Vibe Coding Changed Everything: From $4,500 Loss to Building Apps for FREE

All right, I know you're excited to start building, but if we jump straight into the tools without understanding the basics, it's going to be an absolute disaster. You'll get confused, frustrated, and end up quitting. Here's the easiest way to understand how web apps work. Think of it like a restaurant. Front end is the dining area. It's what you see when you walk in. the tables, the menu, the decor. It's everything the customer interacts with. In a web app, this is the buttons, the colors, the layout. Basically, the pretty stuff you tap and scroll through. And look, looks do matter. Those who say they don't are back-end developers. Backend is the kitchen. You never see it, but that's where all the real work happens. The chef is cooking, orders are being processed, and inventory is being tracked. In a web app, this is all the logic and processing that happens behind the scenes. When you click place order, something has to actually process that order. That's the back end. The unsung heroes who do most of the work, but no one sees them, just like the unpaid intern in any company. Hey, I do pay all my interns very handsomely. By the way, API is the waiter. The waiter takes your order from the dining area to the kitchen, then brings the food back to you. The waiter is the messenger, the connection between what you see and what happens behind the scenes. In a web app, when your front end needs something from the back end, the API carries that request back and forth. Basically, what you become when two of your friends are fighting, and you have to act as the middleman. Database is the pantry where all the ingredients are stored. The restaurant needs to remember what's in stock, what recipes exist, who ordered what. In the web app, this is where all the data lives. Your profile, post, order history, everything gets stored in the database. It's basically like that one guy we all know who has a room like a library full of books but never bothers to read them just collects it just in case. Hosting is the restaurant building itself. The actual physical location where the restaurant exists. You need an address so people can find you. In a web app, hosting is where your web app lives on the internet. Without it, no one can access it. Without hosting, it's like planning the most amazing party. Great playlist, snacks and drinks, everything ready without the most important thing venue like where the heck is everyone supposed to go. Now let's do a quick recap of what all we covered. Front end what users see. Back end what happens behind the scenes. API the messenger between them. Database where data is stored. Hosting where your app lives online. The good news is you don't need to memorize all of this stuff. With Vibe Coding, AI handles most of this stuff for you, but it helps to know what is actually happening. Let's get to the fun part. With how fast AI is moving, it's almost impossible to stay updated. So, I've got a WhatsApp community where I drop everything I discover. Tools, workflows, updates, all in one place before they go mainstream. If you want access, links in the description.

Why Riplet? Now, there's a bunch of tools out there for vibe coding. Lovable, Bolt, Cursor, and they're all pretty solid. But I'm going to use Riplet. And here's the simple reason why. Everything is built into one place. Database, hosting, deployment, all of it. You describe what you want, it builds it, you hit deploy, and it's live on the internet. It's the easiest one to use and perfect for absolute beginners. Okay, let's get into it.

— Go to ripplet. com and you can create an account over here. Just continue with Google, sign in and you're all set. Your account is set up and we'll continue with the free plan. Okay. So, as you can see, the interface is really clean and simple. Nothing to worry about. This is where you'll describe and type your idea and Replit will get it building for you. And if you toggle over here, you'll see a bunch of different options you can build. mobile app, data app, 3D game, but these are all available in paid plans. With the free plan, you can build a web app. Before we move on, quick note on the pricing. The starter plan is completely free. Then there's the core plan at $25 per month and team's plan at $40 per month and so on. Honestly, the free starter plan is more than enough to get started. See if you like it and you can always upgrade later. Now that we're all set, let's build something really cool. We all made New Year's resolutions for 2026, right? So to track them, let's build an interactive tracker to see what you planned, your progress, all of that. Simple, useful, and something you'll actually use. Now, you could jump straight into Replet and start vibe coding, but then you're probably not going to get the results you want, and you'll burn through your credits. So, let's do this like the pros.

— First, we'll create a PRD, product requirements document. I know it sounds technical, but it's basically just a blueprint. It helps you tell the AI exactly what you're looking for. And don't worry, you don't have to write it yourself. Just go to chat GPT, tell it your idea, and it'll create a nice structured PRD for you. Okay, so we are in chat GPT, and I've just typed out what my idea is, what I'm planning to build, and asked it to create a PRD. So basically I've told it my idea is very simple. 2026 resolution tracker web app using the Riplet free plan. I've specifically mentioned the free plan because you only have a limited amount of credits. If you try to build something really complex, you'll exhaust your credits before you can even finish. So you need to keep it simple. Also when you're vibe coding or building anything, you always aim to build an MVP first. That's your minimum viable product. Basically version one of whatever you're building. very basic stuff, not loaded with complexities. Just to test it, see if it's actually working, see if it's coming out as you're envisioning. I'm keeping it very simple. A light UI sign in and login button where each user can create, update, delete their own resolutions. All of this data and progress will store in a database. And we'll use a clean, minimal, gamified pixel look to make it fun and interesting. And I've asked it to create a nice short PRD for the same. Let's let it create the PRD for us. Okay, so it's building Look at that. Product overview, goals and success metrics, target users, core features, user flow. It even gave us the technical requirements because we asked to keep it very lightweight, very friendly. See, when you give a simple prompt, it might not work as you're planning, but when you create a PRD, it gives better context. This is the reason it's called vibe coding. You're vibing with the AI. Now I'm just going to copy this. And guys, now it's actually time to wipe code. Let's open Riplet and get started building our 2026 resolutions tracker.

All right folks, we are inside Replet and the PRD has been generated for us with chat GPT. We told it our idea, got the PRD for what we're looking for and over here I'm just going to copy paste it and we are all set to go. Just hit start and let riplet do its magic. Okay, as you can see the workspace is loading. On the right hand side is where you'll see your web app preview how it looks and you can interact with it. On the left side you can see the thinking part. How ripplet is thinking whatever steps it's taking. It's actually working like a developer would in real life. We can also make changes. If you think I don't like this particular UI, you can change the UI. Ask it to add certain widgets or features that you like. So here I haven't just asked it to create the UI. We're also adding a user login and signup form. So when users come in, they can log in and sign up easily with their email and password where they can add their own resolutions and all of that information we're going to store in the database. And finally, when we're all set, we're even going to publish it, make it live, so anyone on the internet can access it. All of that can be done in Riplet. Now, see this over here? This is the free usage limit. You get daily agent credits. The agent is basically Replit's AI that understands all of this and does all the complex coding work for you. As you can see, 31% is already used. Now it's 51%. That's why I said you cannot build something very complex with the free plan because it will use up all the credits. That's why we asked it to keep everything lightweight. We are building an MVP. We don't need to get into complexities. But even though it doesn't look complex, it actually is quite heavy. We're adding a full gamified pixel style UI. On top of that, user login and sign up storing all that info into a database. If you look at it, that's literally a full stack web app. And we haven't written a single line of code. I just gave it my simple idea, created a PRD using chat GPT and copy pasted it into ripplet. And Replet is doing all the coding work for me. Okay, so it says your app has crashed. Debug with agent. Now this is really common. You can get errors, crash issues, and that's real. In real life, this happens and it's very normal. So, whenever you get an error, don't fear it. Don't think, "Oh, now it's over. " It's actually not. It's very real and it's part of the process. So, I just asked it to continue building. I didn't overthink it because I know the PRD is good and the agent is smart enough to understand most of the things. Okay, let's go. I have hit the limit building all of it, but I think it's good to go. So, I can put in my username and password. Let's see if it asks. Okay, error because I haven't created an account yet. So, first I'll go and create an account and then login. Now I can login over here. That is so cool. And hit start game. As you can see, hi Vive House is in. Okay, so we've created a bunch of quests over here. You can add more. And let's say I've hit my goal. And I've completed my goal of drinking 5 L of water. I just hit it and nice with an animation. And as you can see the streak, one out of two tasks done. And when I add one more, read 10 pages of a book. It's all doing it automatically. And the next day, if I've done my workout, I just hit it. And as you can see, it's all interactive. All I did was have a simple idea to create a 2,26 goals tracker. I had this idea to make it more gified, more fun, pixel style. Sad part is I hit the limit for the day. But that's the thing. This is quite a complex full stack web app. It has the UI, the functionality, all of it. And as you can see, in 15 hours and 31 minutes, the free credits will resume. From there, I can start making any changes I want and add more features. Now, what we're going to do is publish it so other people can use it. So, let's hit publish. Okay. Publish your app. As you can see, this is the free URL that's available. When you upgrade, you can choose any URL you want, but right now, this is what we have with the free plan. So, we'll just hit publish. Okay, so it's doing all the necessary checks and hygiene stuff before we're ready to publish, making sure we have no errors. So when we have this link live, anybody can easily access it and start using it for themselves. As you can see, production status is published. Congrats on publishing your app. All right, guys, you just created your own web app without writing a single line of code and it is live. You can share it with anyone and anyone on the internet can use it. I'll copy the link. I'll just go to one of my different accounts to test if it's actually working. I'll paste the link over here. All right, we are over here, guys. Okay, we'll test it. Now I'm going to create an account. Account has been creator and we'll now log in. Okay, we're over here. The same exact thing we had. Now I can add a goal. Sleep for 8 hours. Create. All right, created. What more can I add? Meditation 30 minutes. Now let's test if it's actually working. Okay, the progress bar has updated. One out of two done. How cool is that, right? Okay, so the free version was really, really great, but I'm here in an upgraded version of Riplet, the full access, and I just couldn't resist myself from showing you the other features it offers. The web app, as you know, we can keep building on that. But what if we vibe code a 3D game? You can literally build your own game just by typing your idea. For this, I'm not even going to go complex. No PRD, nothing. I'm just going to ask it. Players race through crazy obstacle courses, jumping, dodging, falling. First to finish wins. Just a simple oneliner game idea. Hit start and let's see what it builds. I'm really excited to see a 3D game. Like how crazy is that? Every one of us at some point in life has had a crazy game idea. But game development is super hard. With the upgraded plan, I don't even have to worry about credits. From here, I can keep adding different features, characters, functionalities. But I've given a very simple vague idea. I haven't mentioned what setup, what characters, if I want it photorealistic or animated. It's just going to assume. But that's the beauty. You can give it as much context as you want. Okay. Obstacle rush. Race through crazy obstacle courses. W A S D or arrows to move, space to jump. From a single prompt, it's given us the basic MVP prototype of the game. It's doing the physics. All of this stuff all for me. I didn't have to mention any of it. Everything is ready for us. Let's start the race and see if it actually works. I don't know how I'm going to jump through this. Restart. No, this is impossible. So, I encountered an issue. I'm going to ask it to fix this. Basically, the gap between the first obstacle is impossible to jump. So, I just mentioned it to Riplet and we'll wait. This is like an actual demo version that game developers would build in real life to start testing their game. Okay, I think it has done the changes. Let's start the race and see now. Okay, extremely better. Oh, now I actually land. I can move easily. I'm going to try and complete to win the game. Let's go. Another checkpoint. The green circles, those are actually checkpoints. It even created checkpoints for me. That's actually good because without checkpoints, I don't think I could ever complete this game. I need to reach the finish line. Oh, I need to go up and then jump. Checkpoint complete. Nice, nice. I can do it. Come on. Or I'm rage quitting. Sorry, guys. I can't handle it anymore. But that's the power of vibe coding. From a single sentence, we built a fully playable 3D game. And Replet even has a mobile app. You can download it on Android and iOS. That means you don't even need a laptop anymore. Create, share, and host web apps all from your mobile phone. That random idea that hits you at 2 a. m. You can start building it right there in your bed. Remember that SAS tool I built which you saw at the start of the video? Let me tell you how it happened. My team was spending hours every week researching and ideulating video topics manually. It was exhausting. I looked around for tools that could help but couldn't find anything useful. So I just decided to vibe code one myself using Riplet over the weekend. So basically what used to take a content team hours and hours of manual research for idea and topic generation, competitor analysis, all of that. I vibe coded a tool for that in an entire single weekend. As you can see, I literally used the same exact process I just showed you. Went to chat GPT, asked it to create a PRD, copy pasted it over here, and it started building. Then I started playing around with it. The prompts are really basic. I asked it to do different things, make changes, add functionalities, some widgets. I kept going on until I got the results I wanted. And as you can see, the tool is over here. I can find viral trending carousels, viral trending reals. I have a bunch of filters. I've given it a bunch of accounts from my niche that I want to track. The API is connected. The scraping is live. All of this is happening in real time. What used to take us hours and hours of manual searching now literally takes a few seconds. And look, dark mode, light mode. I still keep playing around with it, trying to improve it. If I see any other feature that could be integrated, I can keep adding. It's already published, so all my team uses it. When I showed this to creator friends, they immediately asked how much I was charging. They wanted to pay on the spot. That's when it hit me. This could be a real product. But this isn't just about money or apps. It's about leverage. Every time you think someone should build this, you're that someone now. Now that you have all the knowledge you need, here's what I want you to do. Go to any vibe coding platform of your choice and start building any idea that's on top of your mind. Start small. It doesn't have to be perfect. And when you get stuck, come back to this video and watch the particular section again. That's how you actually learn this stuff. Not by watching once, but by doing it over and over until it clicks. Stop waiting for the right time because it's right now. And we've just scratched the surface of VIP coding. There's so much more. Payment gateways, user authentication, and more. If you want a video on that, drop a comment below and I'll make it happen.