I did something similar—built my first three apps this year! I relied on Cursor to guide me through all the programming, hosting, and launching (felt a bit silly, but it worked! 😄).
Just curious—would you say Replit is basically "no-code" and similar to Lovable? (No judgment on either, just genuinely curious!)
I haven't used Lovable and only seen demos. But I wouldn't really call Replit no-code at all. Yes the agent is helpful, can write code but you're still working in editor with access to the code base. You can edit the code and see the diff as agent makes changes. In fact, I highly recommend it.
Agent is also expensive (0.25 per change), so it's better if I learn to make some minor updates on my own.
Good post. I’ve had similar experiences and am a huge fan of Replit. I have found the built in database to work fine for deployed apps
And DEFINITELY agree on the time taken for the initial build vs tweaking. But I suppose with most things, the last 10% is the hardest part - and perhaps the most important
Thanks Peter! Yeah, I loved the all-in-one approach of Replit. My only pet peeve is the separation of the database for dev vs prod. Otherwise, it did a fine job for a few apps I built.
It's unfathomable I got that far on multiple apps in one weekend. My workflow changed from "I have an idea, let me note it down" to "I have an idea, let me create it"
So when you create an app and run it in Replit, it uses a database. Let's call that "development" version. Note the "replit.dev" in the app url.
But when you hit "Deploy" it's actually now production. Note it has another url and you can even connect your own domain. This is for real uers. So I expect it to use it another database -- a production version. That way when I first run and test it, it doesn't pollute the data in production.
The UI design looks awesome!
I did something similar—built my first three apps this year! I relied on Cursor to guide me through all the programming, hosting, and launching (felt a bit silly, but it worked! 😄).
Just curious—would you say Replit is basically "no-code" and similar to Lovable? (No judgment on either, just genuinely curious!)
Thanks for the feedback.
I haven't used Lovable and only seen demos. But I wouldn't really call Replit no-code at all. Yes the agent is helpful, can write code but you're still working in editor with access to the code base. You can edit the code and see the diff as agent makes changes. In fact, I highly recommend it.
Agent is also expensive (0.25 per change), so it's better if I learn to make some minor updates on my own.
I completely agree with you on that! Agents are expensive, and I can handle small changes myself. :)
Good post. I’ve had similar experiences and am a huge fan of Replit. I have found the built in database to work fine for deployed apps
And DEFINITELY agree on the time taken for the initial build vs tweaking. But I suppose with most things, the last 10% is the hardest part - and perhaps the most important
Thanks Peter! Yeah, I loved the all-in-one approach of Replit. My only pet peeve is the separation of the database for dev vs prod. Otherwise, it did a fine job for a few apps I built.
It's unfathomable I got that far on multiple apps in one weekend. My workflow changed from "I have an idea, let me note it down" to "I have an idea, let me create it"
Oh yeah - it’s insane. Can you explain the database issue a little more? Remember I am not formally educated in software engineering!
So when you create an app and run it in Replit, it uses a database. Let's call that "development" version. Note the "replit.dev" in the app url.
But when you hit "Deploy" it's actually now production. Note it has another url and you can even connect your own domain. This is for real uers. So I expect it to use it another database -- a production version. That way when I first run and test it, it doesn't pollute the data in production.
Makes sense - thanks!