Choose Lovable if you want to describe an app and review it by clicking through it, without opening a file. Choose Bolt.new if you read code and want a full development environment in the browser, with a terminal and direct control of the project. Both start at $25 a month on their paid plan (checked in November 2026), but they meter differently: Lovable counts credits, Bolt.new counts tokens.
The rest of this guide covers what really separates them: how each one builds, where the backend lives, what the running app costs, and what you keep if you leave. We also add a third option at the end, Cadrant, which is our own builder, so read that section with that in mind. All numbers come from each vendor's own pricing page or documentation, checked in November 2026.
Lovable vs Bolt.new at a glance
Entry paid plans, billed monthly, checked in November 2026. A dash means we could not confirm the point on the vendor's pages.
| Point | Lovable | Bolt.new |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | Non-developers, design-led web apps | People who read code and want control |
| Entry paid plan | Pro: $25 a month, from 100 credits | Pro: $25 a month, from 10 million tokens |
| Free plan | 5 build credits a day, up to 30 a month | 1 million tokens a month, 300,000 a day |
| Default backend | Lovable Cloud, or your own Supabase | Bolt Database, or Supabase |
| Live app uses the build balance? | Yes, one balance for building, hosting and backend | No, hosting has its own bandwidth and request limits |
| Code | Git sync on every plan, download on paid plans | GitHub sync, project on the main branch |
| Native mobile | Web apps only | Yes, through Expo, you run the store builds |
Who each one is for
Lovable is built for people who judge an app by using it, and Bolt.new is built for people who judge it by reading it. That is the real divide, more than any feature.
With Lovable you write what you want, the app appears in a preview, and you correct it by chatting or pointing at things. You can stay entirely at the level of the product. This suits founders, designers and operations people who need a working web app and do not plan to review a diff.
Bolt.new, from StackBlitz, shows you the files, a terminal and the preview side by side. The agent edits the project, and you can install any npm package or edit a file yourself. That is an advantage if you know what you are looking at, and a distraction if you do not. A non-developer who opens Bolt.new will meet an environment that expects them to act like a developer.
How each one builds your app
Both generate a React web app from a prompt, but they present the work differently. Lovable wraps it in a product-like editor: the chat, the preview and a visual way to adjust the interface. Bolt.new presents it as an in-browser IDE, with an agent driving it.
In practice, Lovable tends to give a more finished first screen with less effort, while Bolt.new gives you more room to steer the structure. If you already know the library you want, Bolt.new lets you say so and check the result in the files. For prompts that work well on either tool, see our web app prompt examples.
Backend: Lovable Cloud, Bolt Database and Supabase
Both tools offer a built-in backend by default and a Supabase option, and the built-in one is the harder one to leave.
Lovable Cloud is the built-in backend that Lovable hosts for your app. Its documentation says it uses Supabase's open-source foundation and provides a database, user authentication, storage and functions. You can connect your own Supabase project instead. Going from Lovable Cloud to your own Supabase later is not a one-step switch: according to Lovable's Cloud documentation, you export and restore the database, move the storage files and reconfigure authentication and secrets.
Bolt Database is the default for new projects and, according to Bolt's Supabase documentation, is available on every plan. You can pick Supabase when you create a project, and paid plans can claim a Bolt Database so that it becomes a project in your Supabase account. The same page says there is no supported path from Supabase back to a Bolt Database, and that Bolt's version history does not restore a Supabase database.
Pricing: credits against tokens, and what the live app costs
Lovable bills in credits and Bolt.new bills in tokens, and the difference shows in how the bill grows.
On Lovable, Pro costs $25 a month and Business $50, both starting at 100 credits, according to Lovable's plans page. Each plan gets 5 daily build credits and a monthly grant of 20 Cloud credits, and unused plan credits roll over for two months on monthly plans. The important detail is that Lovable uses one credit balance for building, hosting, the backend and the published app's AI features. A busy live app and a heavy week of changes draw on the same pool. For a full breakdown, see our Lovable pricing guide.
On Bolt.new, Pro costs $25 a month and starts at 10 million tokens, with hosting and a custom domain included, according to Bolt's pricing page. Tokens are used when Bolt reads, thinks about and builds your project, and Bolt's help center says most usage comes from reading and syncing your project files. A larger project therefore costs more tokens per message. Unused monthly tokens stay valid for two months on paid plans. The running site is not paid in tokens: hosting on Pro has its own monthly limits of 30 GB of bandwidth and 1 million requests, with optional pay-as-you-go beyond them up to a cap you set. Our Bolt.new pricing guide goes further.
Code ownership and export
Both let you keep a copy of your code outside the tool, so neither locks the front end in.
Lovable's plans page lists Git sync (GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket) on every plan, and code download from Pro. Bolt.new syncs to GitHub: it commits each working change, checks GitHub about every 30 seconds for outside edits and keeps the project on the main branch, according to Bolt's GitHub page. In both cases the code is React, so another developer can pick it up. What does not move with the code is the data in a built-in backend, covered above.
Mobile apps
Bolt.new can produce a native mobile project; Lovable focuses on web apps.
Bolt.new uses Expo to build iOS and Android apps from one codebase. Its documentation says to mention "mobile app" in your first prompt, because projects created for web do not easily switch to mobile. You preview in Expo Go, then run the Expo build commands yourself and hold your own Apple and Google developer accounts to publish. Lovable's output is a web app, which you can make responsive or install as a PWA; our guide to web app, PWA and native app covers the trade-offs.
A third option: Cadrant
Cadrant, our builder, takes the Lovable-style experience (describe the app, review it by using it) and changes three structural points: the backend, the hosting bill and mobile.
- Backend: a Supabase project in your own Supabase account, with PostgreSQL, authentication, storage and edge functions. The AI writes the migrations and row level security policies, and secret keys stay in edge functions and environment variables, never in client code.
- Hosting: HTTPS hosting and a custom domain are included in every paid plan, and a published app does not consume credits.
- Mobile: native apps with Expo and React Native, from the same plan.
Starter costs $20 a month for 300 credits and up to 5 projects; Pro is $40 for 1,000 credits, unlimited projects, GitHub integration and code export. About 10 credits create or modify an app. The limits are real: GitHub and code export start with Pro, and the stack is fixed to React and Supabase, so Bolt.new is the better choice if you need a different framework or full control of the environment. See the AI app builder page, or how it compares in our Lovable alternatives and Bolt.new alternatives guides.
Which one for which case
If you are still deciding between categories, our guide to the best AI app builders compares more tools on the same axes.