The short answer: Both charge $25/month, but they meter it in completely different units — and that decides everything. Pick Lovable if you want the most polished prompt-to-app path with a real backend (Supabase) and a plan you can share with unlimited teammates. Pick Bolt.new if you want the most generous free tier, transparent token-based billing, and a full in-browser IDE you can tinker in.
Lovable and Bolt.new are the two names that come up first when someone wants a working app from a prompt. They arrived from opposite directions: Lovable (formerly GPT Engineer) grew out of Europe’s startup scene with an opinionated full-stack approach; Bolt.new (from StackBlitz) grew out of browser-based dev tooling with transparency and control. Both now charge $25/month at the Pro tier — but what you get for it differs enormously.
| Feature | Lovable | Bolt.new |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | 5 credits/day (30/month) | 1M tokens/month, 300K/day cap |
| Entry paid tier | Pro, $25/mo (100 credits) | Pro, $25/mo (10M tokens) |
| Team tier | Business, $50/mo (unlimited users) | Teams, $30/user/mo |
| Higher rungs | Credit ladder to 10,000 credits | Pro 50 $50 (26M), Pro 100 $100 (55M) |
| Metering unit | Credits — roughly 0.5–2 per edit | Tokens — scales with project size |
| Backend | Supabase integration (full-stack) | Bolt Cloud (built-in DB + auth) |
| Stack | React / TypeScript | Stack-agnostic (React, Next.js, Astro…) |
| Dev environment | Live preview while building | Full in-browser IDE |
| Code export | GitHub two-way sync (paid) | Export + GitHub sync |
| Hosting | Included (custom domains on paid) | Included (custom domain on Pro) |
| Token rollover | Credit rollover on paid plans | Tokens roll over one extra month |
| Winner for teams | Lovable | — |
The real difference: credits vs tokens at $25
This is the part that matters most, and it’s where the two tools genuinely diverge. Lovable meters by credits: each AI interaction costs roughly 0.5–2 credits regardless of complexity, so Pro’s 100 credits cover about 130 prompts. That makes budgeting predictable — until the AI gets stuck. Heavy iteration on a single layout issue can burn through dozens of credits, and users report spending an extra $10–$25 in unplanned top-ups per month. A credit costs $0.25, so a $10 top-up converts to 40 credits.
Bolt.new meters by tokens: Pro’s 10M tokens scale with project size and prompt complexity. It’s more transparent — you see exactly what you consume — but larger projects sync the whole codebase to the AI, so token burn accelerates as your app grows. Tokens roll over for one extra month on paid plans, which softens unused capacity.
Neither metering scheme is “cheaper” in the abstract. Budget for the rebuilds, not the first build: whichever you choose, vague prompts cost real money.
Where Lovable wins: full-stack MVPs and teams
Lovable is the better tool for shipping a real product with a database. Its Supabase integration gives you auth, database, and storage as part of the prompt-to-app flow, and the experience from idea to deployed app is the most polished of any AI builder. Design-first founders love the Figma import and live preview.
Its killer feature for teams: the Pro plan is shared across unlimited users for $25/month total. A five-person team on Bolt.new’s Teams plan pays $150/month for the same headcount. If you’re prototyping with a team, the math isn’t close.
Where Bolt.new wins: free tier and control
Bolt.new’s free tier is the most generous of any AI app builder: 1M tokens per month is enough to ship several real prototypes before you’re forced to upgrade, versus Lovable’s 30 monthly credits which run out fast on anything beyond a landing page. It also gives you a full in-browser IDE — closer to real development than Lovable’s prompt-driven flow — and its stack-agnostic approach (React, Next.js, Astro, and more) plus automatic model routing suit builders who want to see under the hood.
Which one should you pick?
- Pick Lovable if you want a full-stack MVP fast, with an opinionated backend and database; if you’re prototyping with a team (unlimited users on one $25 plan); or if design polish matters more than control.
- Pick Bolt.new if you want to tinker daily on the most generous free tier; if you prefer transparent token billing and a real IDE; or if your projects span multiple frameworks.
- Budget warning for both: heavy iteration can blow through a month of credits or tokens in a day. Start on the free tier, keep prompts precise, and only upgrade when you’re shipping something real.
Frequently asked questions
Is Lovable or Bolt.new better for beginners?
Lovable is friendlier for non-developers — describe the app, get a working product with a database. Bolt.new assumes more comfort with code, though its free tier makes experimentation cheap.
Which has a better free plan, Lovable or Bolt.new?
Bolt.new, by a wide margin: 1M tokens/month versus Lovable’s 30 credits/month.
Can I export my code from Lovable and Bolt.new?
Yes, both offer GitHub sync and code export, so you’re not locked into either platform.
Do Lovable and Bolt.new support custom domains?
Yes — both include hosting with custom domains on their paid plans (Pro and up).