VibeLovable vs Bolt vs Base44: what $20 to $25 a month gets you
All three have a free plan. The first paid plan costs $25 on Lovable and Bolt, and $20 on Base44. But each one counts usage in its own way, so the same money buys very different things. Here's what you actually get, straight from each tool's own pricing page and docs.
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Quick answer
- Base44 Starter, $20 a month: the cheapest way in. Pick it if your app needs to send emails or use AI once it's live. You get 100 credits for building and 2,000 more for what your app does.
- Lovable Pro, $25 a month: the easiest to budget. Lovable shows example costs per prompt, adds 5 free build credits every day, and lets unused monthly credits roll over.
- Bolt Pro, $25 a month: the biggest pool, with no daily cap. You get 10 million tokens. But Bolt doesn't say how many tokens a normal prompt uses, so it's the hardest to predict.
Lovable
Pro · 100 credits a month · $21/mo billed yearly
credits
Plus 5 free build credits a day, and small monthly grants for hosting and AI features.
Bolt.new
Pro · 10M tokens a month · $18/mo billed yearly
tokens
No daily limit. Unused tokens roll over for one more month.
Base44
Starter · 100 message + 2,000 integration credits · $16/mo billed yearly
message + integration credits
Two separate pools: one for building, one for what your live app does.
Side by side
| Lovable | Bolt.new | Base44 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Entry paid plan | Pro (100 credits) | Pro | Starter |
| Monthly price | $25 | $25 | $20 |
| Yearly price | $250 a year ($21/mo) | $18/mo billed yearly ($216 a year) | $16/mo billed yearly (about $192 a year) |
| What you get each month | 100 credits | 10M tokens | 100 message credits + 2,000 integration credits |
| Free extras on the paid plan | 5 build credits a day, 20 Cloud credits, 4 AI credits and 1 connector credit a month, daily chat allowance | None published | None published |
| Free plan | 5 build credits a day (max 30 a month), 20 Cloud, 4 AI, 1 connector credit a month | 1M tokens a month, max 300K a day | 25 message credits a month (max 5 a day), 100 integration credits, up to 5 apps |
| What uses it up | Build mode prompts (cost depends on the job), Plan mode (1 credit a message), chat, hosting, and AI features in your app | Bolt reading, thinking about and building your project. Most of it is syncing your files, so bigger projects cost more per message | Message credits: each AI chat prompt. Integration credits: emails, AI calls, images and other built-in services your live app uses |
| Unused credits roll over? | Yes. Monthly credits last 2 months from when you get them. Daily credits expire each day | Yes. Unused tokens last one extra month, while you stay subscribed | No. Unused credits expire when they reset each month |
| Buy more | $15 per 50 credits ($0.30 each), valid 12 months | "Reload tokens" only on the top monthly Pro tier or any yearly Pro plan. Price not published | Not published. The usual route is upgrading to Builder ($50/mo) |
What $20 to $25 really buys you
These are estimates. They use the example costs each tool publishes in its own docs, and your real cost depends on your project. A credit on Lovable is not the same as a credit on Base44, so don't compare the totals one to one.
Lovable Pro: 100 credits for $25
That's $0.25 a credit. Using Lovable's own example prices, 100 credits is roughly:
- 200 small style tweaks like "make the button gray" (0.50 each)
- 83 "add authentication" jobs (1.20 each)
- 50 landing pages with images (2.00 each)
- 100 Plan mode messages (1 credit each)
On top of that you get 5 free build credits a day. Use them every day and that's up to 150 more in a 30 day month. Skip a day and those 5 are gone.
Base44 Starter: 100 + 2,000 credits for $20
That's $0.20 a message credit. Using Base44's own rough ranges, 100 message credits is about:
- 200 simple text or style changes (about 0.5 each)
- 100 small feature tweaks (about 1 each)
- 50 bigger modules (about 2 each)
- 25 to 33 app-wide changes (3 to 4 each)
- About 330 Discuss mode questions (about 0.3 each)
The 2,000 integration credits are separate. That's about 2,000 emails from your app, or about 660 messages to an in-app AI agent on the Automatic model.
Bolt Pro: 10 million tokens for $25
That's $2.50 per million tokens, and 10 times the free plan. There's no daily cap, so you can use a big chunk in one long session.
How many prompts is that? Not published. Bolt says most tokens go to syncing your project files, so the same prompt costs more as your app grows. We won't guess a number.
Gotchas
- Lovable's daily credits don't stack. The 5 free build credits expire at the end of each day (00:00 UTC). They help most if you build a little every day.
- Lovable hosting comes out of the same pot. Hosting, your app's backend and its AI features use the small monthly grants first, then your main credits. A busy app can eat into your build budget.
- Long Lovable jobs can get big. One message can keep running and pauses to check in at 20 credits by default. The /goal command costs noticeably more for the same work.
- Bolt gets pricier as your app grows. Bigger projects use more tokens per message. Bolt's docs suggest clearing context and keeping prompts focused.
- Bolt reloads aren't on the $25 plan. On monthly billing, only the top Pro tier can buy extra tokens. On $25 monthly, your options are waiting for renewal or upgrading.
- Cancel Bolt and rolled-over tokens are gone. You lose access to all tokens, rollovers included, when the billing period ends. Come back before they expire and you get them back.
- Base44 credits don't roll over. Whatever you don't use resets on your monthly date.
- Base44 apps can break when integration credits run out. Emails and AI features in your live app stop working, and your users see a generic error.
- Base44 Starter skips some features. Backend functions and GitHub sync start on Builder ($50 a month). The free domain only comes with yearly plans.
FAQ
Is Lovable or Bolt cheaper?
Both are $25 a month on monthly billing. On yearly billing Bolt is cheaper: $18 a month against Lovable's $21. What you get for it is very different, though: 100 credits on Lovable, 10 million tokens on Bolt.
Do unused credits roll over?
On Lovable, yes: monthly credits last 2 months. On Bolt, yes: unused tokens last one extra month while you stay subscribed. On Base44, no: unused credits reset each month.
What happens when I run out?
On Lovable Pro you can buy 50 more credits for $15, or wait for tomorrow's 5 free daily credits. On Bolt Pro at $25 you wait for renewal or upgrade to a bigger tier. On Base44 you wait for your reset date or upgrade your plan.
Is a Lovable credit the same as a Base44 credit?
No. Each tool sets its own price for its own credits, and Bolt uses tokens instead. That's why we show each tool's own example costs instead of one shared number.
Which one is best for a total beginner?
Start on the free plans. All three have one. If you then want to pay, Base44 Starter is the cheapest and Lovable Pro is the easiest to budget, since it shows what each prompt cost.
Sources
Last checked October 17, 2026. We read each page ourselves. If something isn't published, we say so.
- Lovable pricing: lovable.dev/pricing
- Lovable plans and yearly prices: docs.lovable.dev/introduction/subscription-plans
- Lovable credits, rollover and top-ups: docs.lovable.dev/introduction/credits-and-usage
- Bolt pricing: bolt.new/pricing
- Bolt tokens, rollover and reloads: support.bolt.new/account/tokens
- Bolt billing and yearly plans: support.bolt.new/account/billing
- Base44 pricing: base44.com/pricing
- Base44 plans: docs.base44.com/Account-and-billing/Billing-and-plans
- Base44 credits and resets: docs.base44.com/Account-and-billing/Credits
VibeCost is independent. See How we make money. More detail on each tool: Lovable, Bolt.new, Base44.