Where is the GenAI Deployment Shovelware?
Mike Judge recently wrote a viral post asking “Where’s the shovelware?” - basically arguing that if AI coding tools were really making developers extraordinarily productive, we’d be drowning in new apps by now. He put together compelling data showing flat growth across every software category despite widespread AI tool adoption.
Mike’s frustration is palpable and his data is solid. He captures this perfectly:
“I wish I could make every dumb coding idea I ever had a reality. I wish I could make a fretboard learning app on Monday, a Korean trainer on Wednesday, and a video game on Saturday. I’d release them all. I’d drown the world in a flood of shovelware like the world had never seen. Well, I would — if it worked.”
But here’s the thing - I think Mike’s partly right that the AI tools aren’t delivering the promised productivity gains for experienced developers. However, there’s another angle he doesn’t explore: the people who ARE getting value from AI coding have no easy way to deploy their creations.
The Missing Piece: Simple Backend + DB Hosting
The shovelware won’t appear until one of the vibe-coding services offers a free hosted tier for backend + database. Imagine Claude Code + the original Heroku experience! Right now GenAI is limited to prototypes and local apps.
I really miss how Heroku used to work with their free Hobby plans. It was so easy to spin up a Grails app for free with a tiny DB 10+ years ago. Just git push heroku main and boom - your app was live on the internet.
The Current Landscape is Messy
Here’s what I see when helping non-technical folks deploy their AI-generated ideas:
- Render looks okay and is probably where I’d start today
- Supabase is decent for free DB and auth, but the row-level-security required to connect directly from a web app feels flakey and bug-prone
- AWS is a complete headache for non-techies (and honestly, most techies too)
- Vercel/Netlify are great for static sites but don’t solve the backend + database story in a simple vibe-coding manageable way IMO
The promise of serverless never really delivered for the “relational DB + backend + frontend PoC app created by business/designers with no devops experience” use case.
What We Actually Need
Here’s the scenario I’ve been seeing: You’re a business analyst who just convinced Claude to build you a resource management app. It works perfectly locally. Now what?
You should be able to:
- Push to a git repo
- Connect that repo to a hosting service
- Get a live URL with a real database
- All for free (at least for small/prototype apps)
No Docker. No environment variables. No “contact your system administrator.” Just… it works.
The GenAI Deployment Gap
This is one reason we’re not drowning in AI-generated crud apps yet. The technical folks are building amazing local demos and prototypes. The business folks and designers have brilliant ideas that Claude/Cursor can actually implement. But there’s this giant chasm in the middle where deployment lives.
Once someone bridges that gap with truly simple, free/cheap hosting that includes a real database? Then we’ll see the shovelware flood. And honestly? I’m kind of looking forward to it. Some of those “quickly built” ideas might just change everything. And I won’t be surprised if Cursor, Claude, CoPilot, have something in the works already…
Need help shipping your AI-generated app? Got a brilliant vibe-coded creation that’s stuck living on your localhost? Drowning in deployment complexities when you try to share it with the world? That’s exactly the kind of technical gap we help bridge at DevObsessed. Whether you’re trying to get your AI-generated prototype live or scale it into something enterprise-ready, we’d love to help you ship it.