Replit Convinces a Billion Developers that There’s No Need to Learn to Code

The debate over which AI coding tool is the best might as well have been over before it started. For the longest time, Replit has been the most loved developer tool, consistently ranking above Cursor, Windsurf, Lovable, and others. 

Amjad Masad, the founder of Replit, is on a mission to convince a billion people that writing software doesn’t need to start with years of tutorials, syntax struggles, or late nights trying to fix semicolon errors. Instead, all one needs is an idea—and the ability to describe it in plain English. 

Yet, he doesn’t call this process ‘vibe coding’ like others do. Notably, in a recent episode of Sequoia’s Training Data podcast, Masad said he doesn’t like the term. 

“It just cheapens the possibilities,” he said. “You can build agents and not just generate things. It can actually reason. Vibe coding makes sense if you’re starting from a position of coder and you’re Andrej Karpathy. You don’t want to worry too much about the code and keep hitting enter.”

Masad, however, believes that using Replit is different. “If you’re starting with Replit, you’re actually not starting from a position of code…You’re starting from an idea you’re iterating on. Then you go in, and the agent unfolds this code in front of you. Actually, when you’re using Replit Agent, you don’t have the luxury to look at the code,” he said.

He believes the most transformative outcome of AI won’t be AGI, but everyday people—from 12-year-olds in India to office workers in the US—building software. Moreover, with AI coding tools lowering the barrier to entry, that future might be closer than we think.

No fiddling with IDEs, managing imports, or dependencies. The AI just needs to be told what is required, and it’ll get to work. 

I've said it before, and I'll say it again.

Replit is a god damned miracle.

I've tried them all (Lovable, Bolt, Cursor, v0).

For a while it felt like the others created more beautiful output, but ultimately they are all converging and Replit feels like the perfect combination…

— Andrew Wilkinson (@awilkinson) April 6, 2025

Developers Love Replit

In September last year, Replit launched an AI agent that not only writes code but also deploys software, making it one of the first platforms to offer this capability. Later, in February this year, it launched the second version of the agent with even more capabilities.

The results are phenomenal.

Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn, recently ran an experiment on Replit. He asked the agent to “clone LinkedIn” using a single prompt. The result was a surprisingly functional prototype, showcasing AI’s potential today to turn ideas into working software.

This isn’t a mere tool for experimentation. Replit has already powered some impressive projects. At the National University of Singapore, a small team used Replit to build a full-fledged app for over 700 students. The app provided laundry booking, crowd tracking, and events management—despite most team members lacking backend experience.

Startups are also jumping on the bandwagon. YC-backed companies like Fig, Amplemarket, and BerriAI, as well as unicorns like Deel, are using Replit in production.

Built using Replit's AI Agent, this web app was created without writing a single line of code. Replit's AI Agent allows users to build applications through natural language prompts, handling the coding and deployment processes seamlessly.

you can access the full code from =… pic.twitter.com/uCmCFSDN5z

— Dhruvil patel (@Dhruvil84394403) April 5, 2025

Replit’s origin story is just as fascinating. Growing up in Jordan, Masad didn’t even own a computer. Instead, he coded from internet cafés, repeatedly setting up his development environment every time he logged in. 

“Can you imagine writing code with no internet? It’s kind of crazy!” he said in a podcast. Masad was always fascinated by the idea of the internet and how it links to a vast database of knowledge to help solve problems. 

In 10th grade, he found himself frustrated by the constant need to walk to a cafe, pay for the internet, and then find solutions for his problem under tight deadlines.

So he decided to fix it—for everyone. What started as a side project, turned into a “personal computer in the cloud”. Today, Replit supports over 50 programming languages and has powered more than 240 million projects.

Replit is also currently in talks to raise fresh capital at a valuation nearing $3 billion—almost triple its previous worth—reflecting strong investor confidence in AI-driven software development.

No Need to Learn to Code

Masad had just recently made a bold statement. “I no longer think you should learn to code,” he said in a recent post on X, adding to a growing discourse around the role of human programmers in an AI-first future. He urged people instead to focus on creativity and problem-solving skills that he believes will hold value even as AI takes over the mechanics of programming.

His perspective echoes a recent prediction by Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, who suggested that AI could soon be writing up to 90% of all code. Masad agrees with Amodei as well. “In the upcase, like what Dario just said recently, all code will be AI generated,” Masad explained. 

However, Masad acknowledged that coding isn’t entirely obsolete—at least not yet. He encouraged a foundational understanding of programming as a way to build more universal skills.

“I would say learn a bit of coding…Learn how to think, how to break down problems…Learn how to communicate clearly, as you would with humans, but also with machines,” he added.

If Replit and Masad get their way, the next billion software creators won’t come from CS classrooms; they’ll come from artists, entrepreneurs, students, and dreamers who don’t know a single line of Python but will still say, “I want an app that does this.”

And with Replit, that might just be enough.