not check code, scan for security issues or find users.
Where the hard part moved
A working paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research, revised in September 2026, followed more than 500,000 GitHub developers through three generations of AI coding tools. Autonomous coding agents raised commits by about 240%, but releases by about 30%. Across four large software marketplaces, the authors found a sharp rise in new apps and no increase in total usage.
For someone building alone, that matches what the build tools cannot change: an app nobody asked for still gets no users. The pages below are ordered by the decision you face at each stage, and each one says what Olune can check and what it cannot.
Four stages, one decision each
Start at the stage you are in. Every page states what it checked and when.
Stage 1
Pick the idea
Is this idea worth a weekend, or is it already done?
- Vibe coding app ideas, with honest verdictsBuilder tools publish the same vibe coding project ideas again and again. We counted the competition for the 19 most repeated and say which are fine to learn on and which to skip as a business.
- My app idea already exists: build it anyway?Finding a competitor is normal, and often good news. This page shows when it is a stop sign, how to check any app idea in five searches, and what to do if yours already exists.
Stage 2
Check demand
Will anyone pay for it, and can the price cover what each AI call costs?
- App idea validator: check demand before you buildFree tool
- Validate your app idea before you build itIdea validation for vibe coding: seven checks, ordered from cheapest to costliest, each with a pass signal and a point where you stop. Run them before the first prompt in Cursor, Lovable, Bolt, v0, Replit or Claude Code.
- Prompts to validate a business or app ideaSix prompts you can paste into ChatGPT or Claude today, written so the model has to argue against your idea and show where each claim came from. Then the gaps no prompt can fill.
- How to price an AI app when every call costs moneyOn the 13 list prices in our table, one AI action costs you from $0.00034 to $0.05. Here is the arithmetic on prices checked 2026-10-13, the plan that survives a heavy user, and the limits that stop free users spending your API budget.
Stage 3
Build it
Which tool, what it costs to run, and what v1 leaves out.
- Lovable vs Bolt vs Replit vs v0 vs Base44Five AI app builders, priced from their own pages on 2026-10-13: what each plan costs, how it counts usage, what stops when credits or tokens run out, and how to take your code with you. No single winner here; the tables show which builder fits which job.
- Cursor vs Claude Code vs Codex: plans and limitsPrices, usage meters and limit rules for the coding agents that work on code you own, read on each vendor's page on 2026-10-14. Cursor changed its plans for new customers on 2026-10-12, so check the date on any comparison you read.
- What a vibe-coded app costs to build and runA vibe-coded app has four bills: the AI tool you build with, hosting and a database, the model your app calls, and payment fees. Each is priced here from vendor pages checked on 2026-10-13, with three scenarios worked line by line.
- How to write a PRD for vibe codingCopy a one-page PRD that starts from evidence and says what v1 will not build, then put it where Cursor, Claude Code, Lovable, Bolt or Replit reads it every session.
Stage 4
Ship and find users
Is it safe to put real data in, where do you post it, and who uses it first?
- Before you launch a vibe-coded app: data, keys, backupsEleven data and access checks for apps built with Lovable, Bolt, Replit, v0, Cursor or Claude Code, each linked to the vendor's docs, then the backups and venue rules to sort out before you post. Checked on vendor pages on 2026-10-13.
- Product Hunt alternatives: where to launch an appProduct Hunt, Hacker News, nine subreddits and twelve launch sites each set their own rules on new accounts, AI-written posts and how often you can post. Here are those rules and prices with a source and date for each, and what builders said their 2026 launches brought.
- No users yet? Get your first users by handZero users can mean nobody sees the app, nobody gets it, nobody finishes the first session or nobody needs it again. Find out which with your own numbers, then get the first 10 users one conversation at a time.
- Ship a vibe-coded app to the App Store and Google PlayWhich AI builders can put an app in the App Store and Google Play, what each store charges, the review rules that reject AI-built apps, and Google Play's 12-tester test for new accounts. Fees and rules checked on Apple, Google and vendor pages on 2026-10-13 and 2026-10-14.
Recent and scheduled tool changes
Changes to the builders, models and backends people use, read on each vendor's own page. Past changes drop off this list after a few weeks; scheduled ones drop off on their date.
- Happened
Cursor. New Cursor customers now buy it inside The X Subscription. Claude and GPT models are billed at API list price from first use, and existing subscribers who switch cannot switch back.[2], [3]
- Scheduled
Supabase. From 2026-10-30, new tables in existing Supabase projects are no longer exposed to the Data API without an explicit GRANT. Row Level Security is still required.[5]
- Scheduled
Lovable. Lovable describes its chat pricing and daily chat allowance as a temporary offering that runs through 2026-10-31.[6]
- Scheduled
Google Gemini API. Gemini 3.8 Flash and 3.6 Flash list prices are scheduled to double on 2027-01-01, per Google.[7]
- Scheduled
Firebase Studio. Firebase Studio has been closed to new sign-ups since 2026-06-22 and is scheduled to shut down on 2027-03-22. Google points users to Google AI Studio or Antigravity.[8], [9]
How Olune helps, and where it stops
Olune is a demand check for the idea, run before you build. Describe the app and who it is for, and you get a 1 to 5 score on seven dimensions with no account. A free sign-in then runs the research: search demand for phrases a buyer might type, competitors from Google and Product Hunt, and public threads from Reddit (found through Google) and Hacker News. You get Cook it, Sleep on it or Kill it, with the reasoning. 3 a day, no card.
Kill it is a normal answer, and a kill gets no build material. The analysis is LLM-assisted, so two runs can differ. Olune has no App Store or Chrome Web Store data, does not read or test your code, and does not get you users. The full list of what it checks and what it cannot is on the app idea validator page.
Check the idea before the first prompt
Describe your app and who it is for. Olune scores it free, then a free sign-in runs the research: search demand, public complaints found through Google, and competitors. You get Cook it, Sleep on it or Kill it, with the reasoning. 3 a day, no card.
A reading order for your first app
If you have an idea and have not opened a builder yet, read these in order.
Step 1: Check the idea before you build
Run the cheapest checks first, each with a stop rule: validate your app idea before you build it.
Step 2: Find out if it already exists
Five searches tell you whether a free tool or the platform owner already does it: my app idea already exists.
Step 3: Know what it costs to run
Hosting, database, model calls and payment fees, worked through for three sizes of app: what a vibe-coded app costs.
Step 4: Write a one-page PRD
Scope v1 so your AI tool builds less, and put the file where your tool reads it: how to write a PRD for vibe coding.
Step 5: Check data, keys and backups
The checks to run before real users put real data in: before you launch.
Step 6: Pick where to launch
Venue rules, caps and what each directory costs: where to launch an app.
Step 7: Get the first users by hand
Where first users came from in dated 2026 threads, and how to find the step that is failing: first users.
Vibe coding a business: common questions
Can you build a startup with vibe coding?
You can build and ship a working app with AI coding tools; whether it becomes a business depends on demand and distribution, which the tools do not change. Check that someone will pay before you build, and plan how you will reach the first users.
What do I need to start vibe coding an app?
An AI builder or coding agent, somewhere to host the app and a database, plus an idea worth the evenings. The costs page works through what each of those costs each month for three sizes of app, with prices checked in October 2026.
Is vibe coding a good idea for a startup?
Our call (editorial): it is a good way to build and test a first version cheaply, and a poor substitute for checking demand. In the builder threads we read for this guide, the common complaint was not an app that broke but an app nobody used.
Are vibe coders making money?
Some say so, but almost every public revenue claim is self-reported and unverified, so we do not repeat them. The first users page collects where 2026 builders say their first users came from, with links to each thread.
Does Olune check my code or my app?
No. Olune checks whether people want the idea: search demand, public complaints and competitors. It does not read, scan or test code, and the before-you-launch page links each security check to the vendor docs instead.
One check before the build
Type the app, who it is for and what they use today. The score is free and needs no account; the research runs after a free sign-in. Kill it is a normal answer, and it costs less now than after the build.
Sources
Each number in brackets on this page points here. Prices and limits change; the date is when we read the page.
- [1]Demirer, Musolff and Yang, "Writing Code vs. Shipping Code: Productivity Effects Across Generations of AI Coding Tools", NBER Working Paper 35275 (May 2026, revised September 2026) · accessed
- [2]Cursor pricing · accessed
- [3]Cursor help: What is The X Subscription · accessed
- [4]OpenAI: ChatGPT and Codex plans and pricing · accessed
- [5]Supabase changelog: tables not exposed to the Data and GraphQL API automatically · accessed
- [6]Lovable docs: plans and credits · accessed
- [7]Google: Gemini API pricing · accessed
- [8]Firebase Studio home page · accessed
- [9]Firebase Studio docs · accessed