How To Start Vibe Coding: A Beginner-Friendly Guide

Vibe coding was first coined in February 2025 by OpenAI’s co-founder, Andrej Karpathy. With vibe coding, you can ask AI to build your app using conversational, human language, making the whole process very beginner-friendly.

Then, sit back and let AI generate the code for you – you can make further tweaks and refine the version until you’re happy, but the AI tool will do the heavy lifting.

This is great for anyone with no coding experience, as well as seasoned developers who want to prototype ideas without spending months on the project or breaking the bank.

This beginner-friendly guide will walk you through the basics of building an app with vibe coding, from planning your idea to refining your vision.

I’ll be using Base44 as the example throughout, but the general steps will remain the same no matter which vibe coding tool you use.

1. Plan Your Project

Vibe coding is unique in that you can describe your end goal and let AI figure out how to build it. However, it can be useful to have some key details narrowed down ahead of time.

Know what you want to ask, identify the problem your app solves, and think about potential hurdles before they pop up.

Think of it like an elevator pitch – how can you summarize your idea in a few sentences? What are the must-have features of your app? Who are you trying to target with this product? This will serve as the basis of your prompt.

2. Choose Your Vibe Coding Tool

Next, you need to choose the right vibe coding tool for your needs and budget. There are plenty of options entering the growing market, such as Base44, Hostinger Horizons, and Lovable.

Before signing up, see if the vibe coding platform offers a free plan or free trial. If not, you’ll need to budget for a premium plan, which is wise to do anyway since paid subscriptions will typically unlock additional message credits and features.

From our top vibe coding tools, Hostinger Horizons offers the cheapest plan at $6.99 per month (billed annually). If you want a free plan to start, Base44 is your best bet. Base44’s pricing starts from $16 per month (billed annually).

Build your app with Base44

Base44’s free plan includes 25 message credits per month, but its cheapest premium plan increases your allowance to 100.

Start for Free Now

3. Describe Your Goal in a Prompt

After you’ve defined what you want to achieve during the planning stage, it’s time to deliver your prompt to your chosen tool. With Base44, you’ll see a text box on the main landing page.

The clearer your prompt, the better the result will be. That said, you don’t need to get technical when entering your prompt – the benefit of vibe coding is that you can use plain English to describe exactly what you want.

Here is a bad prompt example:

Build an interactive quiz to help customers find the best product

Here is a good prompt example:

Build an interactive quiz with 3-4 questions that helps customers find the best haircare product from my business to suit their needs. There should be multiple-choice answer options, using simple icons and text to keep things visual. The user will then be directed to a results page showing 1 product related to their answers, including a short description, product image, price, and button to buy the product. I should be able to edit the potential product results in the backend. The quiz element should use a pastel yellow color palette with gold accents.

Keep things simple, but don’t skip out on details. It’s important to describe exactly what you want when vibe coding – a well-thought-out prompt will generate better results. With vibe coding, you’re looking to describe your end goal, so think about the big picture.

4. Generate and Preview Your Code

Once you’ve submitted your initial prompt, the AI will start generating your app and writing the code. This can take a minute or two, depending on the complexity of the prompt.

This is where you see your vision come to life.

Of course, your AI-generated app, software, website, or workflow won’t be perfect right away. It’s unlikely that your prompt, no matter how detailed, will translate seamlessly when vibe coding.

While vibe coding helps speed up the app-building process, you still need to take the time to preview what it generates. If the app is for public use, put yourself in your target audience’s shoes. Follow the user journey, click every button, and test every path. Does everything work as it should? Does the frontend appearance look right? Are there any obvious bugs or errors?

Is vibe coding actually beginner-friendly?

I don’t really have any coding experience, so I was really impressed by what I could create with a simple prompt. Using natural language makes the process really easy, though I’d definitely suggest getting a basic understanding of code and next steps.

As a total beginner, I wasn’t really sure what to do after generating the initial code beyond design tweaks and minor changes. That’s why it can be useful to pick a vibe coding tool that offers support and guidance throughout the process.

Emma Ryan Lead Writer

5. Refine and Repeat

In all likelihood, further edits and tweaks will be needed after your initial prompt. Like traditional coding and app development, a polished product won’t be created immediately.

You can continue to ask the AI to make changes before you deploy the app, such as changing the font type or adding a new feature. These messages typically use up a credit each time, which can limit your actions when on a free trial or plan.

Still, this conversational approach to app development is what makes vibe coding so accessible. Keep refining your code and checking for errors (you can ask the vibe coding tool to do this) until you’re happy with the result.

Once your app is ready to go live, it’s time to launch it online and share the public URL. If you use Base44, you’ll see the option to “Share” or “Publish” – hosting and security are managed directly by Base44.

AI app builders have a single purpose: helping beginners and professionals launch an app from scratch. Vibe coding is fluid and flexible, allowing you to use natural language to describe your end goal, rather than thinking it through step-by-step. You can also build websites, software, and workflows when vibe coding, whereas AI app builders create apps.

Of the two methods, vibe coding is better suited for experimenting and testing ideas quickly. It can also feel more human and conversational, making it easier for complete beginners.

Below, I’ll walk you through the workflow I experienced when using Base44, from providing a prompt to making refinements:

1. Enter Your Prompt

This is the prompt I gave to Base44 for my test: Build an AI chatbot that can be integrated with my website to answer common customer queries. 3 of the most popular questions should appear as default in the chat box for users to click on and get an answer immediately, but there should also be a text box for users to ask their own question. 

If you’ve not already signed up, you’ll be asked to log in after entering your prompt. Base44 connects with Google, so I could use my Gmail credentials to keep things simple.

2. AI Generates Your Code

I was then taken to the main interface where I could see Base44 work in real-time to plan and action my prompt. The process was explained in the left-hand sidebar. After approximately one minute, Base44 explained the finished product.

For my customer service chatbot, it had included an interactive chat interface, instant answers (like I requested), AI integration, features like smooth animations, and a demo page.

3. Preview the Output

I could navigate my generated app’s backend settings, but it wasn’t the most straightforward interface. Plus, Base44 said it had created a demo page for me to view the chatbot, but this didn’t load at all.

4. Request Edits or Fix Issues

With hurdles popping up, like my preview error, the free plan can be limiting because of the lack of message credits. I only had five daily message credits, which I unfortunately used up quickly.

I explained the issue in the chat and asked Base44 to fix it, which it attempted to do twice and explained what it had actioned. Sadly, the preview still didn’t work, and with my limited coding knowledge, I wasn’t sure what to ask to get it to work.

Moving on from this hiccup, I requested a new feature for my chatbot: a star rating when a chat has ended to gather user feedback. This took a few seconds to complete, but without my preview working, I couldn’t see it in action.

5. Launch Your App

My test was a bit of a failure, but Base44 makes it easy to get your app live once you’ve finished refining and testing all of its features. Simply click “Publish” in the top right of the screen.

The black button will result in a small pop-up box, showing your public URL link or custom domain.

Once I published the app, I could finally see the chatbot in action, as well as my requested star rating feature. However, it wasn’t immediately clear how I could integrate this with my existing online store. So, while it’s quick to set up apps with vibe coding, understanding next steps can be a bit of a slower process.

Vibe coding is still an evolving practice. For now, preparing your prompt, breaking down complex tasks, and saving your work regularly are some of the best vibe coding tips we can share:

✅ Do your research – while vibe coding is beginner-friendly and a no-code process, I recommend reading guides like this, watching videos, and learning the basics of vibe coding to help you get the most out of your vibe coding tool.

✅ Keep your prompts simple to avoid overcomplicating things – it’s important to provide details and specific instructions concisely.

✅ Break down larger projects into smaller tasks – this can help minimize the risk of bugs or errors slipping through since you can review the work at each stage.

✅ Run quality checks regularly since a human should always review AI-generated work – it can be useful to request feedback from colleagues, employees, customers, or strangers.

✅ Save your work so you can revert to a previous version if you need to – Base44 will automatically save your work as you go, and you can restore previous versions at the click of a button.

✅ Don’t be afraid to start again – vibe coding makes app-building a quick process, so if your prompt isn’t working, it can be faster to write a new prompt rather than refining the old one over and over again. Just look at my example in the section above!

Given that vibe coding was only introduced in 2025, it can be hard for interested users to know which platforms are trustworthy and credible. We’ve tested some of the most popular vibe coding tools to help you find the right fit for your needs:

Swipe right to see more

0 out of 0

• backward
• forward

Hostinger Horizons	Base44	Lovable	Tempo Labs	Bolt
Overall Rating 4.6	Overall Rating 4.1	Overall Rating 4.0	Overall Rating 4.0	Overall Rating 3.5
Starting Price $6.99/mo	Starting Price $16/mo	Starting Price $25/mo	Starting Price $30/mo	Starting Price $25/mo
Free Plan or Free Trial 7-day free trial	Free Plan or Free Trial Free plan, with 25 credits/mo	Free Plan or Free Trial Free plan, with 30 credits/mo	Free Plan or Free Trial Free plan, with 30 credits/mo	Free Plan or Free Trial Free plan, with 1 million tokens/mo
Free Credits (Daily) 5	Free Credits (Daily) 5	Free Credits (Daily) 5	Free Credits (Daily) 5	Free Credits (Daily) 300k
Credit Allowances 30-400/mo	Credit Allowances 25-1,200/mo	Credit Allowances 100-5,000/mo	Credit Allowances 30-Unlimited/mo	Credit Allowances 300k-Unlimited/mo

For small businesses, especially those with no coding experience but in need of unique tools, vibe coding is a game-changer. Vibe coding makes creating apps and software easy, quick, and cheap.

Get a good understanding of the basics, plan your prompt, and start testing ideas with your vibe coding platform of choice. If you don’t get it right the first time, try again and have fun with it.

Bring your vision to life with Base44

Build apps in minutes and without spending a dollar with Base44’s conversational vibe coding tool.

Start Free Plan