Sprint Stacker: How I combined Replit and Vercel to deploy my vibe coding project

After my experience building Manager Moments with V0 and Midjourney, I was eager to tackle another project with AI tools.

This time, I wanted to solve a problem I've encountered repeatedly in my product management career: prioritisation.

Every product team struggles with it. You have a backlog full of tasks, limited capacity, and the constant challenge of deciding what to work on next. Traditional prioritization methods often feel clinical and disconnected from the actual work. I wanted to create something that made prioritization feel more like a game and less like a chore.

Enter Sprint Stacker – a daily prioritisation puzzle that turns backlog management into an engaging activity. And for this project, I decided to explore a different set of tools: Replit for development and Vercel for deployment.

The Sprint Stacker Concept

The core idea behind Sprint Stacker is simple: transform prioritization from a spreadsheet exercise into a card game. Users are presented with tasks that have different effort requirements and business value. They need to stack these tasks into their sprint in a way that maximises value while respecting capacity constraints.

What makes it engaging is the puzzle itself — there’s something satisfying about finding the right combination, and the weekly refresh gives people a reason to keep coming back.

I’ve also added a layer of thematic content tied to product management best practices. So each week, you solve a puzzle and get a short article that connects to the theme — for example, if you're prioritising cards related to conversion rate optimisation, you'll also get a piece that dives into that topic.

It’s part learning tool, part habit builder. Does it sound fun? Or maybe just relevant to what you're already thinking about?

The Replit Experience

I'd used Replit casually before, but this was my first time building a complete project on the platform. For those unfamiliar, Replit is an online IDE and collaboration platform that lets you code in your browser with minimal setup.

The Pros: Where Replit Shined

Zero setup time: The instant access to a working development environment cannot be overstated. It removed all the typical excuses for not starting a project.

Integrated tools: Having a terminal, file editor, and preview all in one browser tab streamlined the development workflow considerably.

Version control integration: While I could have used external Git repositories, Replit's built-in version control was sufficient for this project and reduced context switching.

Collaborative features: I could share a link with colleagues and they could view my code in real-time, make suggestions, or even pair program with me without downloading anything.

Mobile accessibility: I could make quick edits or check on my project from my phone – something impossible with traditional local development.

The Cons: Replit's Limitations

Performance issues: For larger applications, I noticed occasional lag in the editor and preview panes.

Dependency management: While Replit handles basic package installation well, more complex dependency scenarios sometimes required workarounds.

Limited debugging tools: The debugging experience wasn't as robust as what you'd get in VS Code or other dedicated IDEs.

Occasional disconnects: I experienced a few instances where Replit would disconnect, requiring a refresh.

Deploying with Vercel

With the application taking shape in Replit, the next step was deployment. I'd used Vercel before and appreciated its simplicity, but I was curious about how well it would integrate with Replit.

The Integration Process

Connecting Replit to Vercel was straightforward but required a few more steps than I expected. I needed to:

1. Push my Replit project to GitHub

2. Connect Vercel to that GitHub repository

3. Configure the build settings in Vercel

This wasn't difficult, but it did require leaving the Replit environment, which broke the "everything in one place" experience somewhat. Once set up, however, the workflow was smooth – changes pushed to GitHub would automatically trigger new Vercel deployments.

The Pros: Vercel's Strengths

Performance: The deployed application was noticeably faster than the Replit preview, with excellent global load times.

Analytics: Vercel provided useful insights about usage patterns and performance that helped me optimize the user experience.

Reliability: Once deployed, the application ran without issues, giving me confidence to share it widely.

Domain management: Setting up a custom domain for sprintstacker.com was simple and included automatic SSL certificate management.

Preview deployments: Each pull request generated its own preview deployment, making it easy to test changes before merging them to production.

The Cons: Deployment Challenges

Initial configuration: The first-time setup between Replit and Vercel required more manual steps than I'd hoped.

Environment variables: Managing environment variables across both platforms required some duplication.

Build customization: Some advanced build configurations required diving into documentation and wasn't as intuitive as the rest of the experience.

The Power of the Combined Approach

What made this tech stack particularly effective was how Replit and Vercel complemented each other. Replit excelled at the development experience, while Vercel handled production deployment with expertise. Together, they covered the entire workflow from idea to public launch.

This combination is particularly powerful for productivity tools like Sprint Stacker, where you want to iterate quickly based on user feedback. I could make changes in Replit, push to GitHub, and have them automatically deployed to production within minutes.

and the result:

Project Ideas You Could Try

If you're inspired to experiment with Replit and Vercel yourself, here are some project ideas that would work well with this combination:

1. Internal Tools: Build admin dashboards, data visualization tools, or other utilities that solve specific problems for your team.

2. Educational Platforms: Create interactive tutorials or learning experiences that benefit from rapid iteration.

3. Community Platforms: Develop forums, discussion boards, or other community spaces with real-time features.

4. Productivity Applications: Build tools that help with task management, note-taking, or other productivity challenges.

The key advantage of this stack is the speed from concept to deployment, making it ideal for validating ideas quickly or building internal tools where time-to-value is critical.

Building Sprint Stacker with Replit and Vercel reinforced my belief that we're entering a new era of development where the barriers between idea and implementation are lower than ever. These tools didn't just make me more productive—they changed how I approached the entire project. The question is no longer "Can I build this?" but "What should I build next?"