Is vibe coding bad? Good for a prototype, risky as a product.
Not for what it’s good at. Vibe coding lets you test an idea in days for almost nothing. It goes wrong when a prototype quietly becomes the product, and real users trust it with their data and money before anyone has checked what the AI built.
Muhammad Ahmer ArshadFounder, Solutionaires. We audit and finish AI-built apps. Updated 4 November 2026.
The short answer.
Where it works
- Testing whether anyone wants the idea
- A clickable demo for investors or first users
- Internal tools that hold no sensitive data
- Working out what you need before you pay for a build
Where it goes wrong
- Real users log in and store their data
- It takes payments
- It holds personal, health or financial details
- Each fix you prompt breaks something else
The tool isn’t the problem. Launching what it built without anyone checking it is.
What vibe coding is.
Vibe coding means describing what you want in plain language and letting an AI tool write the code, without reading the code yourself. AI researcher Andrej Karpathy named it in February 2025, and Collins Dictionary made it its Word of the Year for 2025. Lovable, Bolt, v0, Replit, Cursor and Claude Code are the tools most people use.
It isn’t the same as a developer using AI. A developer reads, tests and owns every change the AI makes. In vibe coding nobody does, and that’s why it’s fast. It’s also why nearly 77% of developers in Stack Overflow’s 2025 survey said it isn’t part of their professional work.
What the research shows.
Four findings from the last 18 months, each linked to its source.
of AI-generated code samples had a security flaw when Veracode tested more than 100 AI models. Newer and bigger models weren’t more secure.
Veracode, July 2025Lovable projects were found with database tables anyone could read, because row-level security was missing. It became CVE-2025-48757.
Disclosed May 2025high-impact vulnerabilities and 400+ exposed secrets turned up in a scan of 5,600 public apps built on vibe coding platforms.
Escape, October 2025of developers say vibe coding isn’t part of their professional work, and 46% distrust the accuracy of AI tools’ output.
Stack Overflow survey, 49,000+ responses, 2025When the AI deletes the database
In July 2025, SaaStr founder Jason Lemkin was building an app with Replit’s AI agent. During a code freeze, the agent deleted the live database, holding records for more than 1,200 executives and 1,190 companies, then told him a rollback wouldn’t work. He recovered the data himself. Replit’s CEO called it unacceptable and added automatic separation of test and live databases. Fortune reported the details.
What breaks at launch.
AI tools build for “it works when I click it”. Launch needs “it fails safely when someone else pokes it”. These five are where the gap shows.
Logins
Who can sign in, how sessions end, and how a password gets reset. A demo only needs the happy path; a product needs the rest.
Database rules
Which user can read which rows. In Supabase this is row-level security, and without it, anyone with the public key can read every table.
Secrets
API keys for payments, email or AI models. If they sit in the code that runs in the browser, anyone can copy them and run up your bill.
Payments
Failed cards, refunds, cancelled plans and the webhooks that report them. A checkout that works once isn’t a billing system.
Backups
A copy of your data you can actually restore, and a test database kept apart from the live one, so a bad prompt can’t wipe real records.
Is your app still a prototype?
Six questions. The answer updates as you go.
0 of 6 answered. Your answer appears here.
How to vibe code safely.
Keep using the tools. Add these before real users arrive.
- Keep a test database apart from the live one, and point your AI tool at the test one.
- Turn on row-level security for every table, then check it by trying to read data while logged out.
- Keep API keys on the server side, never in the code the browser loads.
- Use your payment provider’s hosted checkout and check that its webhooks are verified.
- Turn on backups and restore one once, so you know it works before you need it.
- Have someone who reads code review it before real users, payments or personal data arrive.
Questions, answered.
Is vibe coding bad?
Not for what it’s good at. It’s a fast, cheap way to test an idea and show it to people. It becomes a problem when a vibe-coded prototype turns into the product real users trust with their data or money, without anyone checking the parts the AI got wrong.
Is vibe coding safe?
For a prototype with test data, usually yes. For a live app, not by default. Studies have found security flaws in close to half of AI-generated code, and the most common gaps are in logins, database rules and exposed API keys. A review before launch closes most of them.
Is vibe coding the future?
AI is already part of how most software gets written: 84% of developers in Stack Overflow’s 2025 survey use or plan to use AI tools. What’s changing is who writes the first version. Founders can now build a working prototype themselves, and developers spend more of their time checking and finishing it.
Can I launch a vibe-coded app?
Yes, once the parts real users depend on are checked: logins, database rules, secrets, payments and backups. Plenty of products start as AI-built prototypes. The risk is launching before anyone has looked at those five.
Is Lovable secure?
Lovable can produce a secure app, but it doesn’t guarantee one. In 2025, 170 Lovable projects were found with database tables open to anyone, because row-level security was missing. Check those rules on any Lovable app before it holds real user data. Here’s how to check Lovable and Supabase security.
Do I have to rebuild my vibe-coded app from scratch?
Usually not. Most of the screens and flows can stay. What gets rebuilt is usually underneath: the database rules, logins, payments and where the keys are kept. A review tells you which parts are safe to build on.
What’s the difference between vibe coding and AI-assisted coding?
In vibe coding, you describe what you want and accept the code without reading it. In AI-assisted coding, a developer uses the same tools but reads, tests and owns every change. The tools are the same; the review is the difference.
How much does it cost to fix a vibe-coded app?
It depends on what’s there. We start with an X-ray: a fixed-price code and security audit for $490, with results in 5 working days. After it, you get a fixed quote for the fixes, and the X-ray fee comes off that work if you go ahead within 60 days.
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