Lovable vs Bolt: which app builder to pick in 2026

What Lovable and Bolt are

Lovable and Bolt are app builders you talk to, so you describe a website or app in plain words instead of writing code. Each one then writes the code, displays a live preview and publishes the finished result online.

Both include a database, user sign-in and hosting, so a first project can go from idea to live link without any other service. For Replit, Base44 and other builders, see our list of the best vibe coding tools.

Lovable vs Bolt at a glance

Prices are the normal monthly price in US dollars, taken from each maker's official pages on Nov 8, 2026.

Tool	Free plan	Paid from	For teams	Sign-in methods	Free hosting traffic	GitHub sync	Phone apps
Lovable	5 credits a day, up to 30 a month	$25 (Pro, 100 credits)	Shared credits, no per-seat fee	Email, phone, Google, Apple, Microsoft, SSO	No visitor or bandwidth cap	Every plan	No
Bolt.new	1M tokens a month, 300K a day	$25 (Pro, 10M tokens)	Teams at $30 per member	Email, Google, guest	10 GB and 333,333 requests a month	Yes	iOS and Android through Expo

Is Lovable or Bolt free?

Yes, both offer a free plan with no card required, although they measure usage in different units that can't be compared exactly.

• Lovable Free gives 5 build credits a day, up to 30 a month, plus 20 Cloud credits monthly for hosting. The code editor is read-only.
• Bolt Free gives 1 million tokens a month, capped at 300,000 a day, with only the Standard agent. Editing code yourself in Code view uses no tokens.

Both free plans add a badge to published sites, Edit with Lovable or Made in Bolt, and exclude custom domains.

How much do Lovable and Bolt cost?

Both start at $25 a month for Pro, which removes the badge, adds custom domains and comes in larger monthly allowances.

• Lovable Pro costs $25 a month for 100 credits, $50 for 200 or $100 for 400, plus 5 daily build credits with no monthly cap. Business starts at $50 a month and adds SSO and a security centre.
• Bolt Pro costs $25 a month for 10 million tokens, $50 for 26 million or $100 for 55 million, with no daily cap. Teams costs $30 per member, each with separate tokens.

The bigger difference is how each company counts usage, since Lovable charges every message according to the work it completes. Its official examples put a small style change at 0.50 credits and adding sign-up and login at 1.20. Plan mode messages, which plan a change before any code is written, cost 1 credit each.

Bolt counts tokens instead, and most of them go on reading your project files with every message. As a result, the same request becomes more expensive as your project grows larger. On both, unused allowance carries into the following month while your subscription stays active.

Which is better for a landing page or a full app?

Both makers list landing pages, company sites, internal tools and full web apps with accounts and data, so the differences show up at the edges.

• Landing pages and websites. Lovable apps created since May 13, 2026 send fully rendered pages to every visitor, which helps search engines read them. Bolt can start from a Figma or Google Stitch design, but free Bolt sites go offline for the month once they pass the traffic limit.
• Full web apps. Ask Lovable for login and it sets up email, Google and Sign in with Lovable, and paid plans add built-in payments through Stripe or Paddle. Bolt adds sign-in when asked, connects to Stripe, and gives paid users its Max agent for complex apps.
• Phone apps. Bolt builds iOS and Android apps through Expo, which you can test on your own phone first. Store releases need paid Apple and Google developer accounts. Lovable builds web apps only.

Databases and sign-in

Both create a database for you when your app needs one, so you never have to set up a server yourself.

• Lovable's built-in backend runs on Supabase's open-source foundation, with a database, authentication, file storage and server functions. Sign-in can use email, phone, Google, Apple, Microsoft, SAML SSO or OIDC, and any plan can connect its own Supabase project.
• Bolt Database comes with every plan, with no limit on how many you create. Authentication covers email, Google and guest sign-ins, while using Supabase instead requires Pro.

On Lovable, database and server activity consumes credits as your app gets busier, once the 20 included Cloud credits run out each month. By default, Lovable also pauses to check with you whenever a single long build message passes 20 credits.

Hosting and custom domains

Both publish your application in one click with HTTPS included, both sell domains inside the builder, and both reserve custom domains for paid plans.

• Lovable puts no cap on visitors or bandwidth on any plan, and a live site uses no credits by itself. New apps on Free are limited to 1,000 page loads or server calls per project every 10 seconds.
• Bolt Free allows 10 GB of bandwidth and 333,333 requests a month, which Bolt says suits about 10,000 to 15,000 visits. Pro raises that to 30 GB and 1 million requests, with pay-as-you-go above it up to a spending cap you set.

Can you export your code to GitHub?

Yes, both export code, and each company says the code you build belongs to you, including for commercial projects.

• Lovable syncs both ways with GitHub, GitLab or Bitbucket on every plan, Free included. Editing and downloading code inside Lovable require a paid plan.
• Bolt syncs with GitHub after every change, downloads any project as a zip file on desktop, and has a Code view for editing files and running terminal commands.

Lovable and Bolt, one by one

2. Bolt: best for phone apps and code control

• Bolt.newBest for phone apps and code controlFree

Bolt, made by StackBlitz, runs a full coding setup inside your browser tab, so you can prompt or edit files directly. Paid plans add the Max agent for large applications, and the Expo integration takes projects to iOS and Android.

Pro costs $25 a month for 10 million tokens with no daily cap. Bolt says its Pro hosting often supports 100,000 monthly visits or more before pay-as-you-go charges begin.

Good

• iOS and Android apps through Expo
• Code editing on the free plan
• A choice of JavaScript frameworks
• Hosting spend capped at a limit you set

Watch for

• Free sites go offline past the traffic cap
• Messages cost more tokens as a project grows
• Supabase and custom domains need Pro

Which one should you pick?

Both handle a simple landing page well, so decide based on what comes next: a backend, a phone application or the code itself.

• You're building a first web app and want sign-in and a database set up for youLovable
• Your team wants to share one plan without paying per personLovable
• You want GitHub sync on the free planLovable
• You want an iPhone or Android app, not only a websiteBolt.new
• You want to edit the code yourself for freeBolt.new
• You want to choose the JavaScript frameworkBolt.new

How we picked

We compared Lovable and Bolt using only what the two companies publish: pricing pages, help centres and documentation, all read on Nov 8, 2026. Where a maker gives a number we quote it, and where it only offers an example, we say so.

We haven't built the same app in both, so nothing here comes from our own testing. Neither company paid to appear here or reviewed this page before publication, and we update the page and its date whenever plans change.

Questions people ask