Is Vibe Coding Bad? Pros and Cons To Consider

Vibe coding allows anyone to build apps, websites, and internal tools by explaining the overall “vibes” – how you want the product to look and function – in plain English to an AI agent.

The AI then writes your code for you, which can then be refined with real-time feedback from you.

For example, our website’s homepage has been built from the code you see on the right in the screenshot below. With vibe coding tools, a user could achieve a similar result by simply describing the layout, and even providing visual examples of similar homepages they like.

While vibe coding presents non-technical users and coders alike the opportunity to bring creative ideas to life without the constraints of technical code, it does come with risks, especially when users don’t abide by best practices.

Coders’ key fear is that users without an understanding of coding language won’t be able to spot underlying errors in the code generated by the AI. While your project preview may look and function fine, improper code will leave you, and your users, open to security breaches.

The implications of vibe coding risks get worse as the stakes of the project increase – for example, publishing an ecommerce website without proper data storage would be much more harmful than creating a calculator app with faulty buttons.

Is vibe coding bad for beginners?

Vibe coding tools are good at basic tasks but AI hallucinations can cause problems down the line – even for the most experienced coders I know. Vibe coding tools are mainly effective when you’ve got someone with a good amount of coding experience on hand to help.

Aurora Tharani Data Engineer

Vibe coding brings many exciting possibilities to small businesses, but it’s important to be aware of its limitations. The pros and cons of vibe coding are:

How Fast Is Vibe Coding?

A vibe coding tool can create a first draft of your project in as little as five to 10 minutes. However, the iteration process can take hundreds or thousands of prompts, depending on the complexity of your project.

You should also allow time to test your vibe coding project after each new change and to correct any bugs you spot along the way. This will take longer for beginners who don’t know what to look for, but it will save you time in the long run.

Is Vibe Coding Easy?

The natural language prompts make vibe coding achievable for all experience levels, but there is still a learning curve to achieve a polished and secure result.

Vibe coding tools can be instructed by messages, voice memos, documents, and even visual mockups. However, the quality of the output can only match the quality of the input, so your AI prompts need to be structured and include the right amount of detail.

Vibe coding tools are also prone to AI hallucinations (generating inaccurate results that don’t correlate to prompts) and often claim to have fixed problems that are still present, which is why testing and debugging is such an important part of the process. While stylistic issues are often easy to spot, underlying security concerns can be overlooked.

Will Vibe Coding Give Me Creative Control?

Vibe coding allows users to freely experiment with new creative ideas in mediums like writing, drawing, and speaking, without technical code hindering creativity.

If you have specific color codes, fonts, or sizing in mind, you can add these to your prompts to achieve the closest result to your end goal. Plus, most vibe coding tools have a manual editor mode in which you can make stylistic tweaks without using up credits.

However, more complex requests, such as image generation or new features, can be misinterpreted by vibe coding tools, causing frustration. And since each prompt uses credits, there’s less room for experimentation than using a drag-and-drop website builder editor.

Is Vibe Coding Secure?

There are security risks involved in vibe coding, such as weak authentication and the improper storage of private information, that leave affected apps and websites vulnerable to attacks.

However, following vibe coding tips and advice around security will reduce the risks dramatically. Plus, most well-known tools have plenty of built-in security features. Lovable, for instance, will run a safety audit on your project at the click of a button.

While weak code and security issues are common risks involved with vibe coding, they can be minimized by following best practices. Here are my top tips for creating safe and functional vibe coded software:

• Use native debugging features: If you receive an error message or notice any issues during testing, most platforms will be able to analyze and correct the issue if you share a prompt like “I encountered an error, can you help me fix this?”
• Test after every new feature: Every time you add an element, page, or feature, test your app, site, or tool as a user would in the preview mode.
• Consider a hybrid approach: Bringing in a professional developer to check your code at a later stage will ensure best practices are adhered to. While code correction is another expense, it will be more affordable than hiring a professional for the entire process.
• Use version control: Save (A.K.A. commit) your code after every successful change using a version control tool like GitHub. This acts as a fail-safe by allowing you to instantly revert to an old version of your code if things go wrong.
• Run code through a linter tool: A linter, such as ESLint, scans your code for common bugs, errors, and style inconsistencies.

I spoke with Data Engineer Aurora Tharani, who gave this advice:

What advice would you give vibe coding beginners?

Vibe coding is really great for simple, basic, repeatable tasks, but tends to be less reliable for complex projects. Forums like stackoverflow, where people post their approaches and solutions to coding problems, are really useful for fact-checking results generated by vibe coding tools and should be used in combination.

Aurora Tharani Data Engineer

Can I Spot Issues with Vibe Coding?

It’s difficult to spot issues in your own code without an understanding of code structure. Some issues, such as duplicated blocks of code, are easier to spot, but the risks of editing code incorrectly are large.

Instead, it’s safer and more efficient to run your code through a linter or ask a professional to review your code before you make changes.

So, is vibe coding bad? Vibe coding tools can make it much easier for businesses to create apps and websites and test their creative ideas. However, they aren’t a “magic” fix; prompting, testing, and debugging code will take time and practice.

Whether the pros outweigh the cons will vary between use cases. I recommend starting with a simple, personal project, and signing up to try beginner-friendly tools, like Base44’s free plan. This will give you the freedom to experiment with the different tools, integrations, and coding models available.