Can a newbie really vibe code an app? I tried Cursor and Replit to find out

A reviewer tests multiple AI coding tools—Cursor, Replit, Visual Studio with GitHub Copilot, and Lovable—to build a text analysis app, finding strong automation for setup but significant hurdles such as unreliable chat history, terminal dependence, credit/paywall constraints, cloud data exposure concerns, and file parsing issues. After several attempts, a minimum viable product emerges using Lovable and Gemini pulling text from Algolia, yet the experience underscores that real progress still demands programming knowledge, product-thinking, and ongoing manual refinement; AI tools help, but they don’t replace human coders or product teams.