How Much Does Vibe Coding Cost?
Real Numbers for Every Approach
The cost of vibe coding tools is remarkably low. Lovable, Bolt, and v0 by Vercel all have free tiers. Paid plans typically run £15–£50 per month. The real cost question is not the tool — it is the total cost of building, deploying, and maintaining your product. Here is the honest breakdown.
Talk to an ExpertWhat vibe coding actually costs
The direct costs of vibe coding tools in 2025 are low by any measure: Lovable: Free tier available. Pro plan from approximately £15–£20/month. Enterprise pricing for teams. Bolt: Free credits on sign-up. Usage-based pricing for heavy builds. Cursor: Free tier, Pro at approximately £15/month. v0 by Vercel: Free tier, monthly credits for heavier usage. Supabase: Free tier generous enough for most MVPs; paid plans from £20/month at scale. Vercel: Free hosting for most small apps; Pro from £15/month for production use. Stripe: No monthly fee — 1.5% + 20p per transaction in the UK. The total tool cost for a solo builder running a SaaS MVP on this stack: approximately £30–£70 per month. Compare that to the £2,000–£5,000 monthly cost of a junior developer.
Lovable Pro: ~£15–£20/month; Cursor Pro: ~£15/month; Supabase: free to £20+/month
Vercel: free for most MVPs; Pro £15/month for production use
Stripe: no monthly fee, 1.5% + 20p per UK transaction
Total tool stack cost: £30–£70/month for a typical solo SaaS build
How vibe coding costs compare to the alternatives
Tool cost is only one part of the total cost equation. The more important comparison is total cost to build, including time. Traditional agency: £25,000–£80,000 for an MVP, 3–6 months delivery. Traditional freelancer: £8,000–£25,000 for an MVP, 6–12 weeks delivery. Greta's vibe-coding-with-engineering-review approach: £3,000–£8,000 for an MVP, 5–7 days delivery. Self-build with vibe coding tools: £100–£500 in tool costs, 2–6 weeks of your own time. The self-build option looks cheapest until you account for the opportunity cost of your time and the risk of security gaps or architectural mistakes that require expensive remediation.
Traditional agency: £25k–£80k, 3–6 months — highest cost, slowest delivery
Traditional freelancer: £8k–£25k, 6–12 weeks — middle cost, variable quality
Greta (vibe coding + engineering review): £3k–£8k, 5–7 days — fast, production-safe
Self-build: £100–£500 tools + your own time — cheapest direct cost, highest time investment
How to estimate the real cost of your build
Use this framework to calculate total cost before choosing your approach:
Step 1 — Estimate your build complexity: Simple (1–3 screens) / Medium (4–8 screens + auth) / Complex (multi-role, payments, integrations)
Step 2 — Calculate self-build time: Simple: 1–2 weeks. Medium: 3–6 weeks. Complex: 8–16 weeks. Multiply by your hourly value
Step 3 — Add tool costs: £30–£70/month × build duration
Step 4 — Add ongoing infrastructure: Supabase + Vercel + Stripe (transaction fees) = £40–£100/month at small scale
Step 5 — Add risk cost: What is the cost of a security incident or a major rebuild? Weight this by probability
Step 6 — Compare to Greta: Fixed-price, production-safe, delivered in a week — often cheaper than 4 weeks of your own time
Real cost examples from actual builds
These are representative costs from builds completed in 2024–2025.
Simple landing page with lead capture: £0 tool cost (Framer free tier) + 4 hours of builder time
SaaS MVP with auth, subscription, and dashboard: £150 tool costs + 3 weeks of builder time, or £4,500 with Greta in 7 days
Internal tool with database and role-based access: £80 tool costs + 2 weeks of builder time, or £2,800 with Greta in 5 days
Marketplace with buyer/seller roles: £200 tool costs + 6 weeks of builder time, or £6,500 with Greta in 10 days
Hidden costs that non-developers miss
The stated tool costs are only part of the picture. These are the costs that surprise builders after launch.
Supabase overages: Free tier limits on storage and bandwidth are hit faster than expected on growing apps
Vercel function execution costs: Serverless functions billed by invocation at scale — budget for this before launch
Stripe's dispute fee: £15 per chargeback regardless of outcome — a broken subscription flow can generate many
Remediation cost: A security issue found after launch can cost 10x more to fix than it would have cost to prevent
Rebuild cost: A vibe-coded architecture that hits its ceiling requires a partial or full rebuild — plan for this
How to keep costs predictable and manageable
The best approach to cost management in vibe coding is to instrument your infrastructure from the start. Set up budget alerts in Supabase and Vercel before you acquire any users — not after. Know your per-user infrastructure cost before you start marketing. Model what your costs look like at 100, 1,000, and 10,000 users. At Greta, we include an infrastructure cost model as part of every MVP delivery — so founders are never surprised by what their success costs.
Set up cost alerts in Supabase and Vercel before any real users join
Calculate your per-user infrastructure cost before spending on marketing
Model costs at 100, 1,000, and 10,000 users — plan for your own success
Budget for a production rebuild at the point your vibe-coded architecture hits its limits
Greta includes infrastructure cost modelling in every MVP delivery
Explore Further
Related guides and resources
Want a fixed-price build with no hidden costs?
Greta delivers production-ready products at a fixed price in 5–7 days. Full scope, full code ownership.