How I Built a Custom AI App in 3 Hours (A Vibe Coding Case Study)

I went from an idea to a fully functional AI app in a single afternoon. This is the tool that made it possible.

If you've been following my journey into "vibe coding," you know I'm always on the lookout for tools that make bringing ideas to life faster and more intuitive. While I've had success with other platforms, a new tool recently caught my eye and has completely changed the game for me. It's called Mocha, and it allowed me to build a brand new, fully functional lead magnet app in just three hours.

I was so impressed that I took the leap and migrated my entire "Type Quiz" application over to it. Here's a look at what I built and how this new tool is making app development more accessible than ever.

The 3-Hour Project: AI Blueprint

First, I wanted to put Mocha to the test with a simple, yet valuable, concept: a tool to help aspiring entrepreneurs estimate the operational costs of running an AI-powered application. I called it AI Blueprint.

The goal was to create a free cost and profit calculator that not only provides value but also funnels the right audience into my ecosystem. Users can input variables like their company size, the AI features they want (e.g., text generation, speech-to-text), and potential monetization models. The app then calculates estimated monthly operational costs and potential revenue growth over 12 months.

What truly blew me away was a feature I didn't even ask for. Mocha automatically generated a downloadable PDF of the cost analysis report. With a few minor CSS tweaks, it created a professional, branded takeaway for the user—an incredible feature for a free lead magnet.

The Big Migration: Moving Type Quiz to Mocha

The success with the AI Blueprint gave me the confidence to tackle a bigger problem. My other app, Type Quiz, was stalled on a different platform because of a persistent bug in the template customizer.

With Mocha, the experience was night and day. I uploaded five screenshots of my existing app and dictated the functionality I needed. Mocha didn't just replicate the design; it built a functioning app right out of the gate.

The new Type Quiz backend now has all the features I envisioned:

- An AI quiz builder that analyzes a user's business to generate custom quiz questions and archetypes.
- A powerful template customizer that works flawlessly.
- Out-of-the-box integrations for services like ConvertKit, MailerLite, and Stripe.
- A full admin dashboard to manage users, quizzes, and subscriptions.

I went from being stuck for weeks to having a nearly beta-ready product in under a week.

A Quick Comparison: Mocha vs. Lovable

While both platforms are powerful, my initial experience with Mocha has been significantly smoother. Here are a few things that stand out:

- Ease of Use: Mocha's ability to build functionality from screenshots and dictation is a massive time-saver.
- Built-in Features: Integrations and features like the PDF generator felt more robust and worked immediately.
- Stability: The template customizer, which was a major roadblock on the other platform, was built perfectly by Mocha and has been easy to modify.

I still have credits with Lovable, and with their recent hundred-million-dollar funding round, I'm sure they have major improvements on the way. But for now, the speed and ease of Mocha have me convinced.

The Barrier to Entry Has Never Been Lower

Since building these apps, I've just about completed my site move to Mocha, building a new CMS, a simple e-commerce cart, and more. The most tedious piece has been my hub-and-spoke SEO structure, but I'm almost done!

If you have an app idea, big or small, I can't encourage you enough to give a tool like Mocha a try. The barrier between using AI and building with AI is smaller than you think.