What is vibe coding (and why it’s everywhere)?

Vibe coding is a term that started as an inside joke among developers—but it’s become a very real approach in many early-stage teams. It refers to building software without much structure, planning, or technical understanding—just vibes. “If it seems to work, ship it.”

With the rise of no-code platforms, AI code assistants, and plug-and-play SaaS tools, it’s easier than ever to get a working prototype up and running. You don’t need deep dev experience to build a landing page, hook up a form, or even generate functional code from a text prompt. And that’s exactly what makes vibe coding feel empowering. You can spin up a demo over the weekend. You can show stakeholders something that “works.” And if you’re moving fast, it seems like the smart thing to do. But under the surface? That’s where things get complicated.

The illusion of speed and what it hides underneath

Vibe coding is seductive because it looks like progress. You write a few prompts, click a few buttons, and suddenly—your app “works.” The form submits, the dashboard updates, the feature launches. It feels like you’re moving fast, and on the surface, everything seems functional. That illusion is what makes this trend so dangerous. More and more companies are now asking themselves: “Do we really need a dev team for this?” or “Why pay an agency when this tool already does what we need?” For small experiments or internal tools, maybe you don’t. But when your product becomes something customers rely on—when it has to scale, stay secure, and integrate with real systems—that’s when the cracks begin to show.

And security is usually the first thing to break. Most vibe-coded apps skip over essential layers of protection:

• no input validation
• no role-based permissions
• API keys and tokens hardcoded into client code
• no audit logs, rate limits, or error handling

Attackers don’t care whether your code was generated by AI or built from scratch—they care that it’s vulnerable. And when you’re rushing to ship, you don’t always know what’s missing until something breaks.

We’ve seen it happen: customer data exposed, admin access left open, billing APIs misconfigured, or critical actions unprotected. All because someone said, “It’s working—let’s not overcomplicate it.”

Vibe coding meets Dunning-Kruger

One of the most dangerous outcomes of vibe coding is overconfidence. When things appear to work, it’s easy to assume they’re solid. But that illusion often hides how shallow the implementation really is. This is a textbook example of the Dunning-Kruger effect where people with limited knowledge believe they’re more competent than they are.

We’ve heard founders say: “I built our MVP myself in two weeks. Why would I need engineers?” ‍

The app looks functional, but it’s usually missing the foundations real products depend on:

• clear architecture
• authentication and authorization
• structured data flow
• documentation and versioning
• test coverage
• long-term maintainability

And when teams do bring in developers later, those devs don’t want to improve the code. They want to throw it out and start over.

Why does vibe coding rarely survive in production?

Vibe coding can be an attractive solution. It’s fast, flexible, and feels creative. It can be great for hacking together a concept or showing a demo. But the moment your product enters the real world, when it touches live data, real users, payments, and performance requirements—that same looseness becomes a liability.

That’s where everything that was skipped starts catching up:

1. Security breaks down – no auth layers, no input validation, exposed APIs;
2. Maintenance is a nightmare – unclear logic, no documentation, one-person knowledge;
3. Performance tanks – code wasn’t tested under real load;
4. Scaling becomes impossible – the system was never designed for it.

At that point, patching doesn’t help. You don’t “refactor” this kind of system. You rebuild it from the ground up.

The real cost of “build fast and cheap”

The appeal of building fast and cheap is easy to understand—especially in early stages when budgets are tight and pressure is high. But the hidden costs rarely show up on the first invoice. They show up when things stop working.

Here’s what it really costs:

• Time – chasing bugs, rearchitecting logic, onboarding confused devs;
• Money – from refactors, lost users, missed opportunities;
• Team trust – when people lose confidence in the system, they start working around it;
• Momentum – progress slows because the foundation can’t support change.

By the time the true cost is clear, you’ve already spent more fixing the problem than you would’ve spent doing it right the first time.

So when does vibe coding make sense?

To be fair—vibe coding isn’t all bad. If you’re testing an idea, building a quick prototype, or validating a concept for investors, it can absolutely do the job. It’s fast, accessible, and, in some cases, the only viable option for early founders. It’s also a great way to learn. Experiment. Explore what’s possible.

But it’s not a production strategy. It’s not a foundation for growth. And it’s definitely not how you build something people will trust, pay for, and use every day. If your product is core to your business, it deserves more than good vibes. It deserves structure, ownership, and a team that understands what’s at stake.

A prototype proves the idea. A product earns the trust.

Speed is useful. But speed without structure isn’t a strategy, it’s improvisation. Vibe coding can help you get a demo in front of stakeholders or explore a new idea. But once it’s time to build something real, something that has to scale, evolve, and deliver value over time—that’s when the vibes run out.

If you’re ready to build something that lasts, you don’t need to move faster. You need to move smarter.

We can help you get there!

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