The top vibe coding tools for 2026: From AI assistants to enterprise app builders

Software engineers use codegen tools to write algorithms faster. Semi-technical teams in data and operations use AppGen tools to prototype ideas overnight. Your ops team might need an admin panel connected to a production PostgreSQL instance. Your data team needs a dashboard that talks to Salesforce. This proliferation of tools can make it hard to pick the best one for the job at hand, but in this post, we'll look through the current market leaders and the use cases for which each one excels.

This guide breaks down the solutions into three categories:

These tools live in your IDE or terminal. Instead of building complete apps, they help you write code faster. Pragmatic engineers and software engineers working in complex codebases use codegen tools to refactor authentication systems, explore unfamiliar code, and generate boilerplate without manual typing. These are professionals who need to speed up syntax generation but still want full control over the codebase.

Codegen tools integrate directly into your development environment. They provide autocomplete suggestions as you type, make changes across multiple files when you describe what you want, and connect to your existing workflows. You’re still building the application yourself. Deployment, database connections, and infrastructure remain your responsibility.

Cursor is a Visual Studio Code fork built for AI-powered development. You can use it to refactor features, explore unfamiliar code, or even generate new functionality automatically.

Best for: Engineers who don't want to leave the IDE behind entirely and want greater visibility into changes, plus some of the familiar guardrails IDEs provide.

Tab predicts multi-line edits as you type, suggests jumps to related locations in your codebase, and adds import statements when you reference functions from other files.

The Cursor Agent reads your codebase, makes changes across multiple files, and runs terminal commands. You describe what you want changed, and it executes. The Cursor CLI brings this capability to your terminal for interactive sessions or CI pipeline integration.

Cursor supports Claude, GPT, Gemini, and Grok. You can even switch models mid-conversation, which can help you optimize the output based on the context, and Privacy Mode prevents data retention through AI providers, keeping your proprietary code private.

GitHub Copilot works as an extension in your existing editor, and can be used for code completion, multi-file edits, and even pull request automation.

Best for: Teams already using GitHub who want seamless integration with their existing workflow, plus cross-editor support for JetBrains, Xcode, and more.

Copilot provides autocomplete suggestions as you type and conversational help through Copilot Chat. Copilot Edits handles refactoring across multiple files, which helps when migrating database code or updating authentication patterns.

Copilot connects to GitHub features, including pull request summaries, code review, and a coding agent that can be assigned issues, make changes, and open PRs. The Copilot CLI brings AI to your terminal for command syntax help and GitHub interactions.

Copilot supports JetBrains IDEs, Xcode, Vim, Neovim, Eclipse, and both Microsoft’s Visual Studio and Visual Studio Code. Paid tiers include Claude, GPT, and Gemini models. Premium requests provide access to more capable models.

Claude Code is Anthropic’s terminal-based coding agent. In addition to refactoring, debugging, and codebase exploration, you can also pipe log files to it for analysis, chain it into build scripts, or add it to your CI pipelines.

Best for: Developers who prefer working in the terminal and need an AI coding agent that can analyze codebases thoroughly before making changes, with strong planning capabilities.

Plan Mode analyzes your codebase before making changes. Ask it to refactor a block of code, and it will explore the current implementation, identify affected files, and present a migration strategy. This lets you avoid any obvious bugs that the AI codegen might introduce.

Custom subagents can be used to handle specific workflows as well. You can create a “code reviewer” that runs after every change or a “debugger” specialized in running root cause analysis.

Agent Skills let you package team workflows (including code review checklists, commit message templates, and debugging procedures) into reusable capabilities that live in your repository. That way, when your teammates need to follow the same process, they invoke the skill rather than re-explaining the workflow.

The Model Context Protocol (MCP) connects Claude Code to GitHub, Sentry, Slack, Figma, databases, and other development tools. This allows you to send a prompt like the following to Claude Code, and it will handle the workflow across multiple systems:

Implement the feature in JIRA-123 and create a PR

Windsurf is Codeium’s Visual Studio Code-based IDE. While similar to Cursor, Windsurf has tried to differentiate itself by including more comprehensive project awareness and AI-based workflows from the start. In practice, this means you might need to adjust your workflow a bit more to get the most out of Windsurf, but it could lead to greater efficiency gains in the long-run.

Best for: Engineers willing to adjust their workflow for comprehensive project awareness and autonomous multi-file editing with background planning agents.

Cascade operates in two modes: in Code mode, it makes autonomous changes, and in Chat mode, it answers questions. When you edit code mid-task and tell Cascade to continue, it resumes with full context. For multi-file operations, Cascade uses a background planning agent that maintains a task list and updates its strategy as it works, but you can also create checkpoints to revert to in case it botches something along the way.

Workflows allow you to automate repetitive processes (such as standardizing commit formats, running tests, fixing errors, and deploying services) by saving them as markdown files that you invoke with slash commands. This gives you similar reusability to Claude Skills.

Windsurf runs its own SWE-1 and SWE-1.5 models built for coding tasks. You can also opt to use Claude, GPT, Gemini, and other models through a credit system. Windsurf’s MCP support also connects it to GitHub, Figma, databases, and other dev tools to make integrated workflows easier.

App generation tools take a different approach than code generation tools. This class of AI tools lets you describe what you want in natural language, and then the tool will attempt to generate an entire running application.

Typically, AppGen tools handle the complete development workflow in your browser. They provision hosting, create databases, generate authentication flows, and deploy your app automatically, so there’s no IDE to set up, dependencies to manage, or deployment configuration to worry about.

Semi-technical domain experts in data and operations teams who understand business logic but may lack deep coding experience can use AppGen tools to go from concept to working prototype overnight. Designers prototyping interfaces and developers building hackathon projects also find these tools valuable, but as anyone who's tried these tools will tell you, they often have some considerable limitations. They typically don't have robust security measures built in by default, and the resulting apps may have performance or functionality issues that are subtle and hard to fix with the AI alone.

In enterprise environments, these tools can create “shadow IT” challenges. They generate code that platform teams can't easily govern, secure, or maintain. While they're excellent for rapid prototyping, the apps they produce often need significant reworking before they're ready for production use with real customer data.

Bolt.new from StackBlitz is great for prototyping web apps that you’ll later hand off to a development team. Like the others on this list, it’s browser-based and lets you describe your app in text, outputting a frontend and backend code base that you can preview live as you build. But, once you want to set up a real database connection or production-ready security, you’ll want to export the code and hand it off to a real developer.

Best for: Rapid prototyping of web apps that you'll hand off to developers, especially when you need instant infrastructure without any local setup.

Bolt uses WebContainers to run Node.js entirely in the browser. Your app executes in an isolated environment without downloading anything to your machine or requiring any local setup. You could even run it from your phone.

Bolt Cloud handles hosting, databases, domains, and authentication. When your app needs a database, Bolt creates one. Prompt for user authentication, and Bolt generates sign-up, login, and password-reset flows. Bolt’s Stripe integration generates checkout flows and subscription management for testing payment workflows.

Bolt has also been working on their refinement features that use a Claude Agent to iteratively refine your apps:

Lovable is the most visual-native of the tools on this list, allowing you to generate full-stack web apps from text, Figma screenshots, or rough sketches. Designers and semi-technical team members can use Lovable to turn mockups into working prototypes easily, but because the code is more abstracted away, it can be harder to make small, line-level modifications in their interface.

Best for: Designers and semi-technical team members who want to turn Figma mockups or sketches into prototypes—with the option to export the underlying code for further development.

Visual editing lets you click UI elements and describe changes without writing code. Upload Figma screenshots or sketches, and Lovable generates the corresponding React and TypeScript code with Tailwind CSS and shadcn/ui.

In Agent mode, Lovable makes autonomous changes. It explores your codebase, debugs by inspecting logs and network activity, searches the web for documentation, and generates images. Chat mode helps you plan without modifying code, and when you’re ready, Chat mode hands off the work to Agent mode for implementation.

Lovable Cloud provides hosting, databases, authentication, file storage, and serverless functions. It runs on Supabase, and you can connect an existing Supabase instance to a Lovable app. Other integrations include Stripe, Resend, and MCP servers for connecting Linear, Notion, and Jira during development.

Replit is a browser-based IDE that has also introduced AI AppGen features in the past two years. Replit’s core use case has always been developers working on hobby projects, but it’s also good for less technical users building prototypes. Once you’ve got the project started, Replit’s full-featured IDE makes it easy to hand off to a developer to finish off with production-ready features.

Best for: Developers working on hobby projects or teams building prototypes that need a full-featured IDE for handoff to development.

Replit Agent builds apps from text descriptions. Choose Design & Iterate for prototyping or Build Full App for a complete minimum viable product (MVP). Agent handles environment setup, dependencies, databases, authentication, and APIs like Stripe. Then, App Testing spins up a browser so the AI can test its own work, which can be pretty useful for cutting down on bugs (although you’ll definitely still want to test things manually).

Finally, MCP support connects your workflow to Linear, Notion, Jira, and other tools that your team or devs might be using.

Replit also includes a Publishing feature that lets you take your app live in just a few clicks. There are four deployment types depending on what you’re building:

As you build, you can share a Join Link to enable real-time code collaboration with teammates, or you can share your app to the public for others to view, run, or remix. Replit also has a mobile app, so you can even work and deploy from your phone or tablet.

v0 from Vercel generates full-stack Next.js apps from text prompts, screenshots, or Figma files. v0 is especially useful for frontend developers or product managers who may be familiar with Vercel, JavaScript, or some frontend code, but aren’t really comfortable enough to build a full-stack web app, or want a prototype they can hand off to their backend team.

Best for: Frontend developers or product managers familiar with the Vercel ecosystem who want to generate Next.js apps with seamless deployment integration.

v0 generates Next.js apps with React and Tailwind directly on Vercel’s infrastructure. This means that as soon as you generate an app, you’re working with your deployment platform, so database integrations, environment variables, and deployment settings carry over from development to production.

The v0 agent can search the web for documentation, inspect live sites, and detect errors, essentially acting as your hands while building, and MCP integrations connect to services like Stripe or Supabase to enhance app functionality.

v0 offers one-click database integrations for popular providers, including Neon, Supabase, Upstash, and Vercel Blob. The platform provisions accounts, adds environment variables, and generates SQL queries automatically. Finally, Deployment publishes apps to Vercel with content delivery network (CDN) distribution and automatic HTTPS, so you can either show off your prototype or go live to the public from one interface.

While codegen tools can help engineers be more productive, and AppGen tools can help less technical builders prototype, what if you're looking for something that combines ease of use with security and robustness that's enterprise-ready?

Traditional enterprise low-code platforms like Mendix, OutSystems, and Microsoft PowerApps have long served the internal tools market. They provide governance, security, and scalability for building production applications. However, these platforms were built before the AI era. They lack the natural language app generation and conversational development capabilities that define vibe coding.

When your data, engineering, or operations teams want to combine the speed of AI-powered development with enterprise-grade security and governance, you need a platform built for both. That's where Retool fits in.

Retool brings vibe coding to enterprise environments by combining natural language development with the guardrails enterprises require. Unlike AppGen prototyping tools or pre-AI low-code platforms, Retool is built for production apps from day one. It runs on your data, in your cloud, secure by default.

For Operations teams: Build tools in days without waiting months for engineering capacity. Unblock operational velocity by creating your own apps while platform engineers maintain governance through centralized access controls.

For Data teams: Move beyond read-only dashboards to operational apps that write back to databases. Transform data insights into actions without learning full-stack development.

For Platform Engineers: Get the speed of vibe coding with the control you need. Built-in RBAC, SSO, Git integration, and audit logs mean teams can self-serve without creating shadow IT.

You describe what you need in plain language, Retool generates the app, and it's already connected to production data with proper security and governance configured.

Best for: Engineering, data, and operations teams who need production-ready internal tools with enterprise security, governance, and connections to real production databases from day one.

Retool operates on your data, in your cloud, secure by default. Deploy to your own infrastructure or use Retool Cloud. You're LLM-agnostic. Connect to any model provider including OpenAI, Anthropic, or your own self-hosted models. This means you maintain control over where your data lives and which AI services you use.

Retool connects to over 50 integrations that your teams actually use, including PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB, Salesforce, Stripe, and Twilio. Connect any REST API, GraphQL endpoint, or SOAP service. When you generate an app, it comes with production database connections, LLM integrations, and access controls already configured.

SOC 2 compliance, granular RBAC, and audit logs are built into the platform from day one. When your security team asks who accessed customer data or what an agent did and why, the logs show the full history:

You get maintainable, governed software that passes security review, not throwaway scripts or ungoverned "share links."

With agents, you can build AI assistants that access your internal systems by describing what you need. The Configuration Assistant drafts the agent's instructions, proposes the right tools, and configures behavioral parameters without code.

Agents operate through a think → act → observe loop. They evaluate context, call a tool (for example, a database query, API endpoint, or custom workflow), incorporate the results, and repeat until completion. This loop handles complex multi-step processes like processing purchase orders, qualifying sales leads, or automating chargeback disputes.

For example, you can build a workflow that triggers when a Stripe chargeback arrives. From there, an agent can gather evidence from your customer relationship management (CRM) system and usage logs, analyze transaction patterns, build a rebuttal with supporting documentation, and submit the defense autonomously.

As you’ve seen in this article, there are a lot of vibe coding tools available for a range of use cases. Each tool solves different problems, but here’s a brief summary of how all the tools we looked at in this piece compare.

Engineers deep in complex codebases can use Cursor or Copilot to build new features, refactor code, or explore an unfamiliar codebase.

Semi-technical team members in data and operations validating ideas or designers building prototypes can use Bolt or Lovable to spin up prototypes without needing to manage infrastructure or backend code. They often hand off these prototypes to engineering teams for production implementation.

Finally, data, engineering, and operations teams can use Retool when prototypes need to be production-ready and properly secured. Retool lets you apply vibe coding workflows to production data, and you can get started with Retool for free.