For quite some time now I have had Replit on my radar to test.
You can use it to develop apps and sites with AI. While the target audience needs to have technical knowledge, especially when it comes to deploying the app, you can get pretty far by just prompting what you want in natural language.
How Replit works
As with every AI chat assistant, you first describe your app. After that, you get into an AI conversation, and prompt by prompt, you can create the app or site you want.

You can see the chat conversation on the left-hand side, and on the right side of the screen, you see the output. You can immediately test the app and let the AI assistant know what works and what needs to be fixed.

Or, as Replit offers, if everything works already as intended, add some more features that Replit suggests.
Building an app with Replit
I picked an everyday task I had to finish to manage social media content. Very often, we post image sliders on social media platforms.
On LinkedIn, these images first need to be turned into a PDF. Right now, this process is messy on our end.
So, it would be cool to have an app where I can upload the images I want in the PDF, re-order the images as I need them in the social media post, and download the PDF. I created an app with Replit that I can use for that task.
This is the app I created with Replit:
I entered precisely that in the first prompt in Replit:
Create an app that I can use to turn several images (the images have the same size) into a PDF. Each provided image is one page in the PDF.

Now, here is a cool Replit feature I want to highlight. It has this “Improve Prompt” button. With just one click it turns my unstructured prompt into a structured one.

You could also provide attachments. Have a user interface in mind that your app should resemble or a specific style or data the app should deal with? Add it to your prompt.
The improved prompt looks just fine, and we are good to go. By clicking the Start Building button, Replit starts creating the app.
I immediately noticed the follow-up question: Replit already suggests features to improve the app, and all of the suggested features would make sense.
I do not click the checkboxes to add the features for now, as my experience with AI prototyping is to focus on a single use case first.

The app’s first version is generated and shows the basic interface consisting of a heading and an upload area.
Replit wants confirmation that this first step implementation works.

The second version of the app already did work. I could upload a few images and download a PDF showing one image on every page.
Within 5 minutes, I got the first prototype of an app that could save me a few minutes every week and a few hours every month.
But it is not only about saving time, but also convenience. I could use thousands of apps to turn several images into a PDF. The difference is that this app does precisely only that: it does one job, and nothing else gets in my way.
This is what building an app in Replit looks like:

While uploading images and combining them into a single PDF worked on the spot, the drag-and-drop feature for re-ordering the uploaded images did not.
Replit did re-create the app several times, but the feature for re-ordering images never worked. This turned into a frustrating experience.
Then, I prompted differently, telling the AI assistant we were caught in a loop. To my surprise, this helped, and the next iteration led to the app working.

Replit is an app made for product builders, prototyping, and developers
While a product manager or creator of any type can get pretty far by just prompting, the full potential can be used by people understanding coding and developing software.
All the code that gets created can be edited and browsed, as you can see in this screenshot.

And, of course, you can use AI in the code editor and ask Replit to explain or change a code for you. This means Replit is also perfect for anyone who wants to learn to code – AI is your tutor.

This short video shows how working with the AI Agent and Assistant works in Replit.
Publishing your app
Replit can also deploy the app for you. Again, this can get quite technical, depending on your knowledge.
I asked which of the deployment options would fit my app and followed the recommendations to get the app published.

Cost of using Replit
Replit is offering a free account to get started. As soon as you want to use Replit Agent (that is what the AI feature is called), you will be asked to swipe your credit card. I signed up for a “Replit Core” account for $25/month.
You pay for the usage of the service. For the prototype outlined in this blog post, I used $3.5 of my credits. It was about 20 iterations of the app / and about 1 hour of intense usage.

Deploying and running your app with Replit can incur additional costs, but that is to be expected, as developing and running an app are two different things.
Collaborating in Replit projects
Replit offers a team plan. Work on projects collaboratively, with AI as a team member at all times.
The first verdict of Replit
I have used the product for just a few hours and can say it is an excellent app for prototyping without coding knowledge.
Within minutes, I was seeing results. Features like rollback and deployment make it a serious building tool.
I did create app prototypes with ChatGPT, Claude, Mistral, and other AI tools. But using them feels cumbersome compared to Replit. Replit is now a packaged product that helps complete the process faster.
Replit delivers on its claim made on the homepage: “Idea to app, fast.”
- Continue reading: How I created my personal Canva with AI