Okay, Mickey, what are we talking about today? So today we're going to talk about 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. The start of my discordance It's different time, baby. This is the episode that everyone needs, because we're all looking at these tweet threads that's like, bolt is the new replica. Replit is the new Figma. Cursor is going to kill this, you know? But we're just going to take an unbiased look 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 these, bolts, lovable, V0, tempo, replit, on look, windsurf, cursor.
Now, I've used all of these tools extensively. I would like to say I've either paid for them or I have maxed out their daily free tiers quite often. So I know there's probably other up and coming tools that maybe people are talking about and like Greg said, are tweet threads. But these are the ones I can sort of feel comfortable sharing exactly what I think. Greg, is that cool? Let's hit the. Let's go. All right, so 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 how to program, but you can also be someone who knows how to write code. And these platforms are good for you.
And then there's this straight up technical AI tools, right? Like windsurf 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 would say that these tools are sort of 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 that, you know, the farther 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.
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 works well. And then you have stuff like both and V zero, which kind of give you access to the code. You can tweak the code. You can make changes. Replied, 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 on look, which I know are not the most popular ones. On look is great for technical people or semi technical people who suck at design.
这段话的大致意思是:
我认为这是有意为之,这本身就是一个特点。如果你完全不是技术人员或者对编程没有概念,那也挺好。然后你有一些像 both 和 V zero 这样的工具,它们让你可以访问代码,进行修改和调整。我觉得 Reply 走得更远,因为 Replic 给你更多的控制权,比如创建文件等等。而 Tempo Labs 和 On Look —— 我知道它们不是最流行的工具。On Look 对于那些在设计方面欠缺的技术人员或半技术人员来说是很好的选择。
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 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 windsurf 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 what Greg's audience looks like, what most of you guys look like. I would say you're somewhere in this sphere, right? I don't know if you're super technical. So if someone was in super technical, I wouldn't recommend cursor or windsurf. But then again, you have dudes like Riley who prove otherwise, right? 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, if you were to put yourself on a technical line, most people would land here on the left side. So V0, Reppler, Tempo Labs, Bold, Lovable, you shouldn't have any issue using. They're pretty straightforward and pretty simple. On look, I would say is for the more technical, semi, technical people and then cursor and windsurf is for the technical folks.
But then again, if you are someone who's non-technical, you can definitely use cursor and windsurf, but be ready to experience a lot of pain, a lot of blocks, a lot of debugging, and probably a lot of reading and trying to understand how certain things work, right? And I just wanna 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, but I would sort of stick to this side of things.
Does that make sense so far, Greg, before I continue on, like the technical and control aspect? It really does, 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 wanna 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 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 wanna 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 that they need. So you can check out the link to startup empire.co in the description. So one of the most common things people tell me is, they say, great, great, there's all these AI coding tools. 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 gonna use.
这段话的中文翻译是:这适合想创业但在寻找点子的人,或者是那些已经创业但尚未获得所需发展势头的人。你可以查看描述中提到的 startup empire.co 链接。人们常对我说的一件事情是,他们表示:“很好,很好,有很多 AI 编程工具。它们足够好,可以让我们做出原型,但还不足以开发出能够投入生产、被人们使用的产品。”
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 products? Cause ultimately I think that the people listening to this, like they've got ideas and they wanna put their ideas out in the world. Yeah, so if I were to answer your question, none of them are at 100% there, but there are some that are very close. I would say, Temple Labs is pretty close, Replet is pretty close, Bolton, Loveable are sort of headed there. And then with Kerst-Ran Windsurf, if you are willing to go through the pains, you can definitely make production applications. The issue is here, or the way I would think about it is like this.
None of the tools are there again. 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 mini projects, is an asset because once these tools get to that point, you'll be the first in line to know how to get these these productions.
So, Replet I think is great. Temple Labs, I think is great. Bolton, Loveable, I think they're great as well. I would definitely give Replet and Temple Labs the edge a bit more in terms of production applications, but they also have sort of their downsides, right? So, I would stick to these four. Replet and Temple Labs having the edge. But the reason why I'm not confident 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, none of these tools are there yet, but I implore you to continue to learn, to continue using these tools, getting, building some side projects, right?
One of the things I might be going a little ahead because I do have some more stuff to share, but one of the things I share that 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 opensource is 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, but in my humble opinion, I would give it to Repplin and Temple Labs right now. I appreciate that. Yup. And I think if we continue down, because I have a lot of mini charts here, and I hope people are appreciating the artistry, I think understanding which tool, which tool belongs is perfect for which person is important.
So I have this like line, one side is non-technical, the other side is technical, and 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. 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 SaaS. And then the further end of the spectrum is you're a nerdier technical person. And honestly, I would put someone like Riley on this side, cause he is willing to bash them cursor and get something done, so respects to them 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, Temple Labs were 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 Temple Labs would be great for you. But if you're more on the technical side, all the way to someone who's non-technical with product skills, cursor and windsurfer are great. And then on look, I would say is more so for just technical people.
Very important again, to experiment with all these tools. Most of these tools have generous free tiers. But this is what I think 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's best to sort of align yourselves with those products. Now, more classification. I have CDS code gen and deploy, so basically platform that can generate the code for you and deploy. You have lovable bolt, Replet V0. But then there are tools that are code gen they generate the code, but are also code editor.
And Replet gets added into here. Bolt is in here, V0 is in here, and then we have windsurfer and cursor. Temple Labs is code gen, 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, which is why it doesn't have a CD. And then you have CD plus code editor, which you have Replet, Bolt, and V0. The reason why I give you these classifications is sort of, I want you to understand where you are as a person.
Like if you're someone who just wants to like, just type something and see what it builds, Bolt, lovable, great, have fun. But if you kind of know a little bit of what you want, and there are certain intricacies you want to focus on, you want some more fine grain control, I would enter the Replet Temple sort of sphere. And then if you want the ultimate control, be ready for pain, windsurfer and cursor. Now, given those categorizations, it wouldn't be fun if I didn't say who's better at what, right? 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 no shade, nothing, please, just in advance. It's love. It's all love, right? It's all love. And everyone can win. Everyone can make money. Everyone can win. Everyone can exit. I'm here for everyone. But I will say some tools are better than others. For example, integrations, loveables kill it, right? And integrating with Stripe is very easy. With Superbase is very easy. 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 integrated with external packages very well. I would say loveables definitely number one there. Replet is a close second, although loveables margin, I would say is pretty high. And then you have tempo labs and then bolts.
One feel that a lot of the tools on focus on that, again, the reason why I put tempo and replet 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 one person who's more on the technical side. But you're still not technical. And then there's one person who's more of the designer, right?
Tempo labs and replet are great collaboration. I give tempo the edge. And then in terms of deployment, lovable, replet, bolt, excellent deployment experience, there isn't any big difference. To be honest, they all do the job. I would give tempo. The other tools have a ledge over tempo because tempo only does preview deployments, but I've talked with the team. They're working on production deployments. And then last but not least control. Like who gives you fine grain control when you build stuff? Tempo is in the lead, replet second. And then bolt and lovable, I would give both of 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.
Again, all tools, all the tools are great. We get the job, but some have the edge over another. I continue on which is better or any questions so far, Grant. What about pricing? 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 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. Replet, I don't 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, like they have good enough free tiers. Use those free tiers, test them out, see which one you like best, and whichever one you wanna 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 tool, max out tokens and stuff. So you could be very creative with this. I don't want anyone to just pay for something just because I said it's good. Use the free tier, come with your own conclusions. Hopefully that makes sense.
One more thing. So I did a video with Anjad, the CEO of Replet, and he was showcasing Replet Agent, I think it's called. 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, windsurf has cascade, basically an agent. I think what it depends on is how much of what you want do you know, right? For example, if I go on, let's say I use Replet Agent or I use cursor agent, and then I use something like maybe tempo or like bolts, the agent, 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 with stop. With Replet 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 how much information do you have with the product that you want to build? And how much control and power do you want to have, right? At the end of the day, all of them use the same AI, they use the same AI products, right? They all use in cloud, or maybe some have used, are starting to use deep-seak, deep-seak.
So in terms of that arena, there's not much of a difference, but you will see maybe Replet Agent or cursor agents output be much more finished and much more complete 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 it to do with stop. Do I have colors of mine? Do I have functionality in mine? 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, if you're someone who just, hey, I just want to test it out, let's see what's up, Replet Agent, great, cursor agent, great. But if you know exactly what you want, it doesn't really matter per se.
OK, so which is better? So what's better? 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 tool's 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 evaluate it. 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 that 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 ask some ideas. You're a great idea guy. You just want to shoot some ideas out. Loveable, bold, great. If you're a technical person and you like to code, WinSurferCursorGreat. If you're a technical and you don't want to code, but you want control, Replic Tempo and BoldGreat. If you're a non-technical person but are product-minded and want control, meaning you use Figma, you are about, you use Storyboard and you 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 WinSurfer, make stuff happen. I do think a lot of these tools are targeting different people and whichever person you are aligning yourself with those tools makes sense, especially as they get better. None of them are perfect. None of them, I think, at this very moment, can build full grade production applications. They're close. I would say some are 70%, 80% there. If you're using cursor and WinSurfer, it's completely up to the person. But it would make sense to align yourself with these companies, build using their tools because 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. They're short but sweet one. Beautiful. So I'm curious in the comments 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. 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, including the show notes. You can go find more about him there and on X. And that's the pod, really. Hope it's been helpful. Of course, and Greg, as always, we now appreciate you and to anyone who, because there are some people, I don't know, Greg, there are some people who've picked teams. There are the bold builders. There's the lovable builders. Like there's these clans. And I just want to say I want no smoke with everybody. I want the tools. 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 literally it.
这就是我今天为我们准备的内容,Greg。虽然短小但很甜美。太好了。我很好奇,请在评论区告诉我们你在玩些什么,喜欢什么,不喜欢什么。我会阅读每一条评论,我很好奇。如果你对这些东西更感兴趣并且想更深入了解的话,我强烈推荐 Ross Mike 的 YouTube 频道,包括他的节目注释。你可以去那里和 X 上找到更多关于他的内容。就这样,希望对你有帮助。当然,Greg,一如既往,我们非常感谢你,以及所有因为某些原因选择了团队的人。我不认识具体有些人,Greg,有些人加入了勇敢建设者阵营,还有人是可爱建设者一派,像是这些阵营。我只是想说,我跟大家没有任何竞争,我支持所有工具。所有的建设者都很棒,我只是在分享一些个人经验的信息。我只是想提前给出一个点赞。你只是一个有着清爽发型的普通人,试图分享一些有价值的信息,仅此而已,真的就是这样。
Yeah, no, I, we appreciate you. I speak on behalf of the whole startup ideas podcast. Audience, we appreciate you. Thanks for coming on. Thank you for having me. It's the world. Step in time, baby. Let's break our heads. Step in time, baby.