justmovetoeurope.com
Back to guide8 min read
Vibe Coding: Build Without Code
AI tools that let you go from idea to working product in hours. No engineering team required. Works the same in any European city.
What Is Vibe Coding?
Vibe coding is building software by describing what you want — in natural language — and letting AI generate the code. Andrej Karpathy coined the term in 2024. The idea: you iterate with an AI assistant instead of writing every line yourself. For founders without a technical co-founder, it's a way to ship an MVP before you hire.
AI Builders: Idea to Product
These tools let you describe an app and get a working prototype in the browser — no install required. Great for validating ideas, building landing pages, or shipping MVPs before you raise. Lovable and Bolt.new are full-stack; v0 generates UI components only, so pair it with a backend like Supabase.
AI Coding Assistants
Use these inside your editor or as a pair programmer. They help you write, debug, and refactor code faster. Cursor and Windsurf are full AI-first IDEs; Copilot gives inline suggestions in VS Code and other editors; Claude is a general assistant good for architecture and debugging. Warp is an AI-powered terminal — helpful if the command line feels intimidating.
Student Discounts & Free Tiers
If you're a student, you can stack serious discounts and free tiers. Many AI and dev tools offer student programs — use them before you graduate.
Note: ChatGPT has no permanent student discount; check their student page for occasional promos. Cursor's free year for students has usage limits that can run out with heavy use.
- GitHub Student Developer Pack – Free GitHub Premium, Copilot, and 100+ partner tools
- Google Gemini for Students – 1-year free trial of Google AI products
- ChatGPT – Student page (occasional promos, no permanent discount)
- LinkedIn Premium for Students – 12 months free with Microsoft 365
- Microsoft 365 + LinkedIn – Free for students (includes Copilot)
- Cursor – Free year for students (usage limits apply)
- AWS Educate – Free cloud credits and training for students
- Lovable – Free tier with limited daily usage
- Bolt.new – Free tier with limited daily usage
- Jules – Google's free AI coding agent
- Firebase Studio – Google's AI app builder, free
- Cline – Free VS Code extension, uses your own API keys
- Ollama – Run models locally, no API costs
- OpenRouter – Multi-model API with small daily free tier
Backend & Infrastructure
You need a database, auth, hosting, and — once you ship — analytics. Supabase and Convex give you database + auth in one; Vercel and Render handle hosting. PostHog tracks how users actually use your product.
- Supabase – PostgreSQL, auth, and storage in one (open-source)
- Convex – Reactive backend (database, auth, realtime). Pairs well with Lovable and Next.js
- Vercel – Deploy Next.js and React in seconds. Free tier, zero config
- Render – Hosting for static sites, web services, Postgres. Free tier, Heroku migration credits
- PostHog – Product analytics (open-source, free tier). See how users actually use your app
- Resend – Transactional email API. Simple, dev-friendly, free tier
Community & Inspiration
Connect with other builders, see what's shipping, and learn from the community. Hacker News has vibe coding discussions; Product Hunt shows what others are building; Indie Hackers has an active Europe group; X is where founders post build-in-public updates.
- •Search Hacker News for 'vibe coding' or 'AI coding' to find discussion threads.