Vibe Coding War Gets Ugly
Vibe coding is now mainstream, with several tools shaping up the space. There’s Lovable, Bolt, Windsurf, Cursor, Replit, and Google’s newly launched Firebase Studio—but figuring out which one is right for you remains a challenge. The good news? You don’t need to be a professional developer to get started. “If you’re a non-technical person, you’ll be way ahead of your peers if you pick up a bit of coding and start fiddling with AI-driven coding environments like Cursor, Replit, etc. There’s a learning curve for sure. But coding is a superpower!” said Paras Chopra, founder of Lossfunk, in a post on X. ​​Among all the vibe coding tools, Cursor was the first to break out, thanks to its popular ‘Tab Tab Tab’ feature. Designed for developers in the Visual Studio Code ecosystem, it offers natural language code generation, intelligent autocompletion, and a codebase-aware chatbot. Cursor feels like a smart assistant inside a real IDE. It supports all programming languages, lets you debug and edit code, and reasons through complex tasks. You can upload files, define context, and choose from multiple LLMs. But, Cursor isn’t for everyone. While it’s powerful, it can feel intimidating for beginners. And with no built-in deployment options, it’s less suited for those looking for an end-to-end development experience. Replit Steals the Limelight To fill in the gaps, many are turning to Replit for a more end-to-end experience. “Many vibe coders are switching from Cursor to Replit because we handle both development and deployment environments. You can also connect Cursor to Replit if you want to use both,” said Amjad Masad, founder of Replit, in a post on X. Not to mention, Indian actor and filmmaker Kamal Haasan is a fan of Replit and can’t stop raving about it. Recently, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman used Replit to clone LinkedIn using a single prompt, which was a success. “Vibe coding on the Replit mobile app feels like I’m playing a casual mobile game. It’s the exact type of friendly/inviting UX you want to get amateur enthusiasts in the door (i.e., mass consumer trialling),” said Cole Rotman, VC at DST Global. It’s not just developers experimenting with Replit anymore. Mohannad Ali shared that an Airbnb property manager built and hosted their full backend on Replit using its agent tools. “Love seeing practical examples in the wild outside of the Twitter vibe coding community,” he posted. Build Apps the Easy Way with Lovable If you are a non-technical entrepreneur with a killer app idea but zero coding skills, Lovable steps in like a genie, turning your words into a full-stack web app. It is quickly becoming a go-to for kids and beginners exploring app development. “Kids might actually be better at using lovable than adults. Unlimited creativity, no fear. A software dev ran a “create with AI” for 8-12-year-olds. Apparently, kids skipped break because they were vibe-coding too hard, and kept working on their projects after school ended. The future is bright!” said Lovable founder Anton Osika. Its strength lies in a no-code/low-code approach built for people who think in ideas rather than syntax. It also integrates easily with tools like GitHub for version control and Supabase for data management. Lovable simplifies app creation by generating functional skeletons from natural language prompts. It supports frameworks like React and Tailwind and allows seamless API integration with deployment options like Netlify. However, Lovable hasn’t disclosed which LLM powers it. Unlike Cursor, it’s not a full IDE but a lightweight interface for generating apps. The code isn’t editable, so users must build through multiple prompt iterations. Windsurf: Cursor’s More Ambitious Cousin Not satisfied with Cursor? Windsurf enters the chat. Forked from VS Code, it retains the layout developers love but comes supercharged with AI that works as both a copilot and an agent. Its standout feature, Cascade, acts more like a collaborative partner than a chatbot. It understands your entire codebase and can edit multiple files, run terminal commands, debug, and even generate new projects from scratch—all in real time. Windsurf also supports deployment to Netlify and multiple LLMs. With its Wave 7 update, Cascade now supports JetBrains IDEs too, bringing the agentic experience to more dev environments. Most recently, the company  announced that OpenAI’s latest model, GPT-4.1, will be available for free for one week. Google Enters the Race, Too Finally, there’s Google Firebase Studio, a 2025 newcomer that feels like Google saying, “We’ve got this.” Built for the cloud, it’s an AI-powered IDE tightly woven into Firebase’s ecosystem. “I feel Google is secretly winning the AI race. They knocked it out of the park with Firebase Studio. It’s basically Cursor/Lovable/Bolt/Windsurf all in 1 place,” said Aryan Singh, co-founder of a stealth startup and a former software engineer at Google. Firebase Studio is a free browser-based development platform powered by Gemini. It combines Gemini, Genkit, Project IDX, and Firebase to help developers quickly build and deploy AI apps. Users can start with 60+ templates or get help from the App Prototyping agent to design UIS, APIs, and AI workflows. “Firebase Studio looks really good! With two prompts, I was able to create a Tetris app that actually works,” said Juan Stoppa, head of development at Wealth Dynamix. Stepping back, each tool tells a story about where coding is headed. Vibe coding is no longer a fringe experiment—it’s quickly becoming the future of app development. Whether you’re a kid, a founder, or a seasoned developer, there’s now a tool suited to your level, style, and ambition. The only question is, which vibe will you pick?
Vibe coding is no longer a fringe experiment—it’s quickly becoming the future of app development.
Vibe coding is now mainstream, with several tools shaping up the space. There’s Lovable, Bolt, Windsurf, Cursor, Replit, and Google’s newly launched Firebase Studio—but figuring out which one is right for you remains a challenge.
["Google", "Replit", "Supabase", "Vibe Coding"]
["Replit", "Go", "API", "Supabase", "OpenAI", "AI", "ETL", "ML", "Git", "GPT", "Vibe Coding", "Google", "GitHub", "R"]
["AI", "ML", "OpenAI", "R", "Go", "Git", "GitHub", "API", "ETL", "GPT"]
Siddharth is a media graduate who loves to explore tech through journalism and putting forward ideas worth pondering about in the era of artificial intelligence.