🚀 Introduction
AI-powered coding platforms are transforming the way we build websites. Instead of writing every line of code, you can now describe your idea in plain language, and an AI agent generates a deployable project for you.
Recently, I experimented with one of these Vibe Coding platforms to build a static website for my startup. While the experience was exciting, it also revealed a clear gap between how developers and non-technical users interact with these tools and highlighted some current limitations.
💡 1️⃣ What is Vibe Coding?
Vibe coding allows you to create software simply by describing your vision in natural language. The AI agent handles:
- Code generation
- Deployment
- Sometimes even UI design elements
The Promise
- Non-technical founders: Build a site without hiring a developer
- Developers: Save time on boilerplate tasks and focus on higher-level architecture
But does it truly deliver a no-code experience for everyone? Let's dive in.
⚡ 2️⃣ My Experiment: Building a Startup Website with AI
I started with a simple prompt to create a basic landing page for my startup. Within minutes, the platform delivered:
- A functional website layout
- A ready-to-deploy project structure
✅ First impression: Great for quickly spinning up an MVP.
🌍 3️⃣ The Multilingual Challenge
Later, I wanted my website to support English and Gujarati. I began by asking the AI to make this change using a general prompt.
Prompt 1 (General Request):
Please make the website available in two languages: English and Gujarati, ensuring that all pages and navigation elements are translated accordingly.
AI's Response:
- The AI returned a highly technical solution, suggesting steps like:
- Setting up i18n infrastructure with libraries like react-i18next
- Creating translation files for each language
- Implementing a language switcher component
For a non-technical person, this kind of response is difficult to act on. Terms like i18n and translation schema are not beginner-friendly and would likely require developer assistance.
👨💻 4️⃣ Developer Intervention
As a developer, I opened the generated files and saw that components could easily be duplicated for translations. So, I gave the AI a more specific, simplified instruction.
Prompt 2 (Developer-Guided Request)
The website content is relatively small. Instead of a full i18n setup, please create hardcoded translated versions of the pages (e.g., product_eng.tsx, product_guj.tsx) and add a simple language switcher in the header to toggle between English and Gujarati.
This time, the AI:
- Created separate Gujarati page components
- Added a functional language switch button
- Delivered a clean and working solution ✅ without over-engineering the task
🔄 5️⃣ GitHub Integration: A Pleasant Surprise
After completing the website, I linked the project to my GitHub account, and this turned out to be one of the platform's most impressive features:
Any manual code edits I pushed to the main branch were automatically synced with the live deployment
The platform maintained full compatibility between the AI-managed environment and my manual changes
This gave me the best of both worlds:
AI-assisted rapid development
Full developer control when needed
⚠️ 6️⃣ Limitations of Vibe Coding (Current State)
While Vibe Coding is great for static websites and front-end-heavy projects, it still faces big challenges in more complex scenarios, such as:
- Backend systems: AI struggles with database schema design, API security, and complex business logic
- Data persistence: Managing relational databases, migrations, and scalable architectures isn't fully automated yet
- Advanced integrations: Connecting third-party APIs, authentication, and cloud infrastructure often needs manual intervention
In my opinion, Vibe Coding is ideal today for small static sites or quick prototypes, but not for production-grade full-stack applications, at least not yet. This may change as AI coding tools mature, but developers remain essential for now.
📌 7️⃣ Key Observations (Developer vs Non-Tech)
✅ Developers
- Can refine prompts and review generated code for better results
- Benefit from GitHub sync to combine AI assistance with manual coding
- Gain productivity but still need skills for backend, databases, and scalability
⚠️ Non-Technical Users
- May receive responses too technical to act on
- Might hit a dead end if the AI doesn’t get it right on the first try
- Still need occasional developer support for anything beyond a simple site
🧠 8️⃣ My Takeaways on Vibe Coding
- Huge potential for rapid prototyping and static site generation
- Not yet ready for complex backend-driven applications
- Best used in a hybrid workflow: AI for speed, developers for precision and scalability
🎯 Conclusion
Vibe coding is an exciting step forward in software development. It can dramatically speed up building small websites and prototypes. But when it comes to complex systems, backend logic, and database-heavy apps, traditional coding expertise is still essential.
Would you trust AI to build your next production app? Or do you see it more as a prototyping assistant?
💬 Share your thoughts below—I’d love to hear your experiences with AI-powered coding!
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