Base44: what it is, pricing, limits, and who it suits

Base44 in three lines

Base44 is an AI app builder: you describe what you want in plain English, and it writes the app, connects it to a database, handles user login, and puts it online. It is aimed at people who do not code and want an internal tool, a client portal, or a first version of a product. Wix operates the service, billing runs on two kinds of credits, and you can only export the code from the Builder plan up.

This page is an analysis of Base44’s public pricing, documentation, and terms, as recorded on the date shown. No app was built to write it. If the idea is new to you, the guide what is vibe coding explains this way of making software by talking to an AI.

Who runs Base44

The terms of service are entered into with Wix.com Ltd., an Israeli company that operates the Base44-branded services. Wix announced the acquisition in June 2025 and said Base44 would continue to operate as a distinct product and business (Wix press release, June 18, 2025 (accessed November 11, 2026)).

In practice: when you open a Base44 account, your contract is with Wix. The year Base44 was founded was not recorded.

What Base44 actually does

According to the pricing page and the documentation:

• App type. Web apps and websites; files for the App Store and Google Play (web view) from Builder up. source
• Data. Built-in database and authentication, included in all plans. The database is organized in tables, with CSV export; an external database is reached through a backend function (a small program that runs on the server).
• User login. Email and password, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, or Apple. Private apps require a paid plan.
• Going live. Built-in hosting, with no deployment step, on a .base44.app address. A custom domain starts at the Starter plan, as does hiding the “Edit with Base44” label shown at the bottom right of live apps.
• Connected services. The pricing page mentions Gmail, Slack, Notion, Google Drive, HubSpot, and Salesforce. External services you connect with your own account (Stripe, SendGrid, OpenAI) bill you directly.
• Mobile. A published app can be added to a phone’s home screen. The files for the App Store and Google Play, where the app runs in a web view, and push notifications require the Builder plan.

What Base44 bills: two counters

The first counter, message credits, measures your building work: every instruction you give the AI uses some, more or less depending on the size of the change. The second, integration credits, measures what the app does once it is live: your users run that meter, not you.

Take a booking tool for a hair salon. Using the vendor’s estimates, a first version might need:

Work asked of the AI	Count	Message credits
App-wide change (3 to 4 credits)	2	6 to 8
Complex module (2 credits)	6	12
Improving a small feature (1 credit)	10	10
Simple visual change (0.5 credits)	10	5
Total		33 to 35

This is a working assumption, not a measurement: the number of messages depends on the project and on how precise your requests are. It gives an order of magnitude. Those 33 to 35 credits exceed the free plan’s monthly 25 message credits, and come to about a third of Starter’s 100 message credits.

Once the tool is live, suppose each booking sends a confirmation email (1 integration credit) and asks the AI for a summary in automatic mode (1 credit): 2 credits per booking. The free plan’s 100 integration credits then cover 50 bookings a month, Starter’s 2,000 cover 1,000, and Builder’s 10,000 cover 5,000. Past that, both actions fail for the user until the reset.

The plans in brief

The first paid plan, Starter, costs $20 per month, or $16 per month billed annually. Builder, at $50 per month, is the first plan that adds AI model selection, GitHub integration, and code export. Pro and Elite mostly raise the credit volumes; Enterprise has custom pricing.

The full table is further down, and the Base44 pricing page works through the math plan by plan. One thing to know: the vendor’s pages contradict each other on the Elite plan. The pricing page shows fixed volumes; the documentation describes an Elite plan with a choice of volumes and a Business plan that does not appear on the pricing page.

Code export: from Builder up

The pricing page says of its GitHub export, “Nothing is locked to the platform.” The documentation is more specific: Two-way GitHub sync and zip export from the Builder plan up. source The sync requires the main branch, runs automatically, and does not resolve conflicts for you. On the free plan or Starter, the code stays inside Base44.

Two details. Under the terms of service, you own the rights in the generated code and apps, excluding the vendor’s pre-existing intellectual property. On the other hand, local development as documented goes through Base44’s command-line tool, and the pages read do not say whether an exported app runs without Base44’s backend (Base44 documentation, GitHub sync (accessed November 11, 2026)). Self-hosting was not recorded.

Hosting and data

The documentation states: United States by default; EU, United Kingdom, or Australia possible on Business or Enterprise plans. source Storage outside the United States only applies to apps created after April 16, 2026, and the Business plan that offers it is the one the pricing page does not show: its price was not recorded.

The vendor states that it is SOC 2 Type II compliant and ISO 27001 certified, two security standards, and not HIPAA compliant. If your app would handle health data covered by HIPAA, take that statement at face value. Outside the Enterprise plan, data may be used to train AI models, with no opt-out setting. If your app will hold customer data, decide on this before you build, not after.

On the free plan, the database is limited to 200 MB and 100 KB per record for apps created since October 18, 2026. Database limits on paid plans were not recorded.

AI: in the builder and in your apps

While you build, AI model selection starts at the Builder plan. The vendor recommends automatic mode: other models cost more credits. “Discuss” mode, used to think things through with the AI without changing the app, uses about 0.3 credits per message. On the free plan, automatic fixes made by the AI also consume credits.

In the live app, calls to a language model, images, video, and voice are paid in integration credits: about 1 credit per call in automatic mode, 3 or more with another model, 5 per second of video. Ten seconds of video therefore use half the free monthly allowance.

Our take, based on the documents

• If you want to judge the tool without paying, the free plan lets you start a prototype: 25 message credits per month, of which at most 5 can be used per day.
• If customers will use the app, the integration counter decides the plan: count emails, file uploads, and AI calls per user per month, as in the example above.
• If getting the code out matters to you, Builder is the minimum.
• If you handle regulated or sensitive data, check the HIPAA and AI-training points above before you start.

Alternatives to Base44

The table below compares Base44 with Lovable, Bolt, and Replit on the same rows. To go further:

• Base44 vs Lovable: Lovable syncs code with GitHub on every plan, Base44 from Builder up.
• Base44 vs Replit: two opposite billing models, counted credits on one side, a dollar allowance on the other.
• Base44 and Lovable alternatives and AI app builders compared, for the wider picture.