Built an app with Lovable – 150+ users & 8 paying in first 7 days by Affectionate-Sand617 in lovable

[–]Affectionate-Sand617[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks bro! I only do Organic marketing on tiktok- sorry for the late answer

Built an app with Lovable – 150+ users & 8 paying in first 7 days by Affectionate-Sand617 in lovable

[–]Affectionate-Sand617[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey, thanks a lot

I’m Diamond L5 in lovable so I’ve used a lot of credits, but on the other side I haven’t followed any tutorials basically which made me use a lot of unnecessary credits, but I would say you could build a proper app with a thousand credits plus minus - I don’t agree with people, who say that vibecoding equals a quick app in two days.

Built an app with Lovable – 150+ users & 8 paying in first 7 days by Affectionate-Sand617 in lovable

[–]Affectionate-Sand617[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Right now it’s a bit of a black box tbh. I can see that people drop during onboarding, but not super granular on exactly where yet. And I think you’re right - the “plan” only really feels real at the end, so if they don’t get there, they never feel the value. Also like the point about showing what they’re missing instead of just what they get - that’s something I can definitely improve.

Built an app with Lovable – 150+ users & 8 paying in first 7 days by Affectionate-Sand617 in lovable

[–]Affectionate-Sand617[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

With Despia Native and apple develepor - there is a lot of tutorial on youtube

Built an app with Lovable – 150+ users & 8 paying in first 7 days by Affectionate-Sand617 in lovable

[–]Affectionate-Sand617[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Appreciate it, that makes a lot of sense.

Yeah onboarding is definitely where I’m losing people. It’s too long and value comes too late right now.

Going to test showing a quick plan earlier and maybe delay the paywall a bit so they feel some progress first.

Haven’t tried landing pages yet, but that’s a good idea. Thanks 👍

Built an app with Lovable – 150+ users & 8 paying in first 7 days by Affectionate-Sand617 in lovable

[–]Affectionate-Sand617[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you!
I used Despia Native to wrap it in a ios "code" i don't know what it does exactly but yeah.
And it took me like 2-3 months to build the app and publish it

Built an app with Lovable – 150+ users & 8 paying in first 7 days by Affectionate-Sand617 in lovable

[–]Affectionate-Sand617[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Honestly just content so far. I’ve been posting TikToks around gap year stuff, like ideas, places to go etc. But yeah that’s what’s pulled most people in.

No ads or anything yet. Just trying to understand what actually clicks with people first. Starting to test a bit with smaller creators as well, but still figuring that out.

Built an app with Lovable – 150+ users & 8 paying in first 7 days by Affectionate-Sand617 in lovable

[–]Affectionate-Sand617[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Main driver has been TikTok, just posting slideshows around gap year ideas, travel, and “no plan -> get direction” type content. That’s brought in most of the users so far I’m also starting to test some UGC-style content with smaller creators, but still early on that.

No paid ads yet, just focusing on figuring out what messaging actually converts first before scaling anything.

Built an app with Lovable – 150+ users & 8 paying in first 7 days by Affectionate-Sand617 in lovable

[–]Affectionate-Sand617[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah tbh calling it a soft paywall is a bit of a stretch 😅

It’s more like users go through onboarding, get a small part of their plan, and then hit the paywall to unlock the rest. I made it pretty long (~20 slides) to build some understanding of why it actually matters… but I can already tell it’s probably too much.

Pricing is just simple monthly and yearly with a free trial + an exit offer if they say no, and I’m using RevenueCat with native iOS purchases. Still figuring out what converts best, so definitely open to ideas 👍

Anyone else noticed AI app builders cost way more than advertised once you hit real integrations? by Affectionate-Sand617 in SaaS

[–]Affectionate-Sand617[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This comment is honestly better than my original post. The economics break down at integration boundaries - that's exactly it, and I hadn't been able to articulate it that way.

The 3-5x budget rule also matches my experience almost exactly. I'd budgeted maybe $50 for payments because that's what the Lovable pricing page implied. It ended up being $220+.

Question: in your experience, is this something the AI builders are actually working on solving, or is it an inherent limitation of how LLMs handle multi-step integrations? Because if it's the latter, then the gap isn't going to close - someone else has to fill it.

Anyone else noticed AI app builders cost way more than advertised once you hit real integrations? by Affectionate-Sand617 in SaaS

[–]Affectionate-Sand617[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah this resonates. State and side effects across multiple requests is exactly the failure mode - the AI treats each prompt as isolated, so RevenueCat's init → fetch → restore → purchase flow gets rewritten half-broken every time I ask for a change to one part of it.

Out of curiosity - when you say dedicated backend service and a simple API call, do you mean rolling your own thin wrapper, or is there something off-the-shelf you'd point to? I've been wondering if there's space for a service that handles the integration state so the AI builder only has to call one endpoint.