Lovable vs Bolt: which AI app builder fits your project?

Credits per message or tokens: what actually changes

From the outside, Lovable and Bolt (bolt.new) do the same job: you describe your app in a chat and an AI writes the code. What separates them first is what a message costs you.

Lovable gives each workspace one balance of “credits.” In the default mode (“Build”), the cost of a message depends on the task. The vendor gives three examples: 0.50 credits to change a button color, 0.90 to remove a footer, 1.20 to add authentication (user sign-in). After that, the cost of every message shows up in the history. The same balance also pays for the “Cloud” backend and the AI features of your published apps.

Bolt’s unit is the “token”: a fragment of text that the AI model reads or writes. Bolt consumes tokens when it reads your instructions and the project files, draws up a plan, or writes code. According to the help center, most of the consumption comes from reading and syncing files: the bigger the project, the more each message costs. The vendor publishes no typical cost per message.

The upshot: on Lovable, cost follows how complex the request is. On Bolt, it mostly follows project size, so the same small change burns more tokens on a large project than on a small one.

The same month of work, counted on each side

Take a month of building with 40 requests to the AI: 20 visual tweaks, 15 routine changes, 5 heavier additions. For Lovable, the vendor’s three examples serve as rough guides.

Request	Count	Lovable, per message	Lovable, total
Visual tweak (like a button color)	20	0.50 credits	10 credits
Routine change (like removing a footer)	15	0.90 credits	13.5 credits
Heavier addition (like authentication)	5	1.20 credits	6 credits
Total	40		29.5 credits

That month barely fits in Lovable’s Free plan (30 build credits per month), provided you spread it over at least six days, since the limit is 5 credits per day. The Pro plan, at $25 per month, starts at 100 credits: a little over three times this scenario, before counting what the backend and the AI of the published app consume.

For Bolt, the same math is not possible: no cost per message is published, and it varies with project size. What the price list does tell you: the Free plan gives 1,000,000 tokens per month with a 300,000 daily limit, so it takes at least four days to use the month’s allowance. The Pro plan, at $25 per month, starts at 10,000,000 tokens, ten times the free allowance, with no daily limit. With annual billing, Lovable Pro comes to $21 per month and Bolt Pro to $18 per month.

Higher tiers and rollover rules are covered in Lovable pricing and Bolt pricing.

What the free plans allow

Lovable Free: 5 build credits per day capped at 30 per month, plus 20 “Cloud” credits, 4 AI credits, and 1 connector credit per month, with no credit card. Not included: code editing and download, a custom domain, removal of the “Edit with Lovable” badge. On publishing, the vendor’s pages contradict each other: invite-only according to the pricing page, public or invite-only (10 guests per project) according to the documentation. An inactive free project may be unpublished.

Bolt Free: public and private projects, unlimited databases, and hosting included up to 333,000 requests and 10 GB of bandwidth per month. Beyond that, the site is offline until the next cycle. The “Made in Bolt” badge appears on published sites, and a custom domain is not included.

Once the allowance runs out, both free plans make you wait for the reset. On Lovable, building stops and the “Cloud” backend is paused with data retained; the published site stays online. On Bolt, manual code changes remain possible.

Database, hosting, domain

• Database and authentication. Lovable: "Cloud" backend (database, authentication, storage) built on Supabase's open-source foundation. source Bolt: Built-in database per project, with authentication, storage, and server functions; Supabase on Pro and Teams. source On Bolt, the built-in database handles email sign-in, password reset, and Google sign-in. Both leave a door open to Supabase: Lovable lets you connect your own project, Bolt lets you transfer the database to your own Supabase account on Pro or Teams.
• Hosting. Lovable publishes to a lovable.app address; no visitor or bandwidth cap is tied to the plan, and only backend and AI usage consumes credits. Bolt publishes to a bolt.host address (or to Netlify) with quotas: 1 million requests and 30 GB per month on Pro, extendable on a pay-as-you-go basis up to a cap you set.
• Custom domain. Paid plans only on both sides, and both let you buy the domain inside the product.
• Data region. Lovable: "Cloud" backend: Americas, Europe, or Asia-Pacific; region set at activation and not changeable. For Bolt, this point is not recorded.

Keeping your code

Lovable syncs the project with GitHub both ways, on all plans; the repository is always created by Lovable, private by default, one branch at a time. The .zip download requires a paid plan. According to the documentation, the apps it produces can be hosted elsewhere.

Bolt offers a zip download of the project (from a computer) and a GitHub sync on the main branch only. One caution: disconnecting GitHub is permanent unless you go through support.

Both vendors state that the code you create is yours. Bolt’s terms of service do grant StackBlitz model-development licenses over Bolt content, unless you opt out.

Web app or mobile app

This is the sharpest dividing line. Lovable: Web apps; no React Native project and no built-in submission to the iOS or Android stores. source Bolt: Websites, web apps, and prototypes; iPhone and Android mobile apps with Expo. source

Two details from the documentation about mobile on Bolt. Expo has to be requested in the very first prompt, not partway through. And publishing to the App Store and Google Play goes through Expo’s EAS commands, which you run yourself, and paid Apple and Google developer accounts.

What does not set them apart

• The first paid monthly price: the Pro plan costs the same on both sides as of the date shown.
• Trials: no free trial of the paid plans is mentioned, but each free plan opens without a credit card.
• Custom domain and badge removal: paid on both.
• Rollover: on a paid monthly subscription, unused credits and tokens stay valid for two months, as long as the subscription is active.

If neither fits your project, see the Lovable alternatives, the Lovable vs Base44 matchup, or the AI app builder comparison. The Lovable and Bolt profiles cover each tool in detail, and the guide to vibe coding explains the method both share.