I ranked every AI Coder: Bolt vs. Cursor vs. Replit vs Lovable

okay Mickey what are we talking about today so today we're going to talk about uh what tool you can use to get what job done from the perspective of who you are as a person I think a lot of people have a lot of great videos especially on this channel on how to use the different tools to build but which one should you use that's what we're going to talk about this is this is the episode epod that everyone needs cuz we're all looking at these you know tweet threads that's like bolt is the new

repet replit is the new you know figma cursor is gonna kill this you know but we're just going to take an unbiased look um around the pros and cons of each AI coding tool and let you make the decision on what you should be using and why exactly and yeah so the tools I guess that we're going to talk about are are these bolt lovable v0 Tempo repet onlook wind surf cursor now I've used all of these tools um extensively I would like to say I've either paid for them or I have maxed out their

daily free tiers um quite often so I know there's probably other upand cominging tools that maybe people are talking about and like Greg said are tweet they're tweet threads uh but these are the ones I I can sort of feel comfortable sharing exactly uh what I think um Greg is that cool let's let's hit the let's go all right so there's a there's three big divisions or cohorts I like to think of there's the sort of no code you don't have to be technical to use this tool and then there are the middle ground tools

where you can be someone who doesn't know um how to program but you can also be someone who knows how to write code and the platforms work good for you and then there's the straight up technical AI tools right like wind Surf and cursor which are more so meant for developers and programmers but then you do have like the dudes like Riley who will Max use cursor like he was a developer but he's not so it doesn't mean you can't use any of these tools but I I would say that these tools are sort of

um for a specific person and that's what I'm going to share with you so there's two big things I think people need to think about when picking a tool control and how technical they are right if we were to map out all the tools in this like beautiful line chart uh that you know the further along the line we go the more control you have I would say lovable is at the left side where you don't have much control instead of in terms of like you can't really edit the code um and that is you

know I think that's purposely done and that's a feature in it of itself and if you're someone who's not technical at all or has no grasp of programming that that works well and then you have stuff like bolt and v0 which kind of give you access to the code you can tweak the code you can make changes repet I would say is more further than that because replic gives you more control in terms of like creating files and all that type all those type of things and then you have Tempo labs and onlook which I

know are not the most popular ones onlook is great for technical people or sem technical people who suck at design it's a great AI tool where you can like get your landing pages that look good done very well and you get the code and in Tempo Labs I would say is um like a lovable meets figma meets a code editor right and one of the big features I like about Tempo is that you kind of can edit the components and the pages like it was figma which is great and then the ultimate control obviously is

cursor and wind surf because you have access to the code right there you can change the code edit the code install packages however you want so you have to think of what level control are you Desiring and kind of guessing uh what Greg's audience looks like what most of you guys look like I would say you're somewhere in this feere right I don't I don't know if you're super technical so if someone wasn't super technical I wouldn't recommend cursor or wind surf but they but then again you have dudes like Riley who prove otherwise right

um I will say it will be more simpler experience using tools on this side of the spectrum so that's the first thing think about control and I know I briefly mentioned this but when you put yourself on a technical uh if you were to put yourself on a technical line um most people would land here on the left side so vzero repet Tempo Labs bolt Lev Bol you should not you you shouldn't have any issue using they're pretty straightforward and pretty simple onlook I would say is for the more technical semi technical people and then

cursor and wind surf is for the technical folks but then again if you are someone who's non technical you can definitely use cursor and winds surf but be ready to experience a lot of pain a lot of blocks a lot of debugging um and probably a lot of reading and trying to understand how certain things work right and I just want to make this disclaimer again so nobody hates me just because you're not technical it doesn't mean you can't use any of these tools you can use whatever you want it's a free World um but

I would sort of stick to this side of things um does that make sense so far Greg before I continue on like the technical and control aspect it it really does um but I have a question quick break in the Pod to tell you a little bit about startup Empire so startup Empire is my private membership where it's a bunch of people like me like you who want to build out their startup ideas now they're looking for content to help accelerate that they're looking for potential co-founders they're looking for uh tutorials from people like me

to come in and tell them how do you do email marketing how do you build an audience how do you go viral on Twitter all these different things that's exactly what startup Empire is and it's for people who want to start a startup but are looking for ideas or it's for people who have a startup but just they're not seeing the traction uh that they need so you can check out the link to Startup empire.co in the description so one of the one of the most common things people tell me is they say great great

there's all these AI coding tools um they're good enough to get a prototype out the door but they're not good enough to create a product in production that people are going to use with respect to all these different AI coding products that you have on the screen are there any ones that are particularly Better or Worse to create production level product because timately I think that the people listening to this like they've got ideas and they want to put their ideas out in the world yeah so if I were to to answer your question none

of them are at 100% there but there are some that there are some that are very close I would say uh Temple Labs is pretty close repet is pretty close uh Bolton lovable are sort of headed there and then with cursor and wind surf if you are willing to go through the pains you can definitely make uh production applications the issue is here the or the way I would think about it is like this none of the tools are there yet I cannot confidently say you can build something to production easily simply without a ton

of roadblocks a ton of headaches a ton of pain and suffering I'll just be honest and can it in that way but there are tools that are pretty close and my point here is I think investing in knowing how these tools work playing with them building many projects and is is an asset because once these tools get to that point you'll be the first in line to know how to get these things to production so repet I think is great Tempo Labs I think is great bolt and lovable um I think they're great as well

I would definitely give repet and Temple Labs The Edge a bit more in terms of production applications but they also have sort of their downside right so I would stick to these four um rep and Tempo labs having the edge but the reason why I'm not confident um saying oh only use this specific one is because one of these guys might drop an update tomorrow and it changes the game right so it's none of these tools are there yet but I implore you to continue to learn to continue you know using these tools get getting

you know building some side projects right one of the things I might be uh going a little ahead because I do have some more stuff to share but one of the things um I share that as a as a developer especially one Who develops a lot of web stuff one of the things that web developers mostly do when they test out a new framework is they build out a simple app like a simple to-do list like to-do list is kind of the standard where like let's say some company drops a framework or some guy open

sources a framework the best way to test it is just let's build a to-do list app let's see how easy it was was it a great experience that I did I run into roadblocks and if I did how easy was it to fix I think people need to experience that for themselves with these tools uh but in my humble opinion I would give it to repet and Tempo laps right now I appreciate that yep and I think if we continue down because I have a lot of uh mini charts here and you know I I

hope people are appreciating the Artistry I think understanding which tool which tool belongs is is perfect for which person is important so I have this like line once side is non-technical the other side is Technical and the in the Middle Point is non-technical with product skills and simply what I mean by that is you like Tech but you're non-technical um and the non-technical with product skills is the type of person who would go to the Apple website and consider it art because of how things beautifully animate you appreciate the fine little details on any website

app or SAS and then the further end of the spectrum is you're a nerd you're a technical person and honestly I would put someone at like Riley on this side cuz he is willing to bash through cursor and get something done so respects to him for that so if I were to map out all these tools I would say if you're someone who's non-technical all the way to you appreciate fine animations lovable bolt Tempo labs are perfect for you but if you're someone who maybe itches towards the technical side or even this you have design

skills you know how to use figma I think these skills are very important and tools like bolt and tempo would be great for you but if you're more on the technical side um all the way to someone who's non-technical with product skills cursor and wind Surfer are great and then onlook I would say is more so for just technical people um very important again to experiment with all these tools most of these tools have generous free tiers uh but this is what I think uh in terms of when I think of people and profiles and

even the way a lot of these products are marketing themselves it seems to me that these are the people they're reaching out to and it and it's best to sort of align yourself um with those products now more classification um I have CDs code gen and deploy so basically platform that can generate the code for you and deploy you have lovable bolt rep v0 but then there are tools that are code gen they generate the code but are also code editor and repet gets added into here uh bolt is in here vzer is in here

and then we have wind Surfer and cursor cursor Tempo labs is Coden code editor and figma which I like which I wish more tools sort of focused on I would love to be able to tweak individual components the way people use figma but their deployment is not there yet they only have preview deployments uh which is why it doesn't have a CD and then you have cd Plus Code editor which you have repet bolt and VZ the reason why I give you these classifications is sort of I want you to understand um where you are

as a person like if you're someone who just wants to like just type something and see what it builds Bol lovable great have fun but if you kind of know a little bit of what you want um and there are certain intricacies you want to focus on you want some more fine grain control I would enter the repet tempo sort of sphere and then if you want the ultimate control be ready for pain win Surfer and cursor now given those categorizations it wouldn't be fun if I didn't say who's better at what right um and

again please no trouble I love all these guys I love all these companies I've talked with every team on this so there's you know no shade nothing please just in advance it's love it's all love right it's all love and and everyone can win everyone can make money everyone can win everyone can exit you know I'm I'm all I'm here for everyone but I will say some tools are better than others for example Integrations lovables killing it right and you know integrating with stripe is very easy with super base is very easy um there are

certain packages and tools that they've integrated with that a lot of users might not know because they're not developers but they've used extern they've uh integrated with external packages very well I would say lovable is definitely number one there replate is you know a close second although lovables margin I would say is pretty high and then you have Tempo labs and then bolts one field that a lot of the tools on focus on that again I the reason why I put Tempo and repet as the production one is because of collaboration more times than not

you might be working with somebody else maybe it's two of you maybe it's three of you maybe there's uh one person who's more on the technical side um and but you're still non Technical and then there's one person who's more of the designer right Tempo labs and repet are greater collaboration um i' give Tempo The Edge and then in terms of deployment lovable repet bolt excellent deployment experience um there isn't any big difference to be honest they all do the job I would give Tempo um the the the other tools have uh a ledge over

Tempo because Temple only does preview deployments but I've talked with the team they're working on uh production deployments and then last but not least control like who gives you like fine grain control when you build stuff Tempo is in the lead repits second and then bolt and lovable I would give Bolt the edge a bit more just because you can edit the code there with lovable you have to connect to GitHub and then you'd have to do that on GitHub so these are sort of the rankings I would give uh again all tools all the

tools are great get the job but some have the edge over another um should uh I continue on which is better or there any questions so far Greg what about pricing that's that's that's that's a great point and I was going to bring that up but I noticed all of them have the same base pricing it's 20 or $30 the starter uh amount like the first initial tier and then they go up 50 130 and then some of them have more expensive tiers here's a great secret all of them have great free tiers right and

some of them have daily caps weekly caps just play around that right play around that explore test all these different tools and then whatever tool makes sense for you you can then choose to upgrade but for example lovable and bolt 20 bucks 20 bucks Tempo I think 30 repet I won recall exactly but they're all in the same like 20 to 30 to $40 range my thing would be they all have a very rich um like they have good enough free tiers use those free tiers um test them out see which one you like best

and whichever one you want to upgrade with you can upgrade with but that's essentially what I did at first I just used every free tier and like I even had a chart I wish I saved it but I deleted it I had a chart of when I can expect one uh tool to max out tokens and stuff so you could be very creative with this I don't want anyone to just pay for something uh just because I said it's good use the free tier come with your own conclusions U hopefully that makes sense one more

thing so I did a video with amjad the CEO of repet and he was showcasing repet agent I think it's called MH um thoughts on so some of these tools have agents quote unquote I know that's a hype term right now some of them I guess don't any thoughts on agents and the role of agents in AI coding platforms yeah so I think it really depends like for example cursor has agent wind surf has Cascade basically an agent I think what it depends on is how much um how much of what you want do you

know right for example if I go on um repet let's say I use repet agent or I use cursor agent and then I use something like uh maybe Tempo or like Bolt the agent the the the the tools with the agent term will be useful in scenarios where I don't really know what I want so I'll say create a to-do list app with repet agent maybe creates all the different functionalities and then versus with Tempo it'll create a layout and then it'll ask you what's next right so I think the big difference is is how

much information do you have with the product that you want to build and um how much control and power do you want to have right at the end of the day all of them use the same AI um uh they use the same AI products right they all using Claude or maybe some have used are starting to use deep seek deep seek so in terms of that Arena there's not much of a difference but you will see maybe repet agent or cursor agent output be much more finished and much more complete uh versus the other

tools and the question that someone needs to ask themselves is how much of what I want to build do I know right so let's say I want to build a to-do list app do I have colors in mind do I have functionality in mind what kind of animations do I want to see do I want them grouped by weeks by day like or do I just want to create a to-do list app I think that difference um if you're someone who just hey I just want to test it out let's see what's up agent great

cursor agent great but if you know exactly what you want it doesn't really matter per se okay so so which is better so what's better um again I highly suggest you know at the end of the day I'm just some random guy with a fresh fade I would highly suggest that you use every tools free tier and build a simple to-do list app just build something simple doesn't have to be crazy you don't have to build the next AI product build a simple to-do list app and invite evaluated how was your experience did you like

having a lot of control did you hate having a lot of control because control is not for everybody did you like the assumptions the AI product was making for you or do you want to be able to tell it exactly what to do right play with all these tools but what I would recommend is if you're a non-technical person you're getting started you got some ideas you're a great idea guy and you just want to shoot some ideas out lovable bolt great if you're a technical person and you like to code wind Surfer cursor great

if you're Technical and you don't want to you don't want to code but you want control replic Tempo and bolt great if you're a non-technical person but are product minded and want control meaning you use figma you are about like you use like storyboard and you like design components and stuff like that or you're very intricate with certain things or you want full access with the full product cycle Tempo is great but at the end of the day you can use any of them even if you're non technical you can use cursor and wind surf

make stuff happen I do think a lot of these tools are targeting different people and who whichever person you are aligning yourself with those tools make sense especially as they get better none of them are perfect none of them I think at this very moment can build uh full grade production applications um they're close I would say some are 70 80% there if you're using cursor wind Surfer it's completely up to the person uh uh but it would make sense to align yourself with these companies build using their tools because they're getting there they're getting

the funding they're building and when they're ready you'll be ready and I'm excited to see what you ship and that's pretty much what I got for us today Greg a short but sweet one beautiful so I'm curious in the comment section please let us know what you're playing with what you like what you don't like I read every single comment and I'm curious um and if you're more curious about this sort of stuff and you want to get deeper I highly recommend Ross Mike's YouTube channel I'll includ it in the show notes you can go

find more about him there and on X um and uh and that's the Pod really you know hope hope it's been helpful of course and Greg as always been I appreciate you and to anyone who because there are some people I don't know Greg there are some people who picked teams there are the bolt Builders there's The Lovable Builders like there's there's these Clans and I just want to say I want no smoke with anybody I all the tools all the all all the builders are great I'm just sharing information from my personal experience I

just want to give that thumbs up ahead of time you're just a random guy with a fresh fade trying to give some valuable information you know that's it that's that's literally it yeah no I I we appreciate you uh I speak on behalf of the whole startup ideas podcast audience we appreciate you thanks for coming on thank you for having means the world