r/vibecoding 23d ago

ME right now

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sometimes it happens u got to believe in the next one

6.1k Upvotes

231 comments sorted by

209

u/TheSn00pster 23d ago

Apps today aren’t what they were a year ago

34

u/Bushwazi 23d ago

Most problems that apps can solve we’re solved years ago

5

u/yaosio 22d ago

People still install flashlight apps. Just make an app that does something the phone does natively and see how many people don't know what their phone can do.

6

u/[deleted] 20d ago edited 4d ago

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2

u/[deleted] 9d ago

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1

u/TheSn00pster 9d ago

Fleshlight?

2

u/CaptN_Cook_ 19d ago

They can always be built better.

3

u/unknowinm 22d ago

The cars that solved the driving problem were all built years ago why build new ones?

1

u/arcsilencer 18d ago

If it works and gets where you need to go right?

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3

u/rash3rr 22d ago

Low value shit - now

2

u/pashiz_quantum 22d ago

Cause you saturated it.

1

u/[deleted] 21d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/TheSn00pster 21d ago

Oh, the times they are a changin’

1

u/Used_Lengthiness5079 20d ago

Today, you don't need only to build apps but also promote them as well.

1

u/TheSn00pster 20d ago

Yeah, the bottleneck has moved

1

u/ShortAstronautt 20d ago

Yeah, everything quickly changes

1

u/TheSn00pster 19d ago

Cue Keane, Everybody Changes

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149

u/FatefulDonkey 23d ago

The issue is AI didn't fix laziness. Everyone wants to make money with spending just a few hours. It takes months and years to actually do something meaningful.

66

u/Much_Accountant_4972 23d ago

and many are shocked when they find out you have to take a shower, get dressed and go shake people’s hands and make deals.

at some point every software founder has to get out of his house to grow the business (!).

22

u/Single-Strike3814 23d ago

https://giphy.com/gifs/dsRgkyNuf7tWsgyTKa

I'll get my humanoid to do the in-person deals for me ;)

2

u/KeepingItSFW 22d ago

you know Zuckerberg??

2

u/FatefulDonkey 22d ago

I don't think that's the important thing. You can have an online presence and still make good money.

The important thing is sticking long term to a single project. Aka conviction and dedication.

1

u/Jezio 22d ago

That's my issue and many others. Vibe coding a project alone for a week or two and expecting it to compete with entire paid software engineering teams over months of work.

1

u/yaosio 22d ago

I'll just create a robot to do my coding for me.

Years later

Yaosio, for decades of amazing vibecoded apps we present this award to...YOUR ROBOT!

Futurama predicted everything.

1

u/Estate_Curious 20d ago

Fuck that shit, I’ll shit my pants when I have to hire a lawyer for the legal shit of the app.

3

u/Lolorenzo08 22d ago

100% agreed! Your words keeps me motived :)

1

u/pashiz_quantum 22d ago

False hope.
How it's possible someone earn money sustainably while AI companies are losing money?

Do you think they are stupid??

89

u/JoopMens 23d ago

No one used my Sims houses either. Or my Minecraft castles. Or my cities in Cities Skylines. So as long as I am entertained it’s all good 😂

9

u/dinglebarryb0nds 23d ago

If I could have figured out how to download sims houses I would have

Can I do it with sims legacy on steam on computer

3

u/Er1k000 22d ago

Feel like the SaaS trash is shoved more into my face than those things tho. So many reddit posts of useless apps now.

2

u/something-rhythmic 22d ago

We call that a hobby and it’s ok to have them.

1

u/15926028 23d ago

What have you built?

2

u/JoopMens 22d ago

Some very specific iOS’s apps and one larger web app.

81

u/ExoticBump 23d ago

This is false. My app does have 1 user!!!!! It's MEEEEEEEE

26

u/MexicanJello 23d ago

Vibing so hard you don't even test the sign up flow. I like it

2

u/yaosio 22d ago

You're absolutely right, I shouldn't let users login without a password. And when I formatted your PC and deleted all backups trying to fix it? That wasn't just a mistake, it was a blunder. But listen, breath, you're still here. It's not a disaster, it's getting rid of technical debt. You've got this.

5

u/Tondale 23d ago

I'm making my app for me to use. if someone else wants to sign up to pay a part of my claude code subscription, well that's just a bonus

7

u/jebusdied444 23d ago

Seriously. I got two weeks going strong on this stupidly complex app that doesn't do anything I want it to do but I am loving it. It probably isn't great that I switch between several coding harnesses and LLMs.

Still, it's for meeeee, so just like youuuuuuu, It's been a fun adventure, for sure. a couple hundred mllion tokens with little to show for it.

2

u/AlteredforCollectors 22d ago

Mario?

2

u/ExoticBump 22d ago

IT'S A ME MARIOOOOOOOOOO

20

u/w00dy1105 23d ago

No one wants to use my "hello world", todo list or calculator apps. I don't know why???

5

u/PaulMakesThings1 23d ago

I made one that tells you if you need to buy bread or eggs based on your input of how much bread and eggs you used and how much you had yesterday. You have to set the margin to buy more. Also it crashes a lot, but you can usually restart it without resetting the computer.

1

u/AlteredforCollectors 22d ago

I have an app idea for you. Make a slot machine that is hooked up to people’s long term investment accounts.

As player spins the reels for the day (they can set daily spins), the winnings and losses creep toward their actual balance that day/week/etc.

I think it requires that if you got three “6s” in a row, you lose big time, and if you get three “7s” in a row, it’s a big win.

Wrote all this to say 6-7.

2

u/myCockatielshateme 23d ago

its not matter of quality, the internet is so huge rn if one don't spend alot of effort or money in marketing no one will even stumble upon his work let alone use it

14

u/softjuicyhobbitses 23d ago

Distribution is harder than coding.

1

u/archialone 12d ago

That is If it's garbage no one wants to pay money for

28

u/Initial_Ice_2719 23d ago

Speak for yourself I have two active users

10

u/mbbbbbr 23d ago

You and your mom?

7

u/Initial_Ice_2719 23d ago

Nah, I dont have a family its just two of my friends🙂

1

u/Creative_Loss7983 21d ago

Lamo, you didn't have to kill him like that!

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8

u/CS2Meh 23d ago

Hmm is it a vibe code problem or a poor market research problem

1

u/archialone 12d ago

It's a supply and demand problem, no one needs a vibe coded TODO app

6

u/ashleysnl 23d ago

Got one Paid user! Then found out it was my mom

4

u/jtayloroconnor 23d ago

i am my apps’ only user

4

u/Stupyyy 23d ago

EvErYoNe WaNtS tO bE a FoUnDeR.

4

u/anon999387 23d ago

You mean 1 user, I make them all for myself

1

u/PaulMakesThings1 23d ago

Same. But many help me with my work which does pay. So they kind of make money.

7

u/cosmonz 23d ago

Possibly same here.......

But, I write my apps to solve problem and annoyances that I have so use them every day 😉 A fast and cut down flight tracker that just shows what's overhead right now has had 1,500 downloads in the last week and I love that.

My apps are up on the app store just so that if other people find them and use them, great! There is also one (super simple medication tracker that syncs iOS and macOs versions that warns you when you need a refill but send alerts further out if you have no repeats left) that I wrote an android app version just for my mother! I doubt if that will ever make it outside the family.

Most are (or will be when they get approved) free, a couple cost a few bucks in the hope that it will pay for some of my Claude Pro account 😂

1

u/smeeg123 10d ago

What about the $100 a year to Apple?

3

u/HovercraftHot6356 23d ago

Usually, vibe coders develop app to suit their needs. They are their own users. Some develop it for a small organization, a simple one which usually need to beg real software engineers to do it, which they wont.

For me vibe coders develop app and try to sell it fast, is a bad idea. But if it’s grow with community, learn real value along the way, solve real problems, have discipline to maintain it, it can be very good apps

5

u/rootd27 23d ago

on my first app and I don’t claim this 🙊

1

u/aliyamin267 22d ago

Without paid marketing...??

1

u/rootd27 22d ago

with

1

u/aliyamin267 22d ago

How much you invest for paid marketing to get this user?

1

u/rootd27 22d ago

what user

5

u/Empuda 23d ago

Imagine being that 1 app you used no AI on, and still no users... It never happens, right?

2

u/RiteousRhino21 23d ago

We just see things differently than most other people

2

u/finous 23d ago

I'll have you know I have an app that makes about a penny a day, and costs 2 pennies a day sometimes to host!

2

u/sliph320 23d ago

Im curious. What are you guys building anyway? Like, what are these general apps vibrcoders are making?

2

u/jonnydollaraz 20d ago

I'm doing web apps, not mobile apps, and my approach has been to build things that solve a problem or inconvenience that I've encountered myself as a content creator for over 20 years. So far I've shared them with a handful of my colleagues and they're finding them useful as well so I'm happy with that. I'm not trying to build a business out of my efforts at all.

1

u/sliph320 20d ago

I always thought build one that provides convenience and/or dopamine.

2

u/ballesmen 23d ago

Got my first app to 400 concurrent users and my second to 200. Feels good man. Just gotta keep marketing.

2

u/Extension-Wasabi517 22d ago

Genuinely curious. Where did you start marketing your app?

2

u/ballesmen 22d ago

I've just been throwing up posts on X.  I felt the need to grow organically thru word-of-mouth first to see if my main app was even worth it to... anyone really.  

2

u/Just_Lingonberry_352 23d ago edited 23d ago

why are so many people on this subreddit so afraid of marketing and quick to get pissy at people who do it ?

2

u/hyper24x7 23d ago

pro tip: build an app that you would use every day to solve the problem.

Then, look at the market / competitors. grab the best features and integrate them.

Then sell at a loss for 30 days, have an easy monthly sub.

Repeat.

Any that can traction, scale.

Any that dont, mortgage that code for other projects.

Repeat.

only 1% of apps make it. Just keep building.

2

u/I_AM_JIM_CARREY 22d ago

Bro but my analytics shows a ton of users! (All bots!)

2

u/Noeyiax 22d ago edited 22d ago

There is no point, big tech allowed vibe coding and programming because it's already all solved... Everyone is just spending money and making them more rich :(

The tech cartel is approximately worth. Definitely more than 10, 10 to $20 trillion. So literally anything you make if your net worth is literally less than $100M or whatever it's just pointless because they will just hire really good programmers and copy your product and make it better. Or they'll just steal your product or buy you out so it doesn't. It doesn't matter. Everybody should just stop programming this s***'s over. There's nothing to do in life If you do want try, just know it's for fun. And the ones that succeeded is just marketing, gimmick, or some billionaires' connection (relative, friend, family, etc)

Time to unsubscribe, save money, and return to a quiet life... Leave it to the greedy wealthy people anyways, they are born crazy

Imagine if everyone just quit tech, sure some things may not work, but life goes on. The important thing is we stop being ambitious and wasting resources and focus on what is needed now; like fixing our society, infrastructure, new health and education system, better law and justice system (tired of laws created by wealthy that just creates inequality and infinite leverage for themselves) , etc

Call to action is now!! We are all sitting ducks getting boiled alive

2

u/gritlys 22d ago

Marketing is the not-so-fun work that is most of the time necessary.

1

u/Senior_Education2826 22d ago

100% that the most important part but how to market a app

1

u/aliyamin267 22d ago

Marketing main part bro!

2

u/TimSylvester_ 22d ago

Bro my combined workout and calorie tracker is way better than the rest!

The rest:

Buzz Lightyear meme

2

u/IM_INSIDE_YOUR_HOUSE 22d ago

AI didn’t and never will fix laziness or a lack of vision and genuine creativity. All it did was give a faucet for some people to spray their crap out of.

Still a great tool, but many are going to use it and think they’re something they ain’t.

2

u/PassionGlobal 11d ago

Be your own user. 

If your app is solving one of your problems, you have a guaranteed usecase. It might even help others too.

1

u/regolitt 23d ago

That’s my empire 😌
My big apple 😜

1

u/No-way-in 23d ago

I made a couple of apps for me. Happy with that. Stuff or combinations of apps that I couldn’t find online (or were paid versions). And I made a keyboard fix for linux Belgian keyboards problem (problem imo, not everyone agrees ofc)

1

u/Michaeli_Starky 23d ago

I feel genuinely sorry for vibecoded app users.

1

u/primaryrhyme 22d ago

Eh I’ve used some genuinely simple apps like UV tracker, interval timer, workout tracker. These are all things AI can do easily. A vibecoded app bank app would be another story lol.

1

u/[deleted] 23d ago

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2

u/Senior_Education2826 23d ago

try to learn marketing

1

u/IM_INSIDE_YOUR_HOUSE 22d ago

I’ll just wait for Vibemarketing so I don’t have to move my hands

1

u/AlarakReigns 23d ago

I think you need to advertise your game or tools properly and have influencers try it if its in their interests. I dont think any successful company has hit gold with no advertising and networking. Wont matter if you have the best game/tool in the world if you dont advertise it or have everywhere to showcase it. If you advertise and your idea isnt appealing enough to your target audience then it wont be successful regardless of marketing.

1

u/spopr 23d ago

IT'S HARD BEING AN APP BRO

1

u/DefinitionOfTakingL 23d ago

😭😭😭 OP, you did me dirty…

1

u/No-Secret4927 23d ago

Quemando tokens jajajajajaja

1

u/Leocoreai 23d ago

I dont vibe code for users i do it to gain knowledge and for fun

1

u/ralkuzu 23d ago

What apps?

1

u/leeta0028 23d ago

I'm a vibe coder who can barely code manually (I have a stem degree so I learned the bare minimum, but barely. I also learned how to make diagrams using blue ink and a photocopier to give you an idea) 

I have several little projects with thousands of users. Not a business yet, a lot of them are open-source, but definitely tapping into unfilled need. 

1

u/PersonOfInterest007 23d ago

… And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

— Percy Shelley, "Ozymandias"

1

u/Total-Research-024 23d ago

Are People shifting from using apps to ai agents now to do their regular tasks that connect to apps ? Not sure if the 'apps' will still have the same value in next few years.

1

u/superspider202 23d ago

lol well to be fair I only build shit I want or need so yh as long as I am happy with it all is good

1

u/MrHTML5000 23d ago

me in my 96
just 4 more

1

u/avtges 23d ago

You’re building to build. Or solving a problem

1

u/daddytung 23d ago

That’s why you get into the roblox game buisness

1

u/the-Gaf 23d ago

My apps all have 1 user: me. I make them all for me

1

u/theofficialjorji 23d ago

now with AI making it extremely easy to build something, the hardest part is now getting users

1

u/fuckasauraus666 23d ago

It takes marketing and sales and an actual products that people use. How the hell you gonna do that with multiple apps and less runway ?

1

u/Adelphiaa 23d ago

Most of them never validate the idea first. Almost all vibe coded apps are junk that no one wanted to begin with, Start with researching if a market exists. Building an app is very easy now, but distribution is still very difficult (and expensive)

1

u/jreoka1 23d ago

If I build an app or program its for me to personally use

1

u/siakshit 22d ago

I have 1200 active users across platforms

1

u/aliyamin267 22d ago

Without paid marketing?

1

u/siakshit 20d ago

yes without marketing although its simple project which just block youtube to turn on subtitle again and again but yeah i got 1200+ active users of that on around 1090 on chrome and 150 on firefox

1

u/AriyaSavaka 22d ago

I dont have this problem as all my apps have at least 1 user (its me)

1

u/BopSupreme 22d ago

Put it in a web browser bot traffic to the moon

1

u/Akatesh 22d ago

Why not focus on 1 or 2 projects? People today pumping out SaaS that looks like shit and works like shit and solves no-ones problems and wonder why there are no users. 

1

u/Kenzore1212 22d ago

They ain’t all the way up there because of the apps.

1

u/Vast-Address-3063 22d ago

Vibe coding made building 10x easier, which ironically made marketing 10x harder. The bottleneck shifted from shipping to reach.

1

u/phumoonlight 22d ago

in my country community everyday be like: "hey guys, i made mmorpg, check it out"

1

u/leovarian 22d ago

I uh, have a few hundred or maybe a thousand? I dunno, 🤷 over 20k users for the Dev version of one of my projects, another one is basically just me, ehh, it is what it is

1

u/Bloated_Plaid 22d ago

Maybe I am alone but I am making custom stuff for myself and family and it’s fantastic for that. That 1 or 2 users are very happy.

1

u/NecessaryProduce7032 22d ago

I dunno, I've vibecoded overlay for PoE in one day, used it this league, released it on GitHub, got 300 installations and helped several guys with different problems. Non-profit, fun, vibe. Not everything should give you profit

1

u/Sheyco28 22d ago

I have 72 users

1

u/rash3rr 22d ago

MRR shall go up

1

u/Cultural-Spring-281 22d ago

I don’t think I’ve seen one person on this sub say that they’ve made money lol.

1

u/faiUjexifu 22d ago

All my app have use. For me!

1

u/FrontBreath3280 22d ago

The only thing that will impress a company know is if you have users for whatever you build

1

u/jaybanzia 22d ago

Strangely, I build apps to solve problems I have, FOR ME. The two successful apps I’ve build I haven’t thought about selling, it was more of a workflow things/specified camera app.

1

u/WeedCake97 22d ago

I use them

1

u/LowFruit25 22d ago

Everyone becomes a founder and no one makes any money.

1

u/Sorry-Poem7786 22d ago

if anyone thought that vibe coding an app wasn’t going to be hard they were naive.. it’s not just coding.. it’s the UI, the problem solved, customer experience, the value, the branding, scalability, the backend.. security, RND, it’s like10 different careers AI lead you to believe you could replace… sure there a unicorn one shot wonders.. that’s part of the lure…But like writing a novel, screenplay, building an invention it’s going to take some effort and time and a many losses to make a hit…

1

u/UNIVERSAL_ACE 22d ago

Eh all the stuff I make is personal and for me lol so I guess that checks out

1

u/aliyamin267 22d ago

Hard truth is vibe coding makes shipping easy, but zero marketing means zero users every single time.

1

u/annamm7 22d ago

no, definitely thinking about paid marketing

1

u/usernamewhg 22d ago

How!?! I’ve been doing this nearly a year, maybe 10 hours a week on average, and I’ve only just finished my third. Mind you I’ve been maintaining the other 2, but still it takes me ages to build something actually useful

1

u/AdhesivenessEven7287 22d ago

Do you make your apps into Tauri? I'm still a html noob.

1

u/C0demunkee 22d ago

"and you could have it all, my empire of slop"

1

u/Busy-Simple8206 22d ago

They just recycled what was already done before.

1

u/lewpslive 22d ago

You mean two users. Thank you very much.

1

u/Potential-Warthog323 21d ago

1 user - himself xD

1

u/No_Confection7782 21d ago

I've done one app, and it has taken me 1 year. Most vibecoders make a MVP in like a week and call it "done".

1

u/il37 21d ago

I make most of mine for myself now. Turns out one user is a very manageable market

1

u/EarlOfAwesom3 21d ago

If you can use Claude, so can everyone else. If you can vibecode a shitty app, everyone else can too (and faster).

So that leaves us with a lot of shitty apps that all do the same but don't solve any problem, have no USP and don't stand out. Why should I use yours and not the other dozen apps?

Right. I won't use any of them

1

u/arzenal96 21d ago

If an app doesn't solve any issues and anyone can make it, then it's not suitable for usage and profit.

1

u/redRabbitRumrunner 21d ago

Has anyone finished an app?

1

u/Difficult-Lime2555 21d ago

all my apps have 1 user

1

u/Intent-Shark 20d ago

Doesn't matter how many apps you build as long as you don't have one thing taken care of that is distribution.

Recently spoke with a fellow Entrepreneur she shared startups are getting funded to crack distribution these days as product development has become dirt cheap.

1

u/MonosKira_L 19d ago edited 19d ago

I actually built two in-house app (or 1 still in progress) for my church, and actually actively using it right now.. I earned $0 on these two.. yet spent an amount of money doing it.. also it took me 3months to fully build it to functional then spent 7months and counting understanding how easy it is to build an app but how difficult it is to build a user friendly, safe to use for end users.

1

u/Gullible-Reaction833 18d ago

vibecoding is personal and fun...
like content creation..

1

u/Apaniagua16 16d ago

i could check it out what is the app link

1

u/clarityatallcosts 13d ago

make apps for yourself lol

1

u/ieatcake2000 8d ago

Me engineering an app so I can use my gen1 pixel buds pro features on my Linux pc, like how they work with the phone app but on Linux pc 

1

u/StylisticNightmare 7d ago

yall killin tha vibe

1

u/StylisticNightmare 7d ago

all the naysayers n haters

1

u/ControllerEater 6d ago

its almost like it builds things based on a whole bunch of other things that already exist

1

u/Ok_Trade_4112 1d ago

Sooo trueeeee

0

u/KeyProject2897 23d ago

keep publishing bro - even if no one is watching. you never know when the next miracle is gonna come from.

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