v0 by Vercel

v0 sits in the sweet spot between prompt-and-pray and hiring a contractor. You describe a UI in plain English, it generates Next.js code with Tailwind and shadcn/ui, then you iterate in a tight loop until it looks right. The autonomy here is narrow but useful: it handles layout, responsive behaviour, accessibility basics, and component wiring without you touching CSS or JSX. I've used it to scaffold admin dashboards where the design is functional, not precious. You say "three-column table with filters and pagination", it gives you working code in thirty seconds. The output is clean enough to ship, or at least clean enough to hand to a developer who won't curse your name. Where it shines: rapid prototyping when you need something that looks real, fast. I've spun up landing pages for internal tools, mocked up SaaS dashboards for pitch decks, and built form-heavy interfaces without writing a single className. The iteration loop is genuinely fast - you can refine spacing, swap components, or add features in natural language, and it re-generates without losing context. The code quality is high: proper TypeScript, sensible component structure, no inline styles or other crimes against maintainability. Failure modes: it struggles with complex state logic or anything that requires custom hooks beyond the basics. If your UI needs intricate animations, pixel-perfect design, or deep integration with existing codebases, you'll hit the ceiling quickly. It also assumes you're building with its stack - Next.js, Tailwind, shadcn/ui. If you're on Vue or plain React without Tailwind, you're out of luck. The free tier is generous but rate-limited; heavy users will need to pay. Compared to Cursor or Copilot, v0 is more opinionated and less flexible. Cursor gives you a blank canvas and helps you code; v0 gives you a working component and lets you tweak. For UI work specifically, v0 is faster. For everything else, Cursor wins. If you're building a product that's 80% standard UI patterns, v0 will save you hours. If you're building something weird or beautiful, you'll need a human.