Domain Rating in Vibe Coding: A 903-Domain Benchmark
The median Ahrefs Domain Rating was 4 across 903 measured VCL domains, and 60.6% scored below 10. What that says about backlinks—and what it cannot say.
The median Domain Rating was 4 across 903 measured custom domains in VCL’s September snapshot. In total, 547 domains—60.6%—scored below 10.
The finding concerns backlink profiles, not how well the products worked. Ahrefs defines Domain Rating as a relative measure of a domain’s backlink strength on a 100-point scale.
The distribution, not just the median
The report identified 904 eligible unique custom domains. One lacked a measurement, leaving 903 in this distribution. Shared hosting platforms are excluded, and each custom domain counts once even if several project listings use it.
| Ahrefs Domain Rating | Domains | Share of 903 measured domains |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | 237 | 26.2% |
| 0.1–9.9 | 310 | 34.3% |
| 10–29.9 | 264 | 29.2% |
| 30–49.9 | 74 | 8.2% |
| 50 or higher | 18 | 2.0% |
The below-ten share is calculated from 237 plus 310 domains, not by adding the two rounded percentages. That is why the combined figure rounds to 60.6%, while the displayed rows add to 60.5%.
A backlink benchmark is not a product grade
DR is a relative, logarithmic Ahrefs metric, not a Google ranking factor. A score of 4 does not mean a site is “4% successful,” and DR 10 is not an official boundary between viable and nonviable products.
The distribution shows that this selected VCL sample contains many domains with low ratings under Ahrefs’ system. It does not tell us whether those domains were new, deliberately unpromoted, supported by social traffic or already serving paying customers. The data also cannot attribute their backlink profiles to a particular AI coding tool.
For reporting purposes, the precise result is more useful than calling the sites “unsuccessful”: 547 of 903 measured custom domains had DR below 10 at the release cutoff. Whether backlink strength accompanies search visibility is a separate question, addressed by the report’s paired-domain comparison.
Data and source. State of Vibe Coding 2026, Dataset v7: Domain Rating, cutoff September 11, 2026 at 09:40:56 UTC. See the edition’s methodology for domain eligibility and measurement selection.
The full State of Vibe Coding report separates backlink strength from traffic estimates and page-level scores.