App rescue
We fix vibe-coded apps
You described what you wanted, the AI built it, and for a while it was genuinely magic. Then something broke that prompting couldn't fix. Every change started breaking two other things. And now there's a real business waiting on an app nobody can safely touch. That's the point where you want a human who reads code for a living.
$495 fixed price · written report within 3 business days · no obligation to continue
In short
PixelApps is an Australian software studio that repairs and finishes apps built with AI tools like Lovable, Bolt, Replit, v0 and Cursor. Start with a $495 fixed-price rescue audit: a senior developer reviews your code, database and hosting, then sends a written report within three business days.
Sound familiar?
If you recognise two or three of these, an audit will pay for itself.
Every fix breaks something else
You ask for one change and two unrelated features stop working. The AI keeps confidently rewriting things you didn't ask it to touch.
You've burnt through credits on the same bug
The same error has come back four times in different clothes. Each attempt costs money and the app is no closer to working.
It works for you and nobody else
Fine on your screen, broken on a phone, broken for the first real customer who tried to sign up.
You daren't touch it
It mostly works, so now it's frozen. You've stopped shipping because the risk of breaking it is higher than the value of the next feature.
Nobody has checked whether it's safe
There's a database with real customer data in it and nobody has ever reviewed who can read it.
- What is vibe coding?
- Vibe coding is building software by describing what you want in plain language and letting an AI write the code, rather than writing it yourself. The term was coined by Andrej Karpathy in early 2025. It is a genuinely good way to get from idea to working prototype in hours. It becomes a problem when the app outgrows what you can steer by prompting — usually around security, data, payments and deployment — because at that point you need to read the code to change it safely.
What we actually do
We read the whole thing
A senior developer goes through the codebase, the database schema and access rules, the environment variables and the deployment. No guessing, no assumptions — we find out what you actually have.
We secure it first
Exposed API keys, missing database row-level security, unprotected admin routes, public file storage. Security holes get closed before anything cosmetic, because those are the ones that cost you a business.
We stabilise the foundations
Sensible project structure, real error handling, environment separation, and a deploy that works the same way every time instead of only when you get lucky.
We finish what you started
The features that defeated the AI — payments, roles and permissions, integrations, the fiddly business logic — get built properly by people who can debug them.
We hand it back, documented
You get a codebase you own, notes a future developer can follow, and the option of us keeping it running. No lock-in either way.
What it costs
Everything is quoted at a fixed price before it starts. No hourly surprises.
Rescue audit
$495
fixed price
A senior developer reviews your codebase, database and deployment, and sends a written report within 3 business days.
Rescue sprint
$2,500 – $8,000
typical range
We fix what the audit found: security holes closed, the app stabilised, deployment sorted, and the parts that stopped you shipping actually finished.
Ongoing care
$750
from, per month
A monthly retainer: hosting, updates, security patches, backups, monitoring, an agreed block of development time, and a human who answers when something breaks. We also work ad-hoc — just ask.
What the $495 audit includes
- A plain-English summary of what you have and what state it is in
- Security review — database access rules, exposed keys, login and permissions
- A prioritised list of what is broken, what is risky and what is merely untidy
- A fixed-price quote for the work, and an honest view on rebuild vs repair
- The report is yours to keep and take to any developer
When you don't need us
If your app is a weekend experiment with no users and no data, don't pay us — keep prompting, that's exactly what these tools are brilliant at. Come back when real people are relying on it. And if the honest answer is that a rebuild is cheaper than a rescue, we'll tell you that in the audit rather than quietly bill you for the long way round.
Send us your app
$495 fixed price. Written report within 3 business days.
Common questions
Yes — that's most of what this is. We work with code from Lovable, Bolt, Replit, v0, Cursor, Claude Code, Windsurf, and plenty of half-finished projects from human developers too. If we can get access to the repository, we can assess it.
The rescue audit is $495 fixed, with a written report within three business days. Most rescue projects then land between $2,500 and $8,000 depending on what the audit finds. You get a fixed-price quote before any work starts, so there are no surprises.
Yes, and sometimes it does. If the fastest route to a working product is starting again on solid foundations, the audit will say so and show you the cost either way. Charging you to patch something that should be replaced isn't a business we want.
Always. It stays in your repository, in your accounts, under your ownership. If you later want to take it to another developer or bring it in-house, nothing stops you.
Audits usually start within a few days of you sending through access, and the report lands three business days later. If your site or app is down right now, say so in your message and we'll treat it as urgent.