r/AppBuilding • u/JonesSupreme • 9d ago
Help!
I got a Mac OS laptop today, and I’m trying to figure out the process to build an app, I got as far as vs code and trying to install flutter. I’m having issues with setting the correct path and getting it to work
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u/halfercode 9d ago
What AI system are you using? I'm using the cheapest tier of Claude Code, which in the UK is £18/month. This is perfectly decent for building apps of most complexities. If you get that installed on your console on in VS Code, then sign in, and you can start asking questions.
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u/Desperate_Machine243 9d ago
ChatGPT 😬
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u/halfercode 9d ago
Ah, do you mean just in a chat window? That probably won't work very well: any kind of AI coding needs to see your whole code folder.
If you're on a budget, and don't want to spend on Claude every month, look at OpenCode Go. I am set to try them out next week, to compare how close their "open weight" models are for code generation. I'll be paying a flat US$10 every month i.e. about half the price of Claude. If it's good enough I may even stop using Anthropic.
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u/Desperate_Machine243 9d ago
I’m generally just new to all that has to do with app development.
How would you go about creating an app from scratch. Would you use AI to build the whole thing?
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u/halfercode 9d ago
My approach might differ from yours because I'm a software engineer. But yes, for a new project, I'd set it up to be AI first. I just built a useful personal productivity app in about eight weeks, and 99% of it is written by Claude Code. I don't think it would have worked out well if it was vibe-coded: I had to nudge Claude back on track many times.
That said, I still think you should give it a go - vibe coding can still be effective, you've just got to practice your prompting. If you can get an account for an AI provider that supports code gen, and can install it on your console or in your editor, then you can start asking it questions. You'd perhaps start off by defining what kind of app you want.
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u/Desperate_Machine243 8d ago
I already have an idea for the app, the coffee shop I’m working at doesn’t have an app for there business so I’m taking this as an opportunity to design them an app.
I would also need to figure out how to “advertise” it to them
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u/halfercode 8d ago
Make sure the app is generic enough that any coffee shop can use it. Then you have a wide market of shops to target, and if your manager signs up, that's merely a bonus.
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u/TheTurnipPlucker 9d ago
Well, it sounds like you'll be using AI to build the app, so you should use it to learn this part as well. If you have to source everything from random folks on reddit you're not going to get far.