Base44 vs Lovable: which AI app builder fits, row by row
Base44 and Lovable both turn a written description into a working web app. Lovable is the stronger pick when you want the code in your own GitHub repository, a Postgres database you can take with you, and a React front end you may later host yourself. Base44 is the stronger pick when you want hosting, tables, logins and payments in one place with no outside service to set up. Prices, limits and export rules change often, so every row below names its source, and everything was read on 21 October 2026 unless a different date is shown.
The comparison
| Row | Lovable | Base44 |
|---|---|---|
| What it says it is | "A full-stack AI development platform for building, iterating on, and deploying web applications." [L1] | "A no-code AI platform for building apps, websites and AI agents." [B1] |
| Who owns it | Independent. Raised a $200M Series A at a $1.8B valuation on 17 July 2025. [L2] Later rounds are press reports only. | Wix.com, since 18 June 2025: about $80M up front plus earn-outs through 2029. Runs as a separate product. [S1] |
| Free plan | 5 build credits a day, 30 a month, 20 Cloud credits a month. No custom domain, no code download. [L3] | 25 message credits a month, at most 5 a day, 100 integration credits, up to 5 apps. [B2][B3] |
| Paid plans | Pro from $25 a month for 100 credits ($250 a year). Business from $50 a month for 100 credits. Both scale by credits up to 10,000 a month. Enterprise is quoted. [L3] | Starter $20, Builder $50, Pro $100, Elite $200 a month; $16, $40, $80 and $160 on annual billing. Business and Enterprise are quoted. [B2][B4] |
| What a credit buys | A plan-mode message is 1 credit. A build request is priced by its size, with published examples from 0.5 to 1.7 credits. A request you stop before any change is free. Ten "try to fix" attempts are free per account; after that fixes cost build credits. [L4][L5] | One AI message is one message credit; integration actions use integration credits. On paid plans automatic error fixes are free; on Free they use credits. Credits are not refunded for AI mistakes. [B3] |
| Hosting | On Lovable at yourapp.lovable.app; custom domains on paid plans. The docs also describe hosting part or all of the stack yourself on Vercel, Netlify, Docker or nginx. [L6][L7] | Built-in hosting at yourapp.base44.app; custom domains from Starter. No self-hosting path is documented. [B1][B5] |
| Database | Lovable Cloud by default, a managed Postgres built on Supabase, or connect your own Supabase project. Export is a full Postgres archive, once every 24 hours, without storage files. [L8][L9][L10] | Built-in tables. Export is a CSV per table. Database size caps run from 200 MB on Free to 10 GB on Pro for apps created from 18 October 2026. An outside database is reachable only from backend functions, Builder plan and up. [B6] |
| Auth for app users | Built-in auth on Lovable Cloud, or Supabase Auth. [L8][L9] | Built in: email and password, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Apple and OIDC single sign-on. App-level SSO on Business and Enterprise. [B7] |
| Code export | Two-way GitHub sync on all plans; code download on paid plans. The repository holds the source, database migrations and edge functions, and neither the rows nor the stored files. [L7][L11] | Two-way GitHub sync from the Builder plan; a beta API downloads the source as a zip. The docs do not say whether the exported app runs without Base44's hosted backend. [B8][B9][B4] |
| Integrations and payments | Connectors for Slack, Notion, HubSpot, Google Workspace, Salesforce, Linear and more. Payments through Paddle at 5.0% plus 50 cents a transaction, or Stripe, from Pro; your own Stripe key works on any plan. [L12][L13] | Connectors for Notion, Slack, Google, Salesforce, HubSpot, LinkedIn and TikTok from Builder. Stripe from Builder. Base44 Payments, run by Wix, from Builder in the US, UK and ten EU countries. [B10][B11][B12] |
| Who it says it is for | "Teams inside companies, technical teams and agencies." [L1] | "Internal tools and dashboards, customer portals and CRMs." [B1] |
How to choose between the two
- Pick Lovable if the front end matters most, you want the repository and the Postgres archive in your hands from day one, or you expect to move hosting later.
- Pick Base44 if you want logins, tables, payments and hosting with nothing to wire up, and you are building an internal tool or a customer portal that will stay on Base44.
- Check the credit maths on either before you commit. Both bill the conversation, so a long debugging session is the expensive part on both, and the fix rules above differ.
Where OBTO differs
OBTO is used differently from both, so it gets a column only where the answer changes.
| Row | Lovable and Base44 | OBTO |
|---|---|---|
| Where you build | In the product's own chat builder. | In the AI client you already use, Claude, ChatGPT, Claude Code or Cursor, connected over MCP. There is no builder window to learn. |
| What you pay for | Credits per message. | A flat price per deployed application: $0 for 1 app, $19 for 2, $49 for 5, $149 for 20, then per extra app. OBTO does not meter messages or tokens; model spend stays on your own key or subscription. [O1] |
| What the app is | A code repository plus a hosted backend. | A set of records: pages, API routes, server scripts, data collections, scheduled jobs and MCP tools, each with a restore point per change, and exportable to GitHub. [O2] |
| Built for | Web apps people open and click. | Apps and MCP tools that also run without a person present, with a usage row for every call. For a polished public front end, pick Lovable. |
All three have a free plan. An afternoon with each is cheaper than any comparison page, this one included. OBTO's getting started page is the two-minute version, and AI app builders: features to compare is the checklist we use.
Sources
Read 21 October 2026 unless dated.
- L1 docs.lovable.dev/introduction/welcome
- L2 lovable.dev/blog/200m-series-a-fundraise, 17 July 2025
- L3 docs.lovable.dev/introduction/subscription-plans
- L4 docs.lovable.dev/introduction/credits-and-usage
- L5 docs.lovable.dev/introduction/faq
- L6 docs.lovable.dev/features/custom-domain
- L7 docs.lovable.dev/tips-tricks/deployment-hosting-ownership
- L8 docs.lovable.dev/features/cloud
- L9 docs.lovable.dev/integrations/supabase
- L10 docs.lovable.dev/features/database-backups
- L11 docs.lovable.dev/integrations/github
- L12 docs.lovable.dev/integrations/introduction
- L13 docs.lovable.dev/features/payments
- B1 base44.com
- B2 base44.com/blog/how-much-does-base44-cost, Base44's own post, prices stated as correct on 26 July 2026
- B3 docs.base44.com/Account-and-billing/Credits
- B4 base44.com/pricing (annual rates shown)
- B5 docs.base44.com/Setting-up-your-app/Setting-up-your-custom-domain
- B6 docs.base44.com/Building-your-app/Managing-your-app-data
- B7 docs.base44.com/Setting-up-your-app/Managing-login-and-registration
- B8 docs.base44.com/developers/app-code/local-development/github
- B9 docs.base44.com/api-reference/export-app-source-code
- B10 docs.base44.com/Integrations/Using-integrations
- B11 docs.base44.com/Integrations/Stripe-integration
- B12 docs.base44.com/Setting-up-your-app/setting-up-wix-payments
- S1 Wix press release of 18 June 2025, as carried by Globes
- O1 obto.co pricing
- O2 How rollback works on OBTO