Vibe-Coding Your Startup? Here’s Why You Shouldn’t Roll Your Own Authentication
May 14, 2025
3 mins
Matt (Co-Founder and CEO)
Keywords: roll your own auth, DIY authentication, startup login system, AI-coded apps
It always starts the same way
You’re shipping fast, using Cursor or Windsurf or just coding with GPT in VSCode. You’ve got a product demo working, and now you need login.
You think: “It’s just a login page. I’ll whip something up.”
And just like that, you’ve rolled your own authentication.
Until it starts breaking.
The Hidden Costs of DIY Auth
What seems simple at first becomes a mess fast:
Forgotten password flows → never built
Session handling → inconsistent and insecure
Audit logs → nonexistent
Onboarding new devs → painful
Scaling beyond 1 environment → good luck
Most teams don’t realize until they’re knee-deep in duct tape that auth is infrastructure — not a feature.
Why Founders Still Try to Build It Themselves
It feels faster
Firebase/Auth0 feel bloated
You want full control
You’re wary of lock-in
All valid. But there’s a better path: one that gives you full control without owning the risk.
The Alternative: Code-Defined Auth
With Prefactor, you don’t click through UI dashboards. You write your login flows in a DSL and ship them like code:
No config debt. No lock-in. Just programmable authentication that works like the rest of your stack.
You Can Still Move Fast — Without Rolling Your Own
Define your flow once
Deploy it through CLI
Integrate it with your app
Version it like code
Test it before it goes live
You're still building fast — you're just not sabotaging yourself later.
TL;DR
🚫 DIY auth feels fast but slows you down
🚫 You don’t need Firebase or Auth0 bloat
✅ Define your login logic in code with Prefactor
✅ Keep control without owning auth headaches
Start Smart, Scale Clean
Your startup deserves better than a hacked-together login system.
Ship secure auth from day one — with code you control.
👉 Start building with Prefactor now