I made 3 apps in minutes with Claude and Gemini — but one had a secret trick up its sleeve

It's battle of AI giants for coding supremacy, as Claude takes on Gemini. Which should you be using?

Skip to main content Tom's Guide Tom's Guide Search Tom's Guide View Profile Newsletters Best Picks Entertainment Prime Day Deals LIVE Prime Day TV Deals Walmart Deals Prime Day Laptop Deals Switch 2 Restock Best laptops Wordle Today Best Mattress Recommended reading I make websites and apps from simple prompts using AI — and it's really easy to do I tested Gemini 2.5 Pro vs Claude 4 Sonnet with the same 7 prompts — here’s who came out on top I put ChatGPT-4o vs Claude 3.7 Sonnet through a 7-round face-off — one left the other in the dust I tested ChatGPT vs Gemini with 101 prompts across 15 categories — here's the overall winner I tested 5 apps that detect AI writing — here's the one that beat them all, and the one that missed the mark I just tested the newest versions of ChatGPT vs Gemini vs DeepSeek vs Claude — and the winner completely surprised me I used one chatbot per day for one week — here’s which AI assistant came out on top I made 3 apps in minutes with Claude and Gemini — but one had a secret trick up its sleeve Alex Hughes 12 July 2025 Vibe coding has become super easy, here’s how to do it When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. (Image credit: Claude vs Gemini) Vibe coding — the ability to write complete code with just a few short AI prompts — has taken off in popularity. It started to become a popular concept a few months ago and has since been embraced by the AI community. While the serious AI coders are using specific programs, clever tools and enhanced prompts, for the rest of us, it has been made easy by the mainstream AI chatbots. You can write code with ChatGPT, Grok, Le Chat and just about any major chatbot out there. However, in messing around with the technology, two competitors have stood out to me the most. You may like I make websites and apps from simple prompts using AI — and it's really easy to do I tested Gemini 2.5 Pro vs Claude 4 Sonnet with the same 7 prompts — here’s who came out on top I put ChatGPT-4o vs Claude 3.7 Sonnet through a 7-round face-off — one left the other in the dust Both Gemini and Claude have put in the work to make vibe coding both effective and easy for anyone to do. But which of the two is the better option, especially for people just getting started? I put the two to the test, creating an array of apps and tools using these vibe coding features. Reminders app (Image credit: Claude AI) Recently, I went to work making a reminders app in Claude. I had never found an app I liked enough for this feature, so I tried to make my own. Sign up to get the BEST of Tom's Guide direct to your inbox. Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brandsReceive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsorsBy submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. In a few prompts and a back-and-forth conversation with Claude, I had a complete app for making reminders, alarms, and a to-do list. In a lot of ways, it did exactly what I needed. What I really appreciated about this process was how easy Claude made it. My original prompt was, realistically, too simple. Just asking it to code an app for to-do lists and reminders. Claude then asked me further questions. How do I want it laid out? Do I want to be able to set times for the reminders? Do I have a style in mind? After some back-and-forth discussions, Claude generated a really solid result. There are three tabs: One for reminders, one for to-do lists, and one for alarms. It’s simple, but really quite effective. (Image credit: Gemini AI) With Gemini, I had a very similar experience. It made a simple (and slightly boring) but effective system for my notes. After some extended prompting, Gemini created a tool called “Mind Garden”. This included a brain dump section for random thoughts, a place for important notes, a to-do list and reminders section. It then also added AI tools to each section. This included the ability to organize my brain dumps and extract any key points to my to-do list. There’s a tool for breaking my to-do lists down into manageable points and a summarize notes option. In other words, Gemini went above and beyond here. While I don’t think it looked as good as what Claude created, it definitely made a more powerful tool and did so in a similar number of prompts. Winner: Gemini Learning cards (Image credit: Claude AI) I’m not in school, and quite frankly, haven’t been for years. But that doesn’t mean I can’t still learn things! The next app I tried to make was a tool for learning new topics. I tried this in the flip card method. I gave the same prompt to both tools, asking for a flipcard system for learning new topics, with questions on one side and answers on the back. With Claude, this generated a fun version of the tool, complete with a lot of color and a stylish transition as the card rotated. It was only offering a few cards, though, and they were all on geography for some reason. With a follow-up prompt, it added categories for Geography, science, maths, history and AI, all available with buttons and the option for a practice mode and quiz mode. (Image credit: Gemini AI) I gave the exact same prompt to Gemini, then followed up asking for the addition of the extra sections with the same topics. It was very similar. There are buttons for practice mode and quiz mode, there is a drop down box for categories and, whichever topic you are on, there are a collection of cards to swipe through and test your knowledge. Claude gets a lot of points here for simply looking better. It’s animation art was cleaner when swiping through cards and the colors used were much more exciting. However, once again, Gemini’s AI tool brings a lot of weight. When I clicked to add AI features, it brought about the ability to generate new cards by simply asking for any topic. This is a great addition, but one that I was able to also add to Claude with one extra prompt. Winner: Claude Interactive kids book (Image credit: Claude AI) This felt like a good test for the AI system. I asked both systems to generate a book-style app, showing different children’s stories on each page. On Claude, this started off well, generating five short stories, each with a button to click back and forth between them. They each have a small, moving emoji at the top and a scrolling option to go through. Using the next and previous buttons also produced a small page-turning animation. While it looked good and worked well, I wanted to try and get it to look more like a book. When prompting for this, everything fell slightly apart, turning it into one long page of text with code visible behind it. Each page also started to weirdly tilt when the mouse was ran over it. Whatever I then asked Claude, I couldn’t seem to correct this. However, the earlier version was really good. (Image credit: Gemini AI) Once again, where Gemini fell behind in style, it made up for in functionality. The book itself is nothing exciting, consisting of a brown box with cartoonish text on it. It also displayed a lot of images as just question marks in boxes. However, it achieved an effect much closer to a book, and used a pretty convincing effect for changing pages. It also included the ability to create a new story with the ability to ask for any topic using a prompt feature. It was great in all ways except how it looked. Despite the issues I had with Claude, I tried to take Gemini further, prompting the book to look more interesting. (Image credit: Gemini AI) This did help slightly, adding a more interesting text style and a slightly improved front cover with a fun font. But the images were still missing and not much else changed. However, compared to Claude, it did a much better job overall. Winner: Gemini Overall thoughts Both Gemini and Claude have made huge improvements in their coding abilities. Anyone can easily make a huge range of apps and tools with relative ease on either platform. The results were very similar on both, but I found that Gemini did a better job overall. Claude seems to prioritize looks and style, offering better designs and an intuitive layout. I also like that you can use pre-designed apps from the Claude marketplace for free, giving a glimpse into what is possible with the attached prompts. Gemini’s ability to add AI tools to each app is a game-changer though. It instantly improved all of the things I tried to create and added parts that, while obvious, massively improve the service. 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Dialed into all things artificial intelligence in the world right now, he knows the best chatbots, the weirdest AI image generators, and the ins and outs of one of tech’s biggest topics. Before joining the Tom’s Guide team, Alex worked for the brands TechRadar and BBC Science Focus. He was highly commended in the Specialist Writer category at the BSME's 2023 and was part of a team to win best podcast at the BSME's 2025. In his time as a journalist, he has covered the latest in AI and robotics, broadband deals, the potential for alien life, the science of being slapped, and just about everything in between. When he’s not trying to wrap his head around the latest AI whitepaper, Alex pretends to be a capable runner, cook, and climber. You must confirm your public display name before commenting Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name. I make websites and apps from simple prompts using AI — and it's really easy to do I tested Gemini 2.5 Pro vs Claude 4 Sonnet with the same 7 prompts — here’s who came out on top I put ChatGPT-4o vs Claude 3.7 Sonnet through a 7-round face-off — one left the other in the dust I tested ChatGPT vs Gemini with 101 prompts across 15 categories — here's the overall winner I tested 5 apps that detect AI writing — here's the one that beat them all, and the one that missed the mark I just tested the newest versions of ChatGPT vs Gemini vs DeepSeek vs Claude — and the winner completely surprised me Latest in AI OpenAI's Sam Altman says your computer isn’t built for AI — so it’s creating something entirely new This ChatGPT side hustle only takes 15 minutes a day — but here’s the catch OpenAI’s new AI browser could rival Perplexity — here’s what I hope it gets right OpenAI reportedly launching new browser very soon to compete with Google Chrome — here's what we know Grok 4 is live — Elon Musk introduces 'smartest AI' and addresses antisemitic posts Forget Chrome — this new AI browser is changing how people search the web Latest in Features I just tested the Galaxy Z Fold 7's new selfie camera vs. the Fold 6's under-display camera — and the results are drastically different Runners — I'm a personal trainer, and this is the muscle group you might not be strengthening (but need to) I tried the viral ‘cool spoon’ trick to sleep better during a heatwave — here’s what happened This is the best sleeping position to cool down quickly during a heatwave, says expert I interviewed the cast of 'Foundation' season 3 — here's my 10 biggest takeaways for the upcoming season This ChatGPT side hustle only takes 15 minutes a day — but here’s the catch LATEST ARTICLES I tried the Egyptian Sleep Method during a heat wave and regretted it — here's why Study reveals your suitcase is dirtier than a public toilet — here’s how to properly clean it Runners — I'm a personal trainer, and this is the muscle group you might not be strengthening (but need to) Meta Quest 4 rumors: Everything we know so far I just discovered the original Pokémon series and movies are free to watch — where to stream them now Tom's Guide is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. 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