Lovable vs Bolt: Which AI App Builder Should You Use?
Short answer: Pick Lovable if you want the smoothest path from a plain-English idea to a hosted web app and you are fine paying per message. Pick Bolt if you want a bigger free allowance, token-based pricing, or a route to iOS and Android apps through Expo. Both paid plans start at $25 a month and both sync your code to GitHub, so you are not locked in either way.
Below is the detail: pricing, free plans, backends, switching, and which one fits which kind of founder. Everything here comes from each tool's own pricing page and docs as of October 2026.
Lovable vs Bolt at a glance
| Lovable | Bolt | |
|---|---|---|
| Paid plan from | $25/month (Pro, 100 credits) | $25/month (Pro, from 10M tokens) |
| Free plan | 5 build credits a day, up to 30 a month | 300K tokens a day, 1M a month |
| How usage is measured | Credits per message, priced by how complex the request is | Tokens |
| Unused allowance | Monthly credits roll over while you subscribe, and expire 2 months after issue | Paid tokens roll over for one extra month |
| Backend | Lovable Cloud (hosting, database, storage, compute) | Bolt Cloud database and hosting, or Supabase |
| Code access | Git sync on every plan; edit and download code on Pro | GitHub sync |
| Native mobile apps | Not listed on the pages we checked | iOS and Android through the Expo integration |
| Custom domains | Pro and up | Pro and up |
| Teams | Business from $50/month, adds SSO | Teams at $30 per member a month |
| Annual billing | Two months free | Save up to 28% |
How the pricing compares in practice
Lovable charges credits per message, and the cost depends on the request. Its pricing page gives examples: "Make the button gray" costs 0.50 credits, adding sign-up and login costs 1.20, and building a landing page with images costs 1.70. Pro's 100 monthly credits go a long way on small edits and much less far on big features. You also get 5 daily build credits on top, and Pro scales up to 10,000 credits a month if you need more.
One thing to plan for: Lovable Cloud usage (your app's database, storage and compute) comes out of a monthly Cloud grant of 20 credits first, then your general credits. If you run out, Lovable pauses the backend services. A live app with real users needs a buffer, or auto top-up turned on. On Pro, top-ups cost $15 for 50 credits.
Bolt measures usage in tokens. Pro starts at 10M tokens a month with no daily limit, and unused paid tokens roll over for one extra month while your subscription is active. On the Teams plan each paid member gets their own monthly allotment, and tokens are not shared between members.
Free plans
The free plans differ more than the paid ones.
Lovable Free gives you 5 build credits a day, capped at 30 a month, plus a daily chat allowance. Projects can be private and you can sync to GitHub, GitLab or Bitbucket. Publishing on Free is limited to people you invite, so a public launch needs Pro.
Bolt Free gives you 300K tokens a day and 1M a month, website hosting up to 333K web requests, unlimited databases, and public or private projects. Sites carry Bolt branding and uploads are capped at 10MB.
If you want to put something public in front of users without paying, Bolt's free plan gets you further.
Backend, data and integrations
Lovable says it handles hosting, SSL, backend infrastructure, authentication and payments for you. Lovable Cloud runs the backend. If your app calls AI models, those calls go through Lovable's AI gateway and draw from a monthly AI grant of 4 credits, then general credits. Connectors "Managed by Lovable", such as Perplexity, Firecrawl and Parallel, work the same way with their own monthly grant of 1 credit.
Bolt Cloud gives every project a database, user management and authentication, and hosting with analytics and custom domains. Bolt's docs list integrations for Supabase (as an alternative to Bolt Database), Stripe for payments and subscriptions, Netlify for publishing, Figma and Google Stitch for starting from a design, Expo for iOS and Android apps, and MCP servers so the agent can read your other tools.
If you already design in Figma or need a phone app, Bolt's integration list is the deciding factor.
Switching between them
You can move. Bolt has a documented Lovable import that brings a Lovable project into Bolt, and both tools sync with GitHub, so your code lives somewhere you control. Connect GitHub on day one whichever you choose.
Which one should you pick?
Choose Lovable if you are non-technical, want to describe an app and get a working, hosted version quickly, and want a backend you never have to configure. It suits MVPs, internal tools and client-facing apps where speed matters more than squeezing the cost per change.
Choose Bolt if you want more room on the free plan, already have designs in Figma, need iOS and Android apps through Expo, or want to choose your own database provider.
Look at something else if you want to see and edit code in a full browser IDE. Replit fits better there. For a cheap way to validate a SaaS idea, our guide to the $16/month SaaS startup on base44 is worth a read.
Before you start either one
Both tools burn through credits or tokens fastest when you prompt vaguely and fix things one message at a time. Write a short plan before your first prompt: who the app is for, the three screens it needs, and what data it stores. Then build in small steps.
- Read our full Lovable review and Bolt listing
- Use the Prompting Playbook to plan first and prompt with enough context
- Run your landing page through the free Landing Page Roast Prompt before launch
- Want a mobile app from a web build? See how to convert Lovable, Bolt and base44 projects into iOS and Android apps
- Working with newer coding models inside these tools? Read How to Actually Work With the New AI Coding Models
Prices and allowances change often in this category. Check lovable.dev/pricing and bolt.new/pricing before you commit.
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