Lovable vs Replit vs Bolt: What Each Costs and Who It's For

Lovable, Replit and Bolt all turn a plain-English description into a working web app, and all three let you start for $0. Paid plans start at $25 a month for Lovable Pro, $20 a month for Replit Core ($18 a month billed yearly) and $25 a month for Bolt Pro.

Pick Lovable if you want to chat your way to a web app and have it hosted for you, with as many teammates as you like on one bill. Pick Replit if you want a full coding workspace with an agent, a database and room for up to 15 builders on Pro.

Pick Bolt if you want a free plan with a clear monthly token count and, on Pro, a custom domain and tokens that roll over.

AI for Mortals hasn't built the same app in all three, so this page compares what each vendor's own pages say they include and cost. Pat Simmons did test OpenAI's Codex Sites as an alternative to these builders in June 2026, and his findings are in the Codex Sites section below.

Last checked November 9, 2026: the plans and prices on Lovable's pricing page and plan docs, Replit's pricing page and Starter plan docs, Bolt's pricing page, Base44's pricing page and OpenAI's Codex Sites help page.

Lovable vs Replit: which should you use?

Use Lovable if you mainly want to describe a website or web app in a chat and get it built and hosted. Use Replit if you want a cloud workspace where an agent writes the code, with a database, planning tools and a small team working on the same project.

Lovable calls itself "an AI software engineer" that lets you chat to build websites and web apps with no technical knowledge. Its plans are priced by credits, the units Lovable charges for each message and for hosting, and every plan allows unlimited workspace members, so adding people doesn't raise the bill. They draw from one shared pool of credits instead.

Replit describes itself as a place to describe what you want in natural language, then build, launch and grow apps, sites and tools.

Its paid Core plan adds Plan Mode, connectors to services like Google and Stripe, and up to 5 builders in your workspace. Pro raises that to 15 collaborators and adds database rollback of up to 28 days, which lets you restore your app's data to an earlier point.

On price, Replit's entry plan is cheaper: Core is $20 a month against $25 for Lovable Pro.

The two count usage differently, so the cheaper plan isn't automatically the one that lasts longer. Replit Core includes $20 toward its more powerful models plus up to 30 hours of chat on its Free Mode, while Lovable Pro includes 100 credits a month plus 5 build credits a day.

What do Lovable, Replit and Bolt cost?

Each one has a free plan, an entry paid plan at $20 to $25 a month, bigger plans for teams, and custom pricing for large companies.

The table lists every plan from the vendors' own pages, checked November 9, 2026. Credits and tokens are each company's own units for how much building you get, and what tokens and credits actually measure differs from tool to tool.

Lovable's Pro and Business plans come in credit tiers from 100 to 10,000 credits a month, so $25 and $50 are the starting points. Pro with 200 credits is $50 a month, for example, and yearly billing gives you two months free. Bolt says yearly billing saves up to 28%, and Replit's yearly discount is up to 10%.

Which one has the best free plan?

It depends on how you build. Bolt's free plan gives you 1 million tokens a month with hosting, Lovable's gives you 5 build credits a day, and Replit's free Starter plan limits you to one published app, which goes offline after 30 days.

Bolt Free includes 1 million tokens a month with a daily limit of 300,000, website hosting, up to 333,000 web requests and unlimited databases. Sites carry Bolt branding, uploads are capped at 10MB and free tokens don't roll over to the next month.

Lovable Free gives you 5 build credits a day, up to 30 a month, plus 20 Cloud credits for hosting and 4 credits for AI features inside your app.

Lovable's own examples put a small edit like "make the button gray" at 0.50 credits and a landing page with generated images at 1.70. The free plan doesn't include custom domains, code editing or code download, which start on Pro.

Replit Starter includes daily Agent credits up to a monthly cap, but only Lite build, Replit's mode for quick edits and targeted changes. Full build, Plan Mode and connectors to other services need Core, and the one published app shows a "Made with Replit" badge and goes down after 30 days.

Bolt vs Lovable: what's the difference?

Both start paid plans at $25 a month and both host what you build. The main differences are how they count usage and how they charge teams.

Bolt measures work in tokens, which it describes as how Bolt measures the work it does on your project: reading your prompts and files, planning and writing code. Bolt Pro starts at 10 million tokens a month with no daily limit, and unused tokens stay in your balance for up to two months while your subscription is active.

Lovable measures work in credits. A message's cost depends on how big the job is, and Plan Mode, where Lovable thinks through a change without editing your code, costs 1 credit per message. Monthly credits expire two months after they're issued, and the 5 daily credits expire at the end of each day.

For teams, Bolt Teams charges $30 per member a month, and tokens aren't shared between members. Lovable doesn't charge per seat: a workspace on any plan can have unlimited members sharing one credit balance, and admins can set a monthly limit for each person.

On Pro, both remove their branding and let you use your own domain. Bolt Pro also lists a choice of database provider and image editing with AI, and Lovable Pro adds code editing, code download and design systems.

Is Lovable a good AI tool?

Lovable fits people who want to build a web app by chatting without touching the code, and its credit pricing is simple to share across a team. AI for Mortals hasn't tested it hands-on, so this answer rests on what Lovable's pages say it does and costs.

You own what you build. Lovable says you own your code, the apps you make and the data stored in them, subject to rights in the underlying AI models. Paid plans let you download the code and sync it to GitHub, GitLab or Bitbucket, and Git sync is on the free plan too.

Hosting a small app usually costs nothing extra. Lovable says that for most smaller or new apps, the included grant covers publishing and running the app, and costs start only when an app gets significant traffic or size.

Pat Simmons hasn't reviewed Lovable. In his June 2026 video on Codex Sites, he said, "The UI might be a little bit better on Lovable, Replit, but that is marginal next to just getting a working proof of concept out as fast as possible."

How reputable is Replit?

Replit is valued at $9 billion, and its Enterprise plan includes the security controls large companies ask for. You can read who owns Lovable, Replit and the other AI coding companies, with every figure taken from each company's own announcement. The same page puts Lovable at $13.3 billion.

Replit Enterprise includes SSO, SCIM and audit logs, which let a company sign staff in with its own accounts, add and remove them automatically and keep a record of who did what. It also offers single-tenant and private networking options and dedicated premium support.

Replit's pricing page also notes that its agent "may occasionally make mistakes" because it runs on AI models. You can set usage limits and budgets so a busy app can't run up an unexpected bill.

What is comparable to Replit? (Base44, Codex Sites, Claude Code)

Lovable and Bolt do the same job as Replit, and Base44, OpenAI's Codex Sites and Claude Code also build apps from a plain-English description.

Base44

Base44 calls itself a no-code AI platform that builds the front end, back end, database, user sign-in and payments from a plain-language description, and you can export the full code to GitHub.

Its free plan includes 25 message credits and 100 integration credits a month for up to 5 apps. Paid plans billed yearly are $16 a month for Starter (100 message credits), $40 for Builder, $80 for Pro and $160 for Elite.

Whether Base44 is better than Lovable depends on the job, and AI for Mortals hasn't tested either. Base44 counts a monthly allowance of messages, while Lovable counts credits that vary with each task, and Base44's Starter plan is cheaper per month than Lovable Pro if you pay for a year up front.

Codex Sites

Codex Sites builds and hosts a website or web app from a description in ChatGPT or Codex. It is available on ChatGPT Plus and Pro accounts and on Business and Enterprise workspaces, checked November 9, 2026.

At launch in June 2026 it was only in preview for Business and Enterprise. Hosting is free through December 31, 2026, and from January 1, 2027 you pay only for usage above your plan's monthly hosting allowance. You can read more about how Codex works inside the ChatGPT app.

OpenAI launched Sites with early partners including Vercel, Wix, Base44, Replit, Lovable, Figma, Webflow and Emergent.

Claude Code

If you'd rather skip app builders altogether, you can build a small app with Claude Code instead. AI for Mortals' beginner guide walks through it step by step, without writing code yourself.

Do you need an app builder at all? What Pat found with Codex Sites

Pat found that Codex Sites does basically the same thing as Lovable and Replit while handling security, the database and login for you, and said he didn't see himself going back. He tested it in a video published June 3, 2026, the day after OpenAI launched it.

He started with OpenAI's own demo prompt, a microsite to manage event operations for a summit, and Codex designed a full "Event ops control room" with demo data. He then asked for an art director's portfolio site with images made by OpenAI's image model, which ran for 18 minutes.

Next he built a request dashboard that required people to sign in.

Codex set up the login, the database and the storage itself, running the app on Cloudflare Workers with Cloudflare's D1 database and R2 storage, so there was no separate Supabase or Neon account to connect. When he signed in with a second account on his team plan, that teammate saw the same dashboard.

The last test connected Codex to his demo HubSpot account and built a sales pipeline tracker from the deals. He then had Codex change one deal in HubSpot, refreshed the tracker, and the Foundry District Coffee deal had gone from $48,270 to $108,270.

His verdict was short: "I haven't opened Lovable or Replit anyway in months, but most certainly won't be doing that after this." He also gave his view that "these tools are running on the same models anyway. Opus or GPT underneath." He has tested the models these builders run on, building the same app, with what each build cost.

If your ChatGPT plan already includes Codex Sites, it's worth trying before you pay for a separate builder. If you're not on a paid ChatGPT plan, or you want a free plan or a whole team on one bill, the table above shows what Lovable, Replit and Bolt charge.

Questions people ask

Is Lovable free?

Yes. Lovable's free plan gives 5 build credits a day, up to 30 a month, with no credit card needed.

Is Replit free?

Yes. Replit's Starter plan costs nothing and includes daily Agent credits and one published app, which goes down after 30 days.

Is Bolt free?

Yes. Bolt Free includes 1 million tokens a month, with up to 300,000 a day, and no card is required.

Is Replit cheaper than Lovable?

Replit's entry paid plan is cheaper: Core is $20 a month, or $18 billed yearly, and Lovable Pro starts at $25, or $21 a month billed yearly.

Do Bolt tokens roll over?

On paid plans, yes. Unused tokens stay for up to two months while your subscription is active, and free plan tokens don't roll over.

Do Lovable credits expire?

Yes. Monthly plan credits expire two months after they're issued, top-up credits last 12 months and the 5 daily credits expire at the end of each day.

Does Lovable charge per user?

No. Every Lovable plan allows unlimited members, and inviting more people only changes how fast the shared credits get used.

How much does one Lovable message cost?

It depends on the job. Lovable's examples run from 0.50 credits for a small style change to 1.70 for a landing page with three generated images, and a Plan Mode message costs 1 credit.

Is there a student discount on Lovable?

Yes. Students and teachers get 50% off Pro with 100 credits a month for up to 12 months, billed monthly, after verifying a school email address.

Can more than one person work on a Replit app?

On paid plans. Core allows up to 5 builders and Pro up to 15, and the free Starter plan has no collaboration seats.

Is Codex Sites free?

It's included with ChatGPT Plus, Pro, Business and Enterprise, and hosting is free through December 31, 2026. Building and editing a site counts toward your Codex usage.