How long does switching from Vibe-coded DIY actually take?

An evening for most accounts. The export from Vibe-coded DIY is the slow step - the import side runs in minutes once the field mapping is settled. Larger teams (50+ seats with custom field schemas) sometimes split it across two sessions: import first, reorganise the next day.

Will I lose data when I switch?

Nothing structural. The CSV/JSON export from Vibe-coded DIY preserves the data: records, fields, history, and attachments come over intact. What doesn't transfer is anything tied to Vibe-coded DIY-specific UI metadata (custom views, saved searches, in-app annotations) - those don't sit in the export, they sit in the source product's UI. Plan an evening to rebuild your most-used views once you're in.

What about my existing Vibe-coded DIY subscription?

Run both side-by-side until you're confident, then cancel Vibe-coded DIY from their side. We don't lock you in - export from Contact Book is one click in account settings, same as import.

Is the import path free?

The import button is open on every plan, including the free tier - we don't paywall the way out of a competitor. The data going in still has to fit your plan's per-type quotas (the free-tier caps are listed on /sales); paid plans raise those caps. If you're moving a large set, check the caps first or write to /support and we can advise.

Can I get help with the switch?

Yes. Write to /support - both founders see those threads directly. Reply within a working day. For the field-mapping itself we typically resolve things in one or two exchanges; if your dataset is unusually large or Vibe-coded DIY's export shape is unfamiliar, we'll say so up front.

Contact Book

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Contact Book: the alternative to Vibe-coded DIY

What moving from Vibe-coded DIY to Contact Book actually looks like in 2026.

Switching

DIY

Build vs buy

Vibe coding

Finn GlasCo-Founder + Engineering

·April 4, 2026·

2 min read

Contact Book is what people use when Vibe-coded DIY stops fitting. Below is the honest side-by-side - same product surface, different posture: hosted in Germany, no third-party trackers, one honest price - plus the migration mechanics that decide whether the switch lands in an evening or in a quarter.

At a glance

Vibe-coding your own personal CRM is genuinely satisfying for the first weekend. Contact Book earns its place around month three, when you realise you've spent twenty hours patching CSV import bugs, fighting with auth, and still don't have reminders firing reliably. The cost isn't the build - it's the long tail of being your own product team for one user.

Switching

What moving from Vibe-coded DIY actually looks like

The switch goes in three rough phases: export from Vibe-coded DIY, import into Contact Book, and reorganise what came over. Most people allocate an evening for it. The export side is where the time goes - Vibe-coded DIY hands you a CSV/JSON dump and the field mapping isn't always obvious; once that's resolved the import is a couple of minutes. We don't paywall the import path or pretend it's a pro-only feature, and you can run both side-by-side while you decide.

Contact Book vs Vibe-coded DIY: feature comparison

	Ours Contact Book	Theirs Vibe-coded DIY
Initial setup	5 minutes	1 weekend
Total time over 2 years	~5 hours	~80+ hours
Reliable cadence reminders		If you build a worker
Live multi-tab updates
Mobile UI		DIY
Hosted in Germany		Whatever you pick
Backups + disaster recovery
Updates + security patches
MCP server / agent integration		If you build it
Free tier		Hosting cost
Yours to fork
Yours to walk away from

When to pick which

Pick Contact Book when

You want a tool that already works on Sunday evening, not one you're still patching by Sunday at midnight.

Your time is worth more than €1/month.

You'd rather spend the weekend on the actual people in your contact list than on the tool.

Pick Vibe-coded DIY when

Building it is the point - you'd write it for the practice, not the product.

You have very specific needs none of the existing tools nail.

You want every byte to live on hardware you physically control, and you have the time to operate it.

What the weekend build actually covers

The first eight hours with Cursor / Claude Code / Cline get you a stunning amount: a Next.js app, a Postgres schema, contact list, contact detail, basic CRUD, a CSV import endpoint that mostly works on the file you tested. By Sunday afternoon you have screenshots that look indistinguishable from a real product.

What's missing isn't features. What's missing is the hundred small productionisations every shipped product carries: rate limits, audit logs, soft delete, real auth flow, password resets, mail bounces, suspended state, GDPR data export, GDPR data delete, content-security policy, third-party trackers absent, two-factor auth, refund flow, plan switching. None of this is fun; all of it matters.

Where the second weekend lives

Three weeks in you're debugging a cron worker that didn't fire because Vercel's serverless cold-start timed out. Two weeks after that you're rebuilding the import flow because Google's CSV format changed shape. Three months in you're chasing a soft-delete bug that lost six contacts because you and your AI assistant misunderstood each other about whether is_deleted defaulted to false.

None of these moments is a tragedy on its own. Together they add up to a very specific outcome: the side project quietly stops being maintained around month four. The CRM either drifts into staleness or gets abandoned for a hosted tool. The right answer isn't don't ever build - it's don't build the thing whose value is operational, only the thing whose value is creative.

The honest hybrid

If you love building, the productive move is the opposite of replicating us: use Contact Book for the boring, durable layer (storage, reminders, hosting, GDPR) and script on top of it with our MCP + CLI + drop-in clients. We ship the boring middle. You build the interesting edge - the AI agent that drafts your follow-ups, the export that pipes into your obsidian vault, the slack bot that nudges you about overdue people. That's where vibe-coding actually shines.

Step by step

Export from Vibe-coded DIY

Find the export option in Vibe-coded DIY's account settings. Most tools provide a CSV or JSON download. Save the dump locally - that's the source of truth for the next step.

Account settings → Export / Download data

Pick the broadest format the tool offers (usually JSON)

Map fields in Contact Book

Open the import tool in Contact Book. Vibe-coded DIY's field names rarely match Contact Book' 1:1; the import flags any unmapped columns so you can pair them up before anything commits.

Account settings → Import

Resolve the mapping prompts the tool surfaces

Run the import

Run the import. Contact Book shows a preview of the first parsed rows in the import dialog so you can sanity-check the column mapping + a sample of records before anything commits. If you're nervous about a large dump, import a small subset first, verify it landed the way you expected, then run the full file.

Re-create your views, tags, saved searches

Vibe-coded DIY-specific UI metadata (custom views, saved filters, in-app annotations) doesn't transfer with the data export. Spend an evening rebuilding the views you used most - usually a 30-minute job once you've done it once.

Cancel Vibe-coded DIY when you're confident

Run both side-by-side for a couple of weeks if you want to be sure. When you're confident, cancel the Vibe-coded DIY subscription from their side. Contact Book keeps your export option self-serve in account settings - no lock-in either direction.

Switching from Vibe-coded DIY

The five questions we get most often before someone moves their data over.

Start with Contact Book

Free plan, no credit card. We host in Germany. Export + delete are self-serve.

Written by

Finn Glas

Co-Founder + Engineering

Finn is one of the Co-Founders. He owns the engineering side, the infrastructure, and most of the late-night fixes that ship before anyone notices.

finn.glas at aicuflow dot comLinkedIn Website