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Alexandru Stan
Alexandru Stan

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I'm Not a Developer — So I Built a Movie App in 2 Months with AI

I'll be honest with you: I don't know how to code.
No JavaScript, no Python, no SQL. I can't read a stack trace and I wouldn't know what a pull request looks like. And yet, two months ago I decided to build a web app — because I was genuinely frustrated with a problem I couldn't find a good solution for.
This is that story.

The Problem I Was Tired Of
Every evening, the same ritual.
Open Netflix. Scroll for 20 minutes. Nothing looks right. Switch to HBO. Scroll again. Maybe Prime? Back to Netflix. Eventually give up and watch something random, or nothing at all.
I wasn't looking for a list of "top 100 films." I wasn't looking for another algorithm that shows me what's trending. I just wanted someone — or something — to tell me: watch this. tonight. on the platform you already have.
One answer. Not fifty options.
I searched for an app that did exactly that. I didn't find one I liked. So I built it.

Building Without Knowing How to Code
I used Lovable — an AI-powered tool that lets you describe what you want to build and generates the actual code for you. No drag-and-drop, no templates. You describe features in plain English and it builds them.
I won't pretend it was magic from day one. There were moments where I described something and got something different. Moments where a feature broke when I added another one. But the feedback loop was fast — describe, see result, adjust, repeat.
In two months, without writing a single line of code myself, I shipped:

A full recommendation engine based on mood, who you're watching with, and which streaming platforms you own
16+ landing pages targeting specific intents (movie night with friends, family movie night, what to watch tonight, etc.)
PWA support so users can install it on their phone
Email capture and a cookie consent system with 5 granular categories (yes, GDPR-compliant)
A share feature so users can send recommendations to friends
Edge Functions for SSR — so Google can actually crawl and index the site properly
Schema markup (WebApplication, FAQPage, Movie, BreadcrumbList) across all page types
A dynamic sitemap with ~57 pages, confirmed in Google Search Console

The product is called PickMyMovie — and the tagline writes itself: Stop scrolling. Start watching.

Where I Actually Am
I'm not going to pretend this is a success story yet. It's a beginning.
Two months in:

474 visitors
1,700 page views
20 registered users
Available in Romania, UK, and Ireland

The numbers are small. But the foundation is solid — technically, at least. The hard part now isn't building. It's being found.
SEO takes time. A 2-month-old domain has almost no authority, no matter how well the technical side is set up. I'm learning that shipping the product is actually the easy part. Distribution is the real challenge.

What I Learned Building as a Non-Dev

  1. AI tools are genuinely good now — but you still need to think clearly. Lovable doesn't replace thinking. It replaces typing. You still need to know what you want to build, why each feature matters, and how the pieces fit together. The clearer your thinking, the better the output.
  2. The hardest problems aren't technical. Getting Google to index your site, building an audience from zero, convincing the first 20 strangers to trust a product they've never heard of — none of that is a coding problem.
  3. You don't need permission to build. This is the part I wish someone had told me earlier. You don't need to learn to code first. You don't need a co-founder who's a developer. You don't need to wait until you're "ready." The tools exist. The barrier is lower than it's ever been.

What's Next
Tomorrow I'm launching on Product Hunt. It'll be my first launch ever — I have no idea how it'll go.
After that: Indie Hackers, more content, maybe some press outreach. The slow work of building visibility for something you believe in.
If you're curious, the app is live at pickmymovie.app — available in Romania, UK, and Ireland for now.
And if you've ever built something as a non-developer, I'd genuinely love to hear how you approached distribution. That's the part nobody talks about enough.

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