5 Reasons the Vibe Coding Trend Is Here to Stay (And Base44 Is Proof)

This article is sponsored by Base44.

If you've been on the internet lately, you've likely come across at least one video or blog post with some variation of this title: How I Built a $10K/mo App in Only 3 Hours. With so many people jumping on the vibe coding trend and writing these types of clickbait claims, you might have the impression that this is just another passing fad. That’s understandable, but it couldn’t be further from the truth.

Behind the clickbait, something more durable is happening. AI app builders, which are a type of vibe-coding tool that turns plain-language prompts into working software, have become functional enough that real businesses are running on the apps they produce.

The human builders using these tools are also increasingly the kind of people who wouldn't have shipped software otherwise, and most of them aren’t making YouTube videos about how they built a profitable app in only 3 hours. They’re quietly solving niche problems, getting paid for it, and they’re not going anywhere.

The same is true of developers and of established companies like Wix, which have leaned hard into vibe coding. 

All of these signals are moving down a one-way street, and it's not in the direction of “passing trend.” Let’s take a closer look at the five reasons why vibe coding is here to stay.

1. The tools have crossed the "good enough" threshold

I first started vibe coding in the summer of 2024 — before the term “vibe coding” was even born. Since that time, the idea of what’s possible has exponentially increased, while the barriers to entry have decreased. There are two main reasons for this:

1. Large language models (LLMs), which serve as the “brain” of all modern AI tools and form the foundation of vibe coding, have been steadily improving.
2. The introduction of AI app builders transformed AI-assisted development from something that primarily allowed existing developers to work faster into something that even a layperson could do. They’ve also been improving alongside the LLMs that power them.

Before the emergence of AI app builders, users with no development experience attempted to vibe-code apps with LLM tools like Claude or ChatGPT, but more often than not, the end result was nothing more than an aesthetic demo with serious issues under the hood. With some minor exceptions (especially for simple apps), it turns out that being able to generate code (with an LLM tool) without understanding all the other intangibles that go into development could only get you so far.

Nowadays, thanks to some of the better AI app builders available, beginners no longer have to worry about security checks, role-based access controls, third-party integrations, and the many other blind spots that a non-technical user typically has. AI app builders handle all those complex tasks automatically.

Take, for example, Base44. A new vibe coder who might otherwise make the faux pas of leaving their API keys exposed won’t end up shipping their app that way because Base44 will flag it and fix it.

If you read that last sentence and said to yourself: What’s an API key? That’s precisely the point. In the pre-AI-builder days, not knowing that could've gotten you in trouble. As it stands now, it's still good to know, but you don't need to know it to safely ship something useful.

These types of structural features, where Base44 automatically fills in non-technical user knowledge gaps, are precisely why it has an overall rating of 4.9 in my Base44 review. Most importantly, it’s been battle-tested in the real world, and the real world has responded with validation. Let’s look at that next.

2. Non-technical people are building real things

InkSplit.com and TransoraTMS.com are two websites that couldn’t be any more different from each other. The former is a browser-based color separation tool built specifically for screen printers, while the latter is a transportation management system built for small freight carriers. They serve two completely different demographics and solve completely different problems.

However, they share two things in common: they both have paying customers, and they were both built by small business owners using an AI app builder — Base44, to be specific.

They aren’t one-offs either. If you check Reddit, you’ll find many regular people sharing how they were able to actualize their ideas with Base44 to either become new founders or to help grow their existing businesses.[1][2][3]

Three to four years ago, there were no such conversations, and neither of these projects would have been possible without a substantial upfront cash investment. The demos alone would have cost in the thousands to produce. Fast forward to today, and a savvy business owner or an aspiring entrepreneur can drop $40/mo on Base44’s Builder plan and build something within a week or two.

What's changed since early 2025 is how close we've gotten to the "anyone can do this" promise that's been the marketing undercurrent of AI app builders since they came on the scene.

To be clear, the learning curve hasn’t reached absolute zero. However, it’s gotten awfully close. Still, setting aside a few minutes to read my step-by-step guides on how to use an AI app builder and how to vibe code will go a long way to helping a first-timer build a successful project. Choosing the right tool for the job will also influence the outcome.

As I mentioned, Base44 is a great choice — especially for beginners — because it is both capable and user-friendly. Not to mention it’s backed by Wix. Speaking of which…

3. Enterprise-backing signals legitimacy

At this point, you might already be convinced that vibe coding isn't going anywhere. As we've established, the tools have continued to improve and are now capable of powering real businesses, and real people have built profitable apps with them.

These reasons are compelling, but there's a third validation signal coming from an entirely different corner: large, established companies. When big-name brands like Wix start acquiring smaller businesses in a space or begin building out their own solutions, it's one of the most reliable indicators that a technology has moved past the range of "possibly a trend, continue to monitor."

Wix built its reputation and, by extension, business on being known as an accessible, but actually good web-building alternative to more complicated content management systems like WordPress, Joomla, and others.

Needless to say, after roughly two decades in business, the company knows a thing or two about successfully disrupting an industry. So when it announced in June 2025 that it was buying a six-month-old startup called Base44, the industry took notice.[4]

What makes the Base44 story so remarkable is that it began as a bootstrapped side project that, within months, exploded into a full-fledged business with 250,000 users and roughly $189,000 in monthly revenue.[5]

Wix saw the writing on the wall and decided that $80 million in cash up front with additional performance bonuses was worth the investment.[5] So far, the bet has paid off for everyone involved, with Base44 hitting $100 million in Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) just nine months after the deal closed, and the founder on track to receive another $90 million in bonuses.[6][7]

Any single one of these stats is loud on its own, but collectively they scream “we’re in this for the long haul.”

4. Builders are solving specific problems for overlooked audiences

Earlier, I introduced InkSplit and TransoraTMS as proof that real people are shipping profitable apps with AI app builders. However, there's a second point buried in those examples. I only briefly touched upon it before, but it’s a heavy part of this conversation. It’s that people using AI app builders today are no longer only building simple tools like calculators, measurement converters, basic to-do apps, and so on.

The contemporary vibe coder is aiming higher, hitting more specific targets, and solving problems for audiences that software companies have traditionally ignored.

Take TransoraTMS again. Its founder is an Ontario-based freight broker who vibe coded a transportation management system for his own industry on Base44 — a build he's described publicly across multiple founder forums. He had no formal development background. What he had was deep knowledge of the customers he was building for, and now serves a few hundred paying carriers.

InkSplit follows the same pattern from a different angle. Its founder is a screen printer who built a browser-based color separation tool for other screen printers.

Both founders solved a problem they understood more deeply than any developer would have in the pre-vibe-coding era. On top of that, their vibe-coded tools address niche needs that no software company would ever have put in their development pipeline.

Neither would have existed three years ago without serious upfront investment. In fact, they probably wouldn't have existed at all because the audiences weren’t (and still aren’t) large enough to justify the expense.

All that’s irrelevant now.

The people using AI app builders to create solutions for audiences nobody else would serve aren't going back to “the old days” because there's nothing for them to go back to.

Their previous choices were to hire a developer they couldn't afford, learn to code when they didn't want to, or watch their idea die in a Notes app.

Most people picked the third option. Now there's a fourth.

5. Professional developers have adopted vibe coding en masse

The last signal that solidifies why vibe coding is not just a trend comes from the most emotionally and professionally invested group: developers.

As insiders, developers have had the most intense discussions and the widest range of opinions on the topic. Publicly, they've also been among vibe coding's most vocal critics. Their core concerns have been legitimate, though. Particularly in the early days, when the tools weren't as good as they are today.

Far too many non-developers shipped apps without understanding their own code, or rather, the code that was produced for them based on their prompts. This introduced security vulnerabilities, bloated code, and technical debt that quietly accumulated across the web.

Even in organizations where vibe coding was done by professionals, the technical debt could not be ignored. A 2025 survey of over 500 engineering leaders found that 67% of developers reported spending more time (than before) debugging AI-generated code.[8]

Despite all their complaining, arguing in Reddit threads, and passive-aggressive LinkedIn comments, developers have chosen to walk down the vibe coding path anyway.

According to the 2026 State of Code Developer Survey:

• 72% of developers who have tried AI coding tools now use them every day.
• In 2023, developers reported that just 6% of their committed code was AI-generated or assisted, but by 2025 that figure had jumped to 42%. Developers self-predict that it will reach 65% by 2027.[9]

All this data is moving in one direction. When the group with the most professional reason to resist vibe coding is instead building their entire workflow around it, that's the clearest signal of all that it isn't going anywhere.

Anno Vibe Codici. Welcome to the vibe code era.

This is just the beginning, but choose your tool carefully

Small business owners with limited budgets and real problems probably predate the advent of currency. The only difference now is that AI app builders have empowered them to build real solutions to their problems instead of just living with them.

The good news is that, as much as vibe coding has exploded in popularity, we are still very much at the beginning of it. This means there are still lots of problems waiting to be solved, and where there are problems, there are opportunities to make money by solving them.

On the flip side, we’re also living through an AI gold rush, and because of the early success of tools like Base44, the market has been flooded with copycats. That’s not to say Base44 is the only legitimate app builder, of course. There are others. However, when you're thinking about your project's longevity, consider whether the tool you choose will still be around when the gold rush winds down.

The smart move is to choose an app builder with institutional backing that provides real code security and has a track record of users actually shipping with it. This way, you’ll have unofficial insurance that your codebase won’t get stuck on an abandoned platform and that the code you ship will have been scanned against known vulnerabilities.

Bottom line

What's happening with vibe coding is a revolution on par with what streaming did to the music industry. In the pre-2000s, aspiring musicians had to go through gatekeepers to get their records heard. With the introduction of streaming, those walls were dismantled. Even though the gatekeepers didn't disappear entirely, they no longer had the only set of keys.

Vibe coding is software’s streaming moment, and AI app builders like Base44 are performing the same function that Spotify, YouTube, and other platforms have been doing for musicians. The parallels are clear, and as the underlying technology continues to improve, the success stories will only multiply.

In that sense, vibe coding is a trend, albeit an upward one, not a fleeting one.

If you’ve read this far, then you’ve probably got an itch you want to scratch. Here are some next steps:

• If you want the easiest entry point, read my full Base44 review for more details or head to Base44 to get started building.
• You can also check out the budgeting app I built with Base44 for a real-world vibe coding example.
• Explore my roundup of the best AI app builders to see how Base44 compares to other top vibe coding tools.

FAQs

This article is sponsored by Base44.