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Base44 Alternatives: Lovable, Bolt and Builddu Compared

A comparison page by Builddu, which makes one of the builders listed. We are not affiliated with Base44, Lovable or Bolt. Checked against each vendor’s own pages, and ours, on 23 September 2026.

If you are leaving Base44, or deciding not to start with it, these are builders you could use instead: what each one is, what its free plan gives, what its first paid plan costs, the unit it bills in, and who it suits.

How this list is made

We only list a builder once we have read its published pricing ourselves, on its own pages, and dated what we read. That is why this list is short.

We make one of the builders below, so treat this page as what it is: written by an interested party. That is why ours is listed last, why nothing is scored, and why every entry says who it suits — including where it suits you better than we do.

Other builders are listed alphabetically, with ours after them. The order is not a ranking.

Right now that is three builders: Bolt, Lovable and Builddu. If your shortlist is already down to us and Base44, our head-to-head between Builddu and Base44 goes through it row by row.

The builders

Bolt

Checked between 21 September 2026 and 23 September 2026

In its own pricing page’s words, an “AI powered website and app builder”.

Free plan
Yes: 1M tokens a month, capped at 300K a day, with website hosting and unlimited databases. Sites on the free plan carry Bolt branding.
Entry price
Pro: $25 a month billed monthly, or $18 a month billed yearly.
Bills in
Tokens. By Bolt’s own docs, most of them go on reading your project, so “larger projects use more tokens per message.”
Stands out for
Unused monthly tokens on paid plans roll over, staying valid for two months from the start of the billing cycle you received them in.

Bolt suits you if

  • You need free usage that comes back: 1M tokens every month, up to 300K a day. We give 20 free credits once, at sign-up — enough for one AI build.
  • You want to edit code by hand without spending your allowance: Bolt’s Code view does not use tokens.
  • You need team administration. Bolt’s Teams plan adds centralized billing, team-level access management and user provisioning.

If your choice is between Bolt and us, our row-by-row look at Builddu and Bolt sets the two side by side.

Lovable

Checked between 21 September 2026 and 23 September 2026

In its Cloud docs’ words, Lovable “includes a built-in backend (Cloud) with a database, storage, authentication, realtime, and functions.”

Free plan
Yes, and it renews: 5 daily build credits, capped at 30 a calendar month, plus a 20-credit Cloud grant and a 4-credit AI grant each month.
Entry price
Pro: $25 a month paid month to month. On annual billing it is $250 a year, which Lovable gives as $21 a month.
Bills in
Credits from one balance, with usage-specific grants spent before it: daily build credits, plus monthly grants for Cloud and for AI.
Stands out for
Git sync to GitHub, GitLab and Bitbucket is on every plan, including the free one; downloading the code starts at Pro.

Lovable suits you if

  • You want a free allowance that comes back: 5 daily build credits, up to 30 a month. We give 20 free credits once, at sign-up — enough for one AI build.
  • You want unused paid credits to carry over for a while: on Pro, unused monthly credits roll over, expiring 2 months after they were issued on monthly billing.
  • You want purchased credits that last: Lovable’s are valid for 12 months from your most recent purchase.

Builddu (ours)

Checked between 11 September 2026 and 23 September 2026

Ours. In our landing page’s words, it “turns a sentence into a running, full-stack application — database, pages and hosting included.”

Free plan
No free plan that renews. You get 20 free credits once, when you sign up, with no card required — enough for one AI build.
Entry price
Starter: $20 a month for 100 credits.
Bills in
Credits: an AI run is charged the credits it actually uses, rounded up, and publishing costs 1.
Stands out for
Credits set aside for an AI run that it does not use are returned when the run finishes.

Builddu suits you if

  • You want extra credits priced before you need them: ours are 100 for $19.
  • You don’t need ready-made templates or an established community around the product. Builddu is younger and smaller than the others listed, and has built up neither yet.

Why these builders are hard to compare

What you are comparing against

Base44’s own figures, so each builder above can be set against what you would be leaving.

Free plan
25 message credits a month, no more than 5 a day, plus 100 integration credits and up to 5 apps. Apps on the free plan can only be public.
Starter
$20 a month paid month to month, or $16 a month billed annually, for 100 message credits and 2,000 integration credits.
Top-ups
Paid plans only: Base44’s top-up doc says you need an active paid plan to purchase and use them.
Custom domains
Connect a domain from Starter. A free domain for the first year from Builder up, on yearly billing only.

Base44, Lovable and Bolt each bill in a different unit, so their prices do not line up against each other.

Base44 keeps two balances: message credits for building, and integration credits for what your finished app does. Our full rundown of Base44’s plans and credits has every plan.

Lovable bills credits from one balance, with usage-specific grants spent before it: daily build credits, plus monthly grants for Cloud and for AI. Our guide to Lovable’s credits and grants has the detail.

Bolt bills tokens, and by its own docs larger projects use more tokens per message. Our explanation of Bolt’s token billing explains why.

We charge credits too: an AI run costs what it uses, rounded up, and publishing is a flat 1.

We do not convert between them. Each vendor defines its unit its own way, so any exchange rate would be ours, not theirs.

Questions people ask

Is there a free alternative to Base44?
Two of the builders here have free plans that renew. Lovable’s gives 5 daily build credits, capped at 30 a calendar month, plus a monthly Cloud grant and AI grant. Bolt’s gives 1M tokens a month, up to 300K a day. We have no renewing free plan: you get 20 free credits once, when you sign up, which covers one AI build.
What is the cheapest alternative to Base44?
Billed annually, Base44’s own Starter, at $16 a month, is cheaper than every alternative on this page. Next come Bolt’s Pro at $18 a month billed yearly, our Starter at $20 a month (we have no annual price), and Lovable’s Pro at $250 a year, which Lovable gives as $21 a month. Paid month to month, our Starter and Base44’s Starter are both $20 a month, and Lovable’s Pro and Bolt’s Pro are $25. The prices buy different units, so compare what a unit pays for as well as the price.
Which Base44 alternative lets me keep my code?
For comparison, Base44’s pricing page says: “You own everything you build on Base44: your code, your data, your users.” Its plan cards list GitHub integration on Builder, Pro and Elite. Lovable syncs to GitHub, GitLab and Bitbucket on every plan, including the free one. Bolt’s help centre says: “All code that you create with Bolt and StackBlitz is your own code, which you can use for any legal purpose including commercial purposes.” Our own terms say: “Generated code and content are yours.”
Is a credit on another builder the same as a Base44 credit?
No. Base44 keeps message credits and integration credits apart; Lovable spends usage-specific grants before its general credits; Bolt bills tokens; we charge a fixed number of credits per action. A credit on one is not a credit on another, and we do not convert between them.
Why are so few builders listed?
Because we only list a builder after reading its published pricing on its own pages ourselves, and dating what we read. Others are added once we have done that for them, and not before.

Sources

Each fact on this page about Base44, Lovable and Bolt comes from one of the pages below, read on the date beside it. Facts about Builddu come from our own public pages and our billing code, labelled as such. Figures go out of date, and the date is how you judge how far to trust each one.

If a figure here is out of date or wrong, tell us at support@builddu.com.

Base44, Lovable and Bolt are trademarks of their owners. We name them for comparison and use no logos or branding of theirs.

More guides and comparisons.