I can't believe I recommended Replit instead of Cursor

Replit is a monster brewing.

It took me some time to realize this.

Mostly because I don’t use it myself and I don’t personally know anyone who does.

But last weekend, I ended up pitching it to a friend of mine so much that he ended up subscribing to it.

Let me explain:

• Why I started pitching Cursor to my friend, but ended up pitching Replit instead

• How Replit can save him thousands of dollars a month

• Why I believe Replit is the future of software development

The context: I have a friend who used to be an investment banker and has been working on a website for a paid community focused on stock recommendations.

The features he needs:

• A marketing website for his personal brand

• Payment processing (via Stripe)

• A member-only area to access quarterly reports and financial data

• Newsletter subscriptions (via a third-party tool)

Relatively simple.

But he’s never coded before, so building this isn’t exactly straightforward.

So he outsourced it.

I started talking to him about how much I’m able to develop these days using AI, even with all the daily meetings I have, compared to what I was able to do before.

When he came over to my place, I showed him how I use Cursor to code.

He actually brought his laptop so I could walk him through it. So I downloaded Cursor for him.

Downloading Cursor was the easy part. Over the next hour or so, I had to:

• Run git pull on his repo

• Explain what’s stored locally vs in the cloud

• Explain branches

• Explain environment variables and API keys so the app could run

• Explain how the app deployment works

Bear in mind: this was his first time touching a command line or using Git.

I was able to run his code locally and use AI to make a few changes. But it’s still quite far from being a “production-ready” setup.

Sure, he could learn it - but it takes time. And every time there’s a hiccup, it’s much harder for him to debug, especially since it’s all happening locally.

That’s when Replit entered the room.

And it hit me.

This is exactly the problem Replit is solving.

For users who don’t want to run anything locally. Who just want their code as close to production as possible. Who don’t care about Git branches, they just want to preview changes and deploy with the least friction. Even on the go.

It’s not just about POCs. It’s about apps where the stakes aren’t super high, which, frankly, describes the vast majority of applications.

Especially the ones non-developers want to build.

In my opinion, Replit is the ultimate coding environment for non-coders - but one that still provides a full coding interface for when they do want to get their hands dirty (especially as AI continues to improve).

Ultimately, I can see Replit Agent becoming Replit. Maybe even hiding the IDE entirely by default.

And I believe this will happen because of the audience Replit is building for.

Now, my friend is just waiting for his outsourced developer to finish the last sprint of work. After that, he’s switching to Replit.

It’ll completely replace UpWork for him. He’ll no longer be limited by someone else’s availability or quality - only by his own time and how well the model performs.

Instead of messaging a freelancer on UpWork, waiting hours for a response, checking the deployed version, asking for a minor tweak, waiting again, etc…

He’ll just open Replit on his phone, ask the Agent to make the change, preview it seconds later, ask for an adjustment, preview again - and deploy when ready. Even better now with a tighter design to production integration.

I’ve been a fan of Amjad for a long time.

But today I became a true fan of Replit.