I tried “Vibe Coding” with AI and got this Result

Vibe coding is a term that were introduced in February 2025 by a computer scientist Andrej Karpathy, a co-founder of OpenAI and former AI leader at Tesla. It’s a real shift in how some developers now build digital products. You simply don’t have to open your code editor, write functions, fix syntax errors, and manually build UI blocks line by line. Instead, you write a “prompt (a clear instructions)” and then the AI does the coding while you guide the process with more text or image-based direction.

I recently tested this approach with Hostinger’s AI website builder called the “Horizons”. I wanted to see how far I could go using only prompts and guidance without writing codes from scratch, nor switching tabs between Figma and VS Code. Just me, my ideas, and the AI’s ability to execute those ideas.

I’ll be honest: I didn’t expect much.

But to my surprise, I built a fully functional web application starting from the UI layouts, responsive navigations, components, and even interactive features without touching a single line of raw code.

Now, let me walk you through what it was like, the good, the bad, and what I’d tell anyone thinking of trying vibe coding themselves.

What It’s Like to Build with Horizons AI

When I opened up Hostinger’s AI builder, the interface welcomed me with a single input bar asking, “What do you want to create?”

What I Actually Built with Horizons AI

Instead of building a simple portfolio site, I challenged the AI to help me build something more functional — a Social Media Sentiment Checker.

The goal was clear: I wanted a tool that could analyze keywords or posts from social media and return whether the sentiment was positive, negative, or neutral.

I started with a simple prompt:

“Build a social media sentiment checker that allows users to input a post or keyword and get sentiment feedback.”

Horizons generated the core structure within seconds — input fields, result display section, and basic UI components that looked clean and user-ready. I added further prompts like:

“Highlight sentiment results with color indicators.”
“Make the interface simple and mobile-friendly.”
“Add short descriptions explaining what each sentiment means.”

Each time, the AI updated the layout with precision.

While the app didn’t come out 100% polished, it gave me a solid functional base — one I could test, tweak, and even improve manually if needed. Most importantly, I didn’t touch a single line of raw code to get that far.

That experience alone showed me the real power of prompt-based development: It gives builders a working prototype in minutes, not days — even for tools more complex than landing pages.

The Things That Worked So Well (Pros)

Speed: There’s no comparison between traditional development and what Horizons offers in terms of speed. What might take hours or days using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript took me minutes.
UI design is effortless: All the Layouts, columns, buttons, responsiveness, and animations were all done instantly. No tinkering with margins, paddings, or breakpoints. Just text based prompts (and sometimes image screenshot prompts) and move on.
Great for ideation: Sometimes, I don’t want to build the full project I just want to test an idea visually. Horizons helped me spin up multiple versions of a site quickly.
Accessibility: You don’t need to be a senior developer to use this tool. If you know how to describe what you want clearly, you can build something useful.
Visual-first: Everything you build is live and previewable. It’s not like coding in the dark and hoping it works.

But There Were a lot of Frustrations (I call them the Cons)

There are a lot of limitations I faced which comes from the AI platform I used, and I’ll be highlighting just the major ones below. These parts actually made me question the concept of “vibe coding” or in particular, the Hostinger’s Horizon itself.

No real editing environment (IDE): Once the code is generated, you can’t jump into the backend (the frontend too) to tweak it directly. If there’s a small bug or improvement, you’re left with “trying to rephrase your prompt” and hope the AI interprets it correctly, and each single correction you requested must deduct the number of “messaging” you have left and if your messages is finished, you cannot request for any correction to the AI except you have to “UPGRADE YOUR MESSAGE” to continue prompting the AI.

Security isn’t guaranteed: Most of the AI-generated code is not hardened or optimized for real-world attacks. It’s very possible to end up with vulnerable code if you’re not careful or specific about security. Though, you can as well instruct the AI to implement “any possible” security measures to its code which the AI may not truly understand what type of security should be used at a particular point or feature.

Prompt fatigue: Sometimes, it takes multiple attempts to get things right. If your instruction isn’t clear or too broad, the AI might give you something completely different, and this aspect like I said previously, you must have messages left in your subscription so you can continue requesting for what you want to have.

Pricing model is tricky: This one hit me hard and probably a lot of other users of the platform. As a new user of the platform, Hostinger gives you 5 free messages per day for 7 days. After that got expired, its either you UPGRADE TO A PAID PLAN to have more messages. The cheapest is $9.99 for 50 messages. The downside? Once you exhaust that messages, you can’t just renew that same subscription plan — you have to move to the next tier (like $19.99 for 100 messages), and then higher, this seems to climb fast for those who likes to give multiple instructions per day, they can possibly exhaust over 100 messages in one sitting. That means the more you’re vibing with AI, the more expensive it gets.

It felt like I had to be careful with every word I typed and that I shouldn’t hit the ENTER button by mistake because it could cost me money. That pressure can slow down the creativity.

What You Can Build with Hostinger Horizons

Hostinger Horizons lets you create custom web applications using natural prompts instead of writing code. It’s designed for builders of all levels — whether you’re launching a simple project or trying out a new idea without getting into traditional development.

Here’s a breakdown examples of what users can build:

✅ Quick to Build and Publish

A time-tracking app that generates work hour reports
A digital business card you can access and share anytime (in form of a portfolio site)
A fitness tracking app that logs workouts and monitor progress
A budgeting tool that sorts expenses and shows spending trends

🟡 Requires More Setup and Prompt Precision

User login systems and account creation
Payment collection features with Stripe and PayPal integrations
AI-powered tools such as chatbots or content generators
Integrations with third-party services like emails, SMS, or APIs

🚫 What Isn’t Supported

Chrome extensions or desktop software
Mobile (Native) apps for iOS or Android stores
3D or complex games
Banking or trading apps that require financial compliance

Horizons works best for browser-based tools and lightweight business solutions. If your goal is to build something functional, quick, and presentable especially for the web, then this gives you a solid head start.

So, Should You Try Vibe Coding?

If you’re someone who builds or works often with clients, prototypes websites, or needs quick MVPs, then this is definitely worth exploring but you must take note of the Challenges or limitations I mentioned earlier but go in with your eyes open. It’s not a magic fix for everything. Think of it as your intern: It’s smart and fast but still needs guidance. You’ll still need to double-check the output, plan your ideas, its features and prompts very well and ahead of time, and possibly clean things up later with your own edits after Exporting your Entire project codes.

And if you’re someone who teaches, consults, or leads teams, etc… this tool can be a good teaching aid or collaboration starter. Let your students or team try their hand at writing prompts and observing how AI interprets logic and layout.

For agencies, vibe coding won’t replace full-stack development yet, but it can absolutely speed up MVPs, mockups, landing pages, and internal tools.

Final Thoughts

I walked into vibe coding with curiosity. I walked out with a web app. It wasn’t perfect, but it worked at the end of all the limitations I faced, it worked with an Increased budget on the costs of higher tier message subscription, domain and hosting.

That’s the thing — these tools aren’t here to make you obsolete. They’re here to work with you. And if you learn how to communicate with them clearly, you might end up doing more, faster, and with less stress. Will I replace my usual dev stack with Horizons? No!.

Will I use it again to spin up ideas quickly, test concepts, and visualize layouts without opening a code editor? Yes, I might try it again. This was my experience and it’s not a sponsored post nor a sales pitch. Just a regular builder sharing what it’s like using AI in a new way.

Michael Ibeh

Author

A tech-driven digital expert with interests in Artificial Intelligence and Web development delivering premium services for businesses worldwide.

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