20 Amazing Vibe Coding Tools Everyone Needs To Know About

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Welcome to the world of vibe coding, where anyone has the power to create any type of software they can think of simply by describing what they want it to do.

That’s the theory, at least. In practice, vibe coding isn’t about replacing professional developers. It’s about new ways of experimenting, prototyping and testing ideas.

There are already a huge (and growing) number of vibe coding tools and platforms available, all of which promise to let anyone create applications and tools regardless of their level of technical knowledge.

In reality, although there’s a great deal of overlap, they all also have comparative strengths and weaknesses. So, here’s my practical overview of the best-in-class platforms and applications that every vibe coder should have on their radar today.

Chat-Based Vibe Coding

You will probably already be familiar with these, as they’re some of the most popular AI tools and also happen to be very capable when it comes to generating code. If you just want to spin up quick automations, prototypes or proofs of concepts, one of these may be all you need. The other categories of tools covered here, however, may offer more structured, integrated or collaborative environments for more serious vibe coding.

ChatGPT: The chatbot that kicked off the generative AI craze remains a capable vibe coding tool, well-suited to spinning up lightweight prototypes and proofs of concept. Paying subscribers also get access to Codex, a code-focused AI agent built for more structured software engineering tasks.

Claude: Anthropic’s Claude chatbot is renowned for its strong reasoning capabilities and a long context window, making it suitable for creating complex tools and apps.

Gemini: Google’s all-purpose genAI chatbot is among the most powerful coding engines available. It’s particularly suited to building automations and applications that integrate with Google’s Workspace and Cloud platforms.

Perplexity: Primarily known as a genAI-based search engine, Perplexity has also become popular as a tool for vibe coding research-focused applications, due to its ability to combine real-time data retrieval with code generation.

Integrated Coding Tools

These live directly inside an integrated development environment (IDE) used by professional coders when they build software. This can make them a little more complex to get to grips with, as you’ll need a basic understanding of how to operate the IDE. However, they are more suited to larger, more complex projects that require a more robust process and structure.

Github Copilot: This is an AI coding assistant that sits inside development environments such as Microsoft’s Visual Studio Code and generates code in real time. It’s particularly useful for building prototypes that might eventually mature into more complete, structured applications, as it accelerates software engineering workflows, such as debugging and version control, from the get-go.

Cursor: Rather than integrating with existing IDEs, Cursor provides its own AI-native IDE, enabling vibe coders to generate, refactor and debug code within its environment. Cursor is capable of understanding entire codebases and maintaining context across large projects.

Replit: Browser-based development platform with a native IDE and built-in AI coding assistant. Also includes Replit Agent functionality that launches and tests its work in a browser, automatically making corrections until it works as intended.

Claude Code: A more expensive, integrated version of the Claude chatbot, specifically designed for coding tasks. Claude Code is regarded as one of the most capable genAI coding platforms, regularly topping benchmark tables that evaluate models based on how well they can solve real-world coding problems.

AI-Enhanced App Builders

I’ve put platforms that combine visual app-building environments specifically tailored to creating stand-alone software tools into this category. They are designed to be highly user-friendly and easy to pick up and get started with.

Bubble: Visual web app builder combining drag-and-drop design with genAI workflows, making it possible to create entire apps within one platform.

Webflow: Webflow is primarily used for designing and building websites and web applications, with AI features that make it simple to generate layouts, content and styling. Good for making polished, customer-facing prototypes with a very customized look and feel.

Glide: Glide is specifically meant for creating applications from spreadsheets. If you already have a lot of data in Excel or Google Sheets, this makes it one of the quickest and easiest ways to get it into highly customized dashboards or CRMs and transform it into actionable insights.

Retool: Builds apps that connect directly to internal data, letting you create robust internal applications with no coding knowledge and without having to build complex backend infrastructure to manage data retrieval.

AI-Augmented Low-Code/No-Code Platforms

These platforms offer visual building interfaces that let you piece applications or automation workflows together from pre-built components within a visual interface, while genAI takes care of the logic.

Microsoft Power Apps: Build secure, data-driven apps and automation workflows within the Microsoft 365 ecosystem, using Copilot to generate forms, UIs and logic with natural language prompts.

Airtable: Blends spreadsheet and database functionality with a no-code building interface, letting you

Salesforce Agentforce/ Flows: Flows provides a visual no-code environment for building and automating structured business workflows inside the Agentforce ecosystem. Not the most quick-and-simple option for most, this one is really for professional-vibe coders who need an enterprise-grade solution with secure guardrails and data-protection functionality baked in.

Appsheet: No-code app and automation builder that can take data from Google apps (as well as many others) and turn it into fully-functioning applications without any need to write code.

Integration And Automation Platforms

These are tools generally used to connect things together. They’re frequently used for creating lightweight business automations, but also have a place in more complex vibe coding projects, where they act as the “glue” between different apps, APIs, and data sources.

Zapier: Makes it simple for vibe coders to connect together apps that don’t natively communicate with each other, so they can share data and create integrated workflows.

Make: Another visual automation platform for connecting apps and APIs, slightly more complex than Zapier but enabling more customized workflows.

N8N: A more technical, open-source option, offering code-based and no-code options for connecting over 500 apps with each other or with internal or external data sources. This platform can be self-hosted as well as accessed as a cloud service, for projects that require on-premises security.

Pipedream: Connect services and build workflows using visual steps or AI-generated custom code. Pipedream has agentic functionality that enables it to solve multi-step problems to fulfill user requests.

Vibe coding is still evolving fast, and the tools available today are only the beginning. The winners in this space will be the platforms that make software creation more accessible, more reliable and more useful in real business settings, which is why understanding the strengths of each option now could give individuals and organizations a valuable head start.

About Bernard Marr

Bernard Marr is a world-renowned futurist, influencer, and thought leader in business and technology. He is a best-selling author of over 20 books, writes a regular column for Forbes and advises and coaches many of the world’s best-known organisations.

He has a combined following of over 5 million people across his social media channels and newsletters and was ranked by LinkedIn as one of the top 5 business influencers in the world. Bernard’s latest books are ‘Generative AI in Practice’ and ‘AI Strategy’.