How Much Does It Cost toFix or Finish a Vibe-Coded App? 2026 Pricing Guide

Fixing or finishing a vibe-coded app costs $1,500 to $75,000+, split across five discrete pricing tiers — and almost no project needs all five. Most apps need one or two. The table below is the complete framework: what each tier costs, how long it takes, and what it includes. The sections that follow explain who each tier is right for.

Tier 1 (Audit) is nearly always the right first move, and for most founders it's the only tier they need to commit to before they know their real numbers. It's a fixed-price, fixed-timeline engagement that turns "something feels off" into an itemized diagnosis. See our companion guide on seven hidden security risks in vibe-coded apps for the issues audits most often turn up, and our security audit service page for the full methodology.

Tier 2 (Stabilization) is right for an app that's functionally close to done but unsafe to put real users or real data through — the classic state of a Lovable or Bolt.new MVP a founder has been demoing but hasn't opened to the public. If your app runs on Supabase, most of this maps directly onto our Supabase Row-Level Security checklist; if you're unsure whether your issues are security bugs or deeper technical debt, our technical debt framework will help you tell the difference before you spend.

Tier 3 (Production Readiness) is for an app that's secure-ish but missing the real functionality it needs to launch or monetize: no working payments, no admin roles, no test coverage, thin SEO and performance work. We cover the full build-out checklist in our Finishing Guide, and what to check right after that work ships in our post-launch checklist.

Tier 4 (Retainer) is for an app that's stabilized and production-ready but needs a team that keeps shipping features, fixes bugs against an SLA, and adopts platform updates as the underlying AI builder evolves. It's priced identically to the retainer Frenchy Digital quotes for apps it builds from scratch, because the ongoing work is functionally the same either way. See App Maintenance & Support Services 2026 for what's typically bundled.

Tier 5 (Migration) is for apps with real usage that are outgrowing the fully-managed backend their AI builder runs on — Lovable Cloud, Replit's hosted infrastructure, Bolt-hosted databases, or Base44's managed backend. Our scaling and migration guide covers the signals that tell you it's time for this tier rather than another finishing sprint.

Within every tier, the difference between the low end and the high end of the range comes down to five measurable factors — not which agency you ask or how well you negotiate. Two apps that look similar from the outside, say two Lovable-built marketplace MVPs, can land $10,000 apart within the same tier once the audit looks under the hood.

• Number of database tables and RLS policies: A 6-table app with straightforward ownership rules is a different job than a 40-table app with nested team and role permissions — true whether you're in Tier 2 (stabilization) or Tier 5 (migration).
• Number of third-party integrations: Each integration the app needs to talk to — payments, email, SMS, maps, analytics, a CRM — adds discovery, error handling, and testing work, particularly inside Tier 3.
• Compliance requirements: An app with no compliance obligations is cheaper to stabilize than one that needs to demonstrate SOC 2 or HIPAA controls, which pushes work toward the top of Tier 5 pricing.
• User count and scale: An app with a few hundred users has different performance and load requirements than one with tens of thousands; scale changes both the audit's scope and the ceiling on Tiers 3-5.
• How much of the AI-generated code is actually reusable: This is the single biggest swing factor. Some vibe-coded apps have clean, coherent logic under a rough security layer; others have contradictory duplicate logic left over from multiple prompt iterations. The audit is what tells you which one you have.

Because these factors vary independently, pricing inside a tier is never a guess dressed up as a quote — it's the sum of what the audit actually measures in your codebase, not what a demo looks like on a screen-share.

Fixing or finishing an existing vibe-coded app is typically 30-50% cheaper and faster than commissioning the same finished scope as a brand-new, from-scratch professional build, because the UI, routing, and a meaningful share of the database schema and business logic already exist. To put that in context, here's how the fix/finish tiers compare against the published numbers for building the same kind of app new, from zero.

The first two rows are the numbers Frenchy Digital publishes for building new apps from scratch in Lovable: a traditional agency quote for a 20-page app runs $80,000-$120,000 over 12-16 weeks, versus $25,000-$45,000 over 3-5 weeks building the same scope in Lovable — roughly 60-70% cheaper. That comparison is about building something new. The comparison this article covers is different: once an app already exists, however roughly it was built, fixing and finishing it concentrates cost in the audit, stabilization, and finishing tiers rather than a full rebuild, which is why it typically runs 30-50% below a from-scratch quote for the same finished scope, not 60-70% below. The UI and routing you already have are worth real money; they're just not worth as much as skipping the entire build. For context on how vibe coding changed these numbers in the first place, see our series primer, What Is Vibe Coding? The Complete 2026 Guide.

The five-tier framework applies no matter which AI builder produced your app, but the specific issues — and therefore where your project lands inside each range — differ by platform. Apps built in Lovable or Bolt.new are almost always backed by Supabase, so Row-Level Security gaps tend to be the dominant, and most fixable, risk — squarely Tier 1 and Tier 2 territory.

Apps built on Replit or on Base44 run against those platforms' own fully-managed hosting, which means routine stabilization work looks similar, but the moment an app outgrows the platform's infrastructure or needs data residency and compliance controls the platform doesn't offer, cost concentrates in Tier 5 rather than a finishing sprint. Bubble's visual, no-code workflow architecture is functionally different from a codebase in the usual sense — there's no traditional source file to review — so the audit spends more time mapping workflow logic and data types before a stabilization or finishing sprint can be scoped, which can push a Tier 1 engagement toward the higher end of its range.

Apps built with human-in-the-loop AI coding tools such as Cursor, Claude Code, or GitHub Copilot tend to have more conventional, readable code than a fully prompt-generated app, since a developer was still driving, but they still accumulate the same security gaps under time pressure and need the same audit before you can trust them with real users. If you're unsure which category your app falls into, our 2026 primer on vibe coding is the place to start, and our technical debt framework covers how debt patterns differ by platform in more depth.

Here are four realistic scenarios, the tiers each one typically needs, and a total estimated cost. These are ranges, not quotes — your actual number depends on what the audit finds.

The SaaS MVP example is the most common request we see: a founder has been demoing a Lovable or Bolt app to early users and wants it locked down before opening signups — a straightforward audit-plus-stabilization job. The e-commerce example is nearly as common: a weekend build has a checkout button that "works" in test mode but no webhook handling, no tax logic, and no refund flow, all of which land in the Production Readiness Sprint.

The maintenance example is what happens after either of the first two: the app is fine, but the founder who vibe-coded it has moved on to the next problem and needs someone answering feature requests and bug reports. The marketplace example is the least common but the most expensive: real transaction volume has outgrown what a no-code platform's managed backend can reasonably support, and the fix is architectural, not cosmetic. In every case, the totals above are the sum of the published ranges for the relevant tiers — not fixed quotes. Your specific number comes out of the audit.

The tier prices above cover Frenchy Digital's engineering work. They do not cover the third-party services your app depends on, which you pay directly and separately no matter who fixes your app.

• Payment processing fees: Stripe (or another processor) takes its own cut per transaction, independent of the sprint that built your checkout flow.
• Hosting and database bills: Supabase, Vercel, Lovable Cloud, or whatever infrastructure your app runs on bills you directly for usage.
• Domain and SSL: Typically small, but still a separate line item from the service fee.
• Transactional email and SMS providers: Services like Twilio, SendGrid, or Resend charge per message sent.
• App store developer fees: Apple's and Google's annual developer program fees, if your app ships to mobile.
• Third-party API usage: Maps, AI model calls, analytics, and similar metered services bill by usage.
• Design or content assets outside the agreed scope: New brand assets, copywriting, or imagery beyond what the audit and proposal cover.

The most common scope surprise isn't a cost line at all — it's discovering that an "almost done" app has duplicate, contradictory logic left over from multiple failed prompt attempts, or an admin panel that only ever existed in the demo, not the code. Both are exactly what the audit is designed to surface before you commit to a fix, which is also why our post-launch checklist is worth reading even for an app that already shipped.

Every engagement, regardless of which tiers you ultimately need, starts the same way — with the Health Check audit, never with an open-ended hourly estimate. The audit runs 3-5 business days and produces a written, prioritized roadmap: what's broken, what's missing, what it will cost to fix, and in what order it matters. From that roadmap, you get a fixed-price proposal broken out by tier, so you can run a stabilization sprint now and revisit production readiness in three months, or tackle everything at once. There is no open-ended hourly billing at any stage; every phase after the audit is quoted as a fixed price before work begins.

Most founders can self-diagnose which tier they need with four questions, before they ever talk to us:

1. 1.Has a real user ever put a payment method or personal data into this app?: If not, and you're about to launch, you need Tier 1 + Tier 2.
2. 2.Does the app do everything it needs to do, functionally, to make money?: If not, you need Tier 1 + Tier 3.
3. 3.Is the app stable and monetizing, but nobody is actively maintaining it?: You need Tier 1 + Tier 4.
4. 4.Is the app hitting real usage limits, cost ceilings, or compliance requirements on its current backend?: You need Tier 1 + Tier 5.

Many apps move through these tiers over time rather than jumping straight to an end state: audit, then stabilize, then finish, then settle into an ongoing retainer as the app grows. That sequencing is normal and, in most cases, cheaper than trying to buy every tier up front before you know what you actually need. If you're earlier in the decision, still trying to figure out whether your app needs surgery or a full rebuild, start with our technical debt framework or talk to our startup consulting team before committing to an audit.

The answers to a handful of questions separate a fixed-price professional engagement from an open-ended hourly gamble, whether you hire Frenchy Digital or anyone else.

• Will you audit before you quote? Any serious engagement starts with a paid, fixed-price audit, not a verbal estimate from a sales call.
• Is the price fixed per phase, or hourly? Hourly billing on an unscoped, AI-generated codebase is where cost overruns happen.
• Do you have specific experience with my platform's backend? Supabase RLS, Bubble workflows, and a fully-managed backend like Base44's are genuinely different skill sets.
• What happens to my data and secrets during the engagement? You want secrets rotated, not just reviewed.
• Will I own the resulting infrastructure, or are you introducing new lock-in? Especially relevant for Tier 5 migrations.
• What's excluded from this price? Get third-party costs in writing before you sign anything.

The gap between a professional fix-and-finish engagement and a well-intentioned freelancer working hourly is usually invisible until the invoice arrives.

— Frenchy Digital

Our Vibe Coding vs. Professional Development article covers the broader mistakes founders make evaluating this decision, and our agency takeover guide walks through the full process, timeline, and cost of handing a vibe-coded app to an outside team.

Frenchy Digital audits, stabilizes, finishes, and takes over apps built in Lovable, Bolt.new, Replit, Base44, Bubble, and every other AI app builder — starting with the same $1,500-$3,500 Health Check no matter which platform produced your app, so pricing is never a guess dressed up as a quote. The team works out of Los Angeles, with international colleagues in Geneva, Switzerland and Paris, France, giving projects coverage across US and European time zones during multi-week stabilization and production-readiness sprints.

Ready to find out exactly what your vibe-coded app needs and what it will cost? Schedule your free discovery call and we'll walk you through which of the five tiers fits your app before you commit to anything.