Cursor + Replit
The dynamic duo of Cursor + Replit to build and ship web apps is undeniably a game changer!
Cursor and Replit. This is the combination of tools I’ve been using to build different web apps. It’s incredible just how good these tools are together. In this post I’ll breakdown my process and experience for using them.
If you are someone who struggles with shipping ideas because you get bogged down in the details.
That’s me!
Then it’s incredibly freeing to lean into using tools like Cursor and Replit to just do it.
You start to realize decisions like:
What database should I use?
Should I use TypeScript?
What about NextJS?
How about that other new JS framework that just came out?
All of these decisions kind of go away when using these tools. It’s not that they don’t matter but when you are just building things in the beginning they really don’t matter all that much. What matters is building something and shipping it and seeing what someone thinks about it. These tools help you do all that so much faster but they’re not silver bullets and still need some hand holding but that’s why we are here, lets get into it!
Replit
Replit is the place to start with all of this. Why?
Replit gives you a complete end to end experience when it comes to building and shipping applications. It truly is a world class developer experience all on the web and it all starts below.
In the prompt above you can begin to describe the app you want to build, attach files, there are starter prompt ideas, plus you can select the integrations you want as well. If you take this at face value, this is a game changer. Some of these integrations would take me days or even a full week in the past. Not having to figure those pieces out again is worth every penny to me.
After that you’re presented with something that looks like this. This is where you’ll spend 99% of your time. Talking to an agent that is excellent at coding. On the right you will see progress — meaning the changes the agent is making.
Generally speaking, after the initial prompt you will get another prompt asking clarifying questions and have you confirm the plan for the agent to execute. At this time it will also ask you if you want to implement some additional features. Pretty nice.
If the app you are building requires a database such a Postgres it will spin up a database for your application to use with Neon as the provider.
Now comes the real reason why you should start and finish in Replit. Deployments.
Building an application locally is easy, shipping one so your friends can see it is a bit harder. Sometimes it’s really hard depending on the kind of app you are going for.
Deploying an app is easily something you can over engineer and spend too much time on. With Replit, it’s as easy as clicking a couple buttons.
I know. If you’re like me you’re thinking that you need to build your own deployment on AWS using Kubernetes so I can scale to the millions of users I’m definitely going to have. I don’t want to lose out on any money simply because my website can’t scale. This amazing future problem I have to solve for right now!
WRONG.
Click the button and ship it now. Scale it later when your making money. That’s what Replit allows for you to do.
Above is a screenshot showcasing the deployment configuration options you have when deploying your app.
The only knock I have for Replit in this case is the specs on the Machine power were over provisioned for 95% of websites especially when they are doing their first deployment. Someone could end up spending more money for resources they don’t need. Aside from that this was so easy to use.
Replit is the place you should start your projects because with very little effort you can ship a website for your idea to the world. It comes with all the configuration you need to deploy.
Now the AI Agent for Replit is great. But there were a couple issues I ran into around more complex functionality such as custom authentication, and some DB bugs. When this happened I had to step through the code myself but I realized there could be a better way.
Cursor
When I ran into these bugs I realized it was time to leverage another great AI coding tool — Cursor. I’ve been playing around with Cursor on and off for awhile. It’s pretty incredible and just keeps getting better. Cursor can be a bit buggy but it’s code generation tools are really incredible. They have Github Copilot beat right now in my opinion but that might only be true for the next week considering how fast folks are shipping right now.
Cursor Composer is excellent at taking very little information and understanding exactly what I’m trying to do. In the event there is something it needs you to do like set up a storage bucket it gives detailed instructions on how to do so. The most amazing part is how quickly it is able to read the codebase and generate responses. It’s fast.
Often times if I think what I’m trying to do would be better explained by an image I’ll simply take screenshot of the UI or use Excalidraw to sketch it out and then upload it to the agent. Then the agent does its thing.
Anecdotally, Cursor Composer is ahead of Github Copilot right now. The code it outputs is similar in style to what already exists in the codebase. The UI is better presented to the user. When it does inject the code into the places needed, it feels less clunky than Copilot. It’s also very easy to unwind in the event it doesn’t get something right.
Locally when I’m building I use Cursor Composer for a lot of the work. I’m usually nudging it one way or another to get the output I want but it gets me 90% of the way there with little effort.
Summary
Cursor + Replit feels like a bit of a cheat code for building web applications. Plus as a Dad I don’t have a ton of time to work on side projects like I used to so having these tools still allows me to build the different ideas I have. These tools are only going to get better and with agents on the rise this year I expect more and more tools like this to pop up and work well. If you have an idea go into Replit and start building now. When you need some more help don’t hesitate to reach for Cursor. This combo should be all you need to ship right now.
Let’s connect!
Thanks so much for reading! If you liked this then please let me know down below. I’m also looking to collaborate more with others on Substack. So if that’s you then please reach out to me!