I wanted to share some feedback about the recent replacement of several ‘classic’ Softr blocks with AI blocks.
I understand the idea behind this, and I think AI can be very useful. However, in practice it is not always an improvement, especially for simple layout or styling changes.
With the previous blocks, users could directly adjust standard settings such as font size, padding, colors, spacing, and similar options through clear controls in the interface. That was straightforward and beginner-friendly.
Now, with the AI blocks, many of these basic settings seem to require a conversation with the AI. That creates a few problems:
For simple changes, users now have to explain what they want instead of just selecting it in the UI.
The AI does not always understand the request correctly.
It may not always generate the same kind of practical, user-friendly controls.
Sometimes it takes several back-and-forth messages to achieve a very small adjustment.
This is especially difficult for beginners, who often rely heavily on blocks and simple settings panels.
My conclusion is: AI is a good addition, but it should not replace basic manual controls for standard settings.
Ideally, the default styling and layout options should still be available directly in the block settings, with AI as an extra layer on top, not as the only way to make common adjustments.
I think that would make the experience much more practical, predictable, and beginner-friendly.
We’re improving those aspects very fast, just released a more native way to set the destination of buttons (e.g. picking an app page instead of having to write the URL).
I’ll pass that useful feedback to the team and we’ll keep improving
Just chiming in on this, I’m a bit late to the party but just redoing some parts of my site and using the new blocks. 100% agree with @tuur. It is absolutely great to use the coding blocks for medium complexity situations, and I’m so grateful it is a feature that I can utilize.
But, there are a lot of simple things that using AI for is total overkill and there are some simple things that the vibe coding block seems unable to do on the first try. I’ve yet to have it consistently and correctly do simple things like changing colors, text size/color/font; things that used to take 30 seconds now take 5 minutes. The reason why I love Softr is that I don’t need to be a tech/code person. But more and more it seems that I have to know how to tell the coding block exactly what to do and how to do it. On the older coding blocks it was much easier and simpler (which I know some people thought was too simple), to make these changes and also keep my whole site looking consistent in design/feel.
I know you guys are working super hard on this and it’s very appreciated. Just wanted to pass on some other feedback
@GuillaumeDuv, adjusting button layouts is not addressing this problem. I agree with the sentiment in this thread that AI should improve on the core configuration of app building in Softr, not replace it. In our experience as long term no-coders, we noticed Softr’s configuration and styling features were great until last year. Softr had a good balance between configuration and custom coding options, but a significant amount of manual styling options was deprecated early last year and this years abrupt switch to AI/Vibe coding is causing too much friction for users to build custom apps efficiently and with enough control.
Unfortunately many of Softr’s interface changes discard configuration options that were useful. A good example is the styling of navigation links which were fairly robust, but are now very minimal compared to legacy styling. Softr’s go to suggestion for these kinds of scenarios is to “use vibe coding blocks”, which count against our AI credits.
Softr should strike a better balance between its manual customization options and the variable cost of its new AI features. Just because features are new, shiny, and trendy does not make them more useful, let alone cost effective for users.
I really agree with @Tuur . It takes too much time just to change the color of a block or adjusting the font size / weight consistently with the rest of the app. Also, AI is not free. Now that I have used all my credits for the month I’m just stuck… Or I have to buy more while I just need the simple customizable blocks that existed before. I’m very disappointed with this new version of Softr.
Found this while browsing and wanted to add my thoughts. Is there any update on whether Softr plans to reintroduce manual controls for basic settings? I love the versatility AI can bring, but it’s crucial to balance it so we maintain the simplicity that Softr is known for. Curious if there have been further improvements or feedback from the community lately!
