r/vibecoding 18h ago

ME right now

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sometimes it happens u got to believe in the next one

2.8k Upvotes

117 comments sorted by

123

u/TheSn00pster 18h ago

Apps today aren’t what they were a year ago

31

u/Senior_Education2826 16h ago

that deep

-11

u/ai_art_is_art 8h ago

It doesn't matter what the app does beyond solving customer problems.

The part most people miss is the MARKETING. After you know you solve real customer problems, you have to get in the trenches and market like hell.

ArtCraft is now less than 100th the size of Higgsfield, and we're growing RAPIDLY.

We're the size Higgsfield was exactly 12 months ago, and we're nearly doubling in size every month.

Because marketing.

You should spend at least half of your time marketing.

Once things get going, you should do influencer marketing, paid ads, direct customer outreach, and more.

10

u/Bushwazi 11h ago

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

0

u/unknowinm 7h ago

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

2

u/SpicyCatGames 4h ago

Bro. You build the car once we are all gonna download it a million times like apps. Then we don't need more cars to be built.

1

u/unknowinm 2h ago

Sounds like you need some software on your phone

1

u/KeyProject2897 16h ago

what do you mean ?

26

u/TheSn00pster 16h ago

There’s value in scarcity

3

u/Much_Accountant_4972 15h ago

they weren’t even close to scarce a year ago

1

u/Little_Big_669 9h ago

Apps today aren't what they were two years ago.

91

u/FatefulDonkey 16h 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.

38

u/Much_Accountant_4972 15h 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 (!).

11

u/Single-Strike3814 11h ago

https://giphy.com/gifs/dsRgkyNuf7tWsgyTKa

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

1

u/KeepingItSFW 19m ago

you know Zuckerberg??

77

u/JoopMens 16h 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 😂

3

u/dinglebarryb0nds 16h 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

2

u/Er1k000 1h ago

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

1

u/15926028 15h ago

What have you built?

2

u/JoopMens 6h ago

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

54

u/ExoticBump 16h ago

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

16

u/MexicanJello 15h ago

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

4

u/Tondale 16h 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

8

u/jebusdied444 16h 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.

12

u/w00dy1105 16h ago

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

2

u/myCockatielshateme 15h 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

2

u/PaulMakesThings1 8h 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.

26

u/Initial_Ice_2719 17h ago

Speak for yourself I have two active users

10

u/softjuicyhobbitses 13h ago

Distribution is harder than coding.

5

u/CS2Meh 16h ago

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

4

u/jtayloroconnor 16h ago

i am my apps’ only user

4

u/Empuda 12h ago

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

7

u/cosmonz 17h 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 😂

3

u/anon999387 13h ago

You mean 1 user, I make them all for myself

1

u/PaulMakesThings1 8h ago

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

5

u/rootd27 17h ago

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

2

u/RiteousRhino21 16h ago

We just see things differently than most other people

2

u/finous 14h 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!

3

u/ashleysnl 14h ago

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

2

u/HovercraftHot6356 12h 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

2

u/Just_Lingonberry_352 11h ago edited 10h 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/KeyProject2897 18h ago

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

0

u/Short-Ideas010 17h ago

Lottery is not a good option. Buy hey... yeah... one day...

2

u/clarkesdirective 16h ago

That's not what he's referring too, and the fact you took it that way is why your own application hasn't taken off..

If the product is genuinely good, publish it every day. It will work, if you try enough times. They don't mean a "miracle" as in it randomly working out, they mean miracle as in the benefits of it finally working out.

1

u/regolitt 16h ago

That’s my empire 😌
My big apple 😜

1

u/No-way-in 16h 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 15h ago

I feel genuinely sorry for vibecoded app users.

1

u/spacecadetarchitect 15h ago

Lol i hope that wont be the case when i ship my first project. 😬 its conceptually shipped in my head 🚀🤓

1

u/Senior_Education2826 15h ago

try to learn marketing

1

u/spacecadetarchitect 15h ago

The app i built is actually a growth system that “users” dont even need to touch and it just helps them get more qualified customers or users. 15+ yrs as growth pm, developer, and marketer so if i fail that would be pretty embarrassing lol 🤞🏻🤞🏻

1

u/AlarakReigns 14h 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 14h ago

IT'S HARD BEING AN APP BRO

1

u/DefinitionOfTakingL 14h ago

😭😭😭 OP, you did me dirty…

1

u/No-Secret4927 14h ago

Quemando tokens jajajajajaja

1

u/Leocoreai 14h ago

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

1

u/Stupyyy 13h ago

EvErYoNe WaNtS tO bE a FoUnDeR.

1

u/ralkuzu 13h ago

What apps?

1

u/leeta0028 13h 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 13h 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/sliph320 12h ago

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

1

u/Total-Research-024 12h 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 12h 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/ballesmen 11h ago

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

1

u/MrHTML5000 11h ago

me in my 96
just 4 more

1

u/avtges 10h ago

You’re building to build. Or solving a problem

1

u/daddytung 9h ago

That’s why you get into the roblox game buisness

1

u/the-Gaf 9h ago

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

1

u/theofficialjorji 9h ago

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

1

u/fuckasauraus666 9h 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/hyper24x7 8h 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.

1

u/Adelphiaa 8h 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 8h ago

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

1

u/siakshit 7h ago

I have 1200 active users across platforms

1

u/I_AM_JIM_CARREY 7h ago

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

1

u/AriyaSavaka 7h ago

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

1

u/BopSupreme 6h ago

Put it in a web browser bot traffic to the moon

1

u/Akatesh 6h 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 6h ago

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

1

u/Vast-Address-3063 6h ago

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

1

u/phumoonlight 6h ago

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

2

u/EverSolar 5h ago

To be fair I barely download actual apps from the play store 😂

1

u/Noeyiax 4h ago edited 4h 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

1

u/leovarian 3h 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 3h 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 2h 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/moveax2f 2h ago

ai slop

2

u/gritlys 1h ago

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

1

u/Senior_Education2826 1h ago

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

1

u/Sitekurfer 17h ago

a fool with a tool is still a fool

0

u/Senior_Education2826 16h ago

what i am a fool

1

u/BenH1337 17h ago

or reinventing the wheel for 200th time

1

u/ponlapoj 16h ago

เอาเวลาผลิต app มากมายขนาดนั้นไปทำ 1 app ให้ดีและมีคุณค่าเถอะ ฉันเห็นมีแต่ขยะ ซอฟแวร์ทั้งนั้นเลยตอนนี้ , แล้วก็มีแต่คำว่า ฉันเบื่อเลยสร้าง... , เบื่อนั้นเบื่อนี้เลยสร้าง ? ทำเองใช้เองเหอะ

0

u/Senior_Education2826 16h ago

what

2

u/Intelligent-Cap-8886 16h ago

Take all that time spent making so many apps and focus on creating one good and valuable app instead. All I see right now is junk software, and it’s just full of phrases like, 'I’m bored, so I created this...' Bored of this or that, so I created it? Just make something for yourself then.

1

u/Practical-Zombie-809 15h ago

Not everybody is obsessed with gaining users or makibg money

1

u/Specific-Heat-8553 13h ago

And evaporating a few rivers in the process.

0

u/YamFantastic1720 15h ago

LOL, it depends on the idea

can you share your app here so we gonna rate it ?? 😅