Heavy usage costs and price hikes are driving users away from vibe coding startups
The AI-driven vibe coding trend—where users can build apps or websites with simple text prompts—appears to be cooling after months of explosive growth, according to Barclays’ research.
The study reveals a decline in traffic on popular platforms, including Lovable, Replit, Bolt.new, and Vercel’s v0, which saw a surge in users this summer.
Most of these startups hyped their annual recurring revenue (ARR), which is usually based on monthly income streams. They relied on short-term subscribers, but now high churn rates (the percentage rate at which customers stop subscribing) are undermining their strong ARR claims.
Heavy usage costs and price hikes have also driven users away. Lovable hit $100 million ARR in June; it is now down 40%. v0 has seen visits drop 64% since May, while Bolt.new witnessed a decline of 27% since June.
Analysts warn that the slowing traffic raises doubts about the sustainability of these platforms’ revenues.
Despite the slump, Barclays says vibe coding is still in its early stages. Traditional firms like Wix, which recently acquired AI-based website builder Base44, and GoDaddy continue to explore the space.