Bolt.new vs Lovable

Both tools include an agent mode that builds autonomously from a prompt, giving beginners a chat-driven start either way. What decides this use case is fixing mistakes without writing code: Lovable offers element-level editing, letting you click and adjust what the AI got wrong, a capability Bolt.new does not publish. Bolt.new counters with Figma and screenshot import, useful but less critical when a first-time builder needs to correct existing output. On free tiers, Bolt.new caps usage at 300,000 tokens per day and 1,000,000 tokens per month, while Lovable caps at 5 credits per day up to 30 credits per month, different units that are not directly comparable. Both plans start at $25/mo. For someone learning to build without code, click-to-edit is what matters most.

Both tools pass the hard filter developers care about most: full project code export and bidirectional GitHub sync are available on Bolt.new and Lovable alike, and both let you self-hostself-host - Run the software on your own servers instead of the vendor’s cloud. the output. With those tied, the backend model becomes the tiebreaker. Bolt.new lets you bring your own Supabase backend with native integration for auth, giving developers direct control over their own infrastructure. Lovable instead runs on a managed Lovable Cloud backend, and its own facts confirm it has no public API for scripting against the platform. For engineers who want the AI to scaffold and then get out of the way, owning the backend outweighs a managed convenience layer.

For someone trying before paying, what the free plan actually caps matters most. Bolt.new's free tier allows up to 300,000 tokens per day and 1,000,000 tokens per month, a generous amount of daily building room. Lovable's free tier caps out at just 5 build credits per day, capped again at 30 credits per month total, a much tighter ceiling for someone still learning the tool. Both tools start their cheapest paid plan at $25/mo, so pricing does not separate them once you outgrow the free tier. Lovable does state that published apps stay accessible after you stop paying, a point in its favor, but it does not outweigh how little building the free plan itself allows.

Ops and IT teams building internal dashboards need a real backend with role-gated auth built in. Lovable ships Lovable Cloud, a managed Postgres backend, and includes built-in auth, so teams can add sign-in and permissions without wiring up a separate service. Bolt.new instead expects you to bring your own Supabase backend and does not include built-in auth, adding setup work before you can gate access by role. Both tools limit single sign-on to their Enterprise plan and both support real-time collaboration, so those do not separate them. For a team that wants a working internal tool with access control out of the box, the managed backend with built-in auth matters most here.

For a mobile-first build, what a tool outputs onto a phone matters most. Lovable publishes a mobile output option, a progressive web app that installs to a home screen, though that is a web experience rather than a fully native app. Bolt.new does not publish any mobile output capability at all, so there is no stated path to a phone from Bolt.new. Both tools otherwise generate web stacks: Bolt.new produces full-stack JS/TS web projects and Lovable produces React and TypeScript, neither a native mobile framework. Both let you self-hostself-host - Run the software on your own servers instead of the vendor’s cloud. the generated output. With Lovable the only one of the two to state any mobile-facing output, it is the safer pick for someone targeting a phone.

For running the builder itself locally rather than just its output, what matters most is whether it works offline, what license governs it, and whether you can bring your own API keys instead of paying a subscription. Neither Bolt.new nor Lovable publishes facts on offline operation, licensing, or bring-your-own-API-key billing, since both are hosted, subscription-based web app builders rather than self-hostable local tools. The one point of overlap is that both let you self-hostself-host - Run the software on your own servers instead of the vendor’s cloud. the app once it is built, yes for Bolt.new and yes for Lovable, but that is different from self-hosting the builder itself. With none of the deciding attributes published by either vendor, this is a genuine wash.

Going from a design file to a working front end comes down to two things: import fidelity and how easily the result can be tweaked afterward without a prompt. Bolt.new publishes Figma and screenshot import, letting a design translate directly into a build, while Lovable does not state that capability. Lovable instead offers element-level editing to click and adjust the output directly, a capability Bolt.new does not publish. Each tool owns one half of this workflow: Bolt.new getting the design in, Lovable refining it afterward. Both produce web output, Bolt.new full-stack JS/TS and Lovable React and TypeScript, and both support collaboration and version rollback. With each side owning one deciding capability the other lacks, neither wins overall.