Base44 is a real, working AI app builder operated by Wix.com Ltd.: you describe an app in plain English and it generates the screens, database, user logins and hosting on Base44's own infrastructure. It suits internal tools, client portals, simple web apps and early product prototypes that need to go live without a developer. Pricing is per workspace in monthly credits, never per seat. The Free plan gives 25 message credits a month, at most 5 a day, and Starter costs $16 per month billed annually or $20 per month billed monthly [1]. Pay if a hosted app on Base44's backend is the goal. Skip it if you need portable code. Credits are the catch.
From a prompt to a hosted app, under Wix ownership
Base44 was founded by Maor Shlomo, and a Base44 guide says Wix acquired it in June 2025, with the product still run as a standalone brand. The Terms, the privacy policy and the pricing-page footer all name Wix.com Ltd., and personal information is controlled by Wix.com Ltd. in Israel. For a buyer asking whether Base44 is legit, that settles more than any marketing line: Wix.com Ltd. signs the contract and takes your card, and its policies govern refunds, data and support.
The builder itself is a chat. Build mode applies changes at once, while Discuss mode lets you plan and question the AI without touching code, at about 0.3 message credit per message. Every AI change becomes a version you can revert, and branches let you try ideas in parallel, although they run on the app's live data. Behind the screens sits a built-in backend with a NoSQL database, user authentication, file storage, email and, from the Builder plan, TypeScript backend functions. Publishing to a free base44.app address with SSL works on every plan, Free included.
Base44 is candid about what a first draft is. Its own guidance calls the first build a strong draft that usually still needs validation, permission rules and edge cases. Two safety nets come with every plan, Free included: a security scan that flags exposed secrets, access-rule gaps and places where outsiders could spend your credits, and a testing agent that clicks through the app like a user at about 1 to 4 credits per run. Neither replaces review. The scan never blocks publishing, and the testing agent cannot check logins, one-time codes or email links.
Discuss mode costs about 0.3 message credit per message, while a Build change runs about 0.5 to 4 credits by Base44's estimates. Settle the plan there before you let the AI edit the app.
GitHub sync and ZIP export need the Builder plan or higher, and the exported code still runs on Base44's backend through its SDK, which Base44 does not let you self-host.
Credits decide what Base44 really costs
Every plan buys a monthly allowance of two credit types. Message credits pay for building: Base44 estimates about 0.5 credit for a simple text or visual change, about 1 for a small feature, about 2 for a complex module and 3 to 4 for an app-wide change [2]. So 100 message credits are not 100 changes. Integration credits pay for the built-in services your app uses: an email costs about 1 from Base44's default sender and about 2 from your own domain, a generated image 1, an AI call on the automatic model about 1 and an in-app agent message from about 3. Database reads and writes cost nothing.
The part buyers miss is who spends those integration credits. End users of your published app draw on your workspace's pool whenever they trigger email, AI, image generation, uploads or agents, and visitors are not capped. At zero, credit-using actions fail and users see a generic error, while pages and the database keep working until the reset. Building pauses too. Base44 does not publish a way to buy extra credits outside a plan, so the documented routes are upgrading or a larger Elite size.
Prices shown are what Base44 lists for visitors in the United States, in US dollars. Your price can differ by country, currency and local taxes such as VAT.
| Plan | Price billed annually | Price billed monthly | Message credits a month | Integration credits a month |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | $0 | 25 (at most 5 a day) | 100 |
| Starter | $16 per month billed annually | $20 per month billed monthly | 100 | 2,000 |
| Builder | $40 per month billed annually | $50 per month billed monthly | 250 | 10,000 |
| Pro | $80 per month billed annually | $100 per month billed monthly | 500 | 20,000 |
| Elite | $160 per month billed annually | $200 per month billed monthly | 1,200 | 50,000 |
| Enterprise | Quote only | Quote only | Custom | Custom |
Credits arrive monthly on both billing terms and expire at each reset; the only carryover is one extra cycle when you move from a monthly plan to a higher monthly plan. Credits spent on failed AI output are not refunded. Unlimited means an unlimited number of apps from Starter up. By our arithmetic, Starter costs $192 a year billed annually against $240 a year billed monthly. Paying monthly stays cheaper only if you stop within 9 months, since 9 months at $20 comes to $180. The free domain for one year comes only with yearly Starter (bought from October 2026), Builder, Pro and Elite, and the 25 credits to share with a friend only with yearly Builder, Pro and Elite, as our Base44 pricing guide details.
Annual billing is charged once a year and plans are non-refundable under the Terms. Paying monthly costs less if you stop within 9 months, so commit yearly only once the app has proven itself.
The plan gates that pick your tier
Starter is the first plan that behaves like a business product. It connects a custom domain, hides the Edit with Base44 badge, allows private apps, unlocks in-app code edits and lets app emails come from your own domain. Free can view code but not change it. Anyone planning a client-facing site needs Starter at minimum, because search engines treat base44.app addresses as staging sites and Base44 designed its SEO setup for custom domains.
Builder is where most serious projects land. It unlocks AI model choice, GitHub two-way sync and ZIP export, backend functions, connectors to tools such as Gmail and Slack, workflows, payments through Base44 Payments or Stripe, and App Store and Google Play files. By our arithmetic, moving from Starter to Builder adds $24 a month billed annually ($288 a year) or $30 a month billed monthly ($360 a year). Base44's product pages put Base44 Payments at 2.9% + $0.30 per US card sale. Higher up, the Pro plan adds early access to beta features, and Elite adds premium support and 7-day backups.
Exporting code is not an exit. Base44 says two-way GitHub sync exports the full source code (Builder plan and up); its developer docs add that the exported code still calls Base44's backend through its SDK, that Base44 does not support self-hosting that backend, and that data, secrets, app users and version history are not in the code export [3]. Leaving therefore means a replacement backend and real code changes. Plan for it early.
Mobile follows the same pattern. Base44 apps are responsive web apps; for the stores it generates a store-ready wrapper app that runs your published web app inside a web view, on Builder or higher. You submit through your own developer accounts, which Base44's guides list at $99 per membership year for Apple and a $25 one-time registration for Google Play. The wrapper cannot sell digital goods such as subscriptions, unlocks or courses through in-app purchases, though physical goods, real-world services and donations are allowed.
End users of a published app draw on your workspace's integration credits whenever the app sends email, calls AI, generates images or runs agents. At zero those actions fail with a generic error until the monthly reset or an upgrade.
Ownership, training data and security claims
The Terms say you own the code and apps Base44 generates, to the extent such rights exist, and Base44 claims no ownership of your data. The same Terms grant Base44 a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide license to your data and generated output, including to train its AI models and to use your data in its marketing. Output may not be unique, and you may not use it to build a competing product. Paid accounts are reserved for trade, business or professional use.
Training is the sharpest point. Base44's help center splits its Enterprise offering into a self-serve Business plan and a sales-led Enterprise plan, and neither price is published. Only the Enterprise plan is excluded from AI model training; on every other plan, Business included, workspace data can be used for training and there is no opt-out setting [4]. SSO and data residency in the EU, UK or Australia also need that Enterprise offering, with Elite covering them only for workspaces created before October 2026.
Base44 says it holds SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 and is GDPR compliant. It also says it does not offer HIPAA coverage and cannot sign a BAA. Health data does not belong here. App security stays your job: a Base44 blog post reports that Tenzai tested 15 Base44 apps built from the same prompts across five AI models and found 254 vulnerabilities, varying by model. Base44's Terms warn that default settings may allow public access, and its docs say the app file library is public until you make it private.
Complaints, support and how the score lands
The rating picture is lopsided. Trustpilot holds by far the most reviews and leans heavily negative, while G2 and Capterra list too few reviews to weigh. Read the Trustpilot pages as a complaint map, not a verdict on the typical user: the low-star reviews cluster around support, billing, credits and refunds, followed by bug-fix loops, cancellations and lost data. Many of them touch rules covered above, such as credits that expire and AI output billed even when it fails.
Support and refunds explain the rest. Tickets go first to an AI assistant that hands over to a human specialist when needed; Customer Care works in English only, and Base44 does not publish response times or support hours. Premium support appears only on Elite. Plans are non-refundable under Base44's Terms; its help center says Customer Care may approve a prorated refund, minus processing fees, for a mistaken purchase or special circumstances. No free trial of paid plans exists. Canceling keeps access to the end of the period; then the workspace moves to Free, where up to 5 apps stay published (with more than 5 you choose which, and the rest are unpublished, not deleted), custom domains and payments stop, and your data stays.
The scorecard below rates each axis on its own evidence. Speed from prompt to hosted app and the breadth of the built-in backend pull the result up. Credit predictability, export lock-in and the training default pull it down. User sentiment counts as one signal among several, weighed alongside the documented rules rather than allowed to settle the verdict on its own.
Base44 covers the whole job of an AI app builder in one account: from a plain-language prompt it builds the frontend, a backend with a NoSQL (MongoDB-compatible) database whose schema follows the conversation, user login (email and password, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Apple, SSO), file storage, email and payments, and hosts the result on its own infrastructure, so an app can be published on a free base44.app address with SSL on every plan, including Free, or on a custom domain from Starter. Around the builder sit version history (every AI change is a version you can revert or publish), branches with their own chat and preview (up to 20 builds at once across main and branches since October 2026), an in-app Code tab, workflows and scheduled tasks, backend functions on Deno with their own HTTP endpoints, in-app AI agents, workspace-level Superagents, SEO and GEO tools (prerendering, sitemap, robots.txt, llms.txt), an analytics dashboard, session recordings, a built-in security scan, a testing agent and a store-readiness scan, plus App Store and Google Play files. Starting points include templates, Start from URL, Figma import and migration from Salesforce, HubSpot, Shopify, WordPress, monday.com, Lovable and Bolt.new. Held back by how much of that depth starts on Builder (backend functions, connectors, workflows, payments, GitHub, store files, push notifications, model choice), by the store app being a wrapper that runs the published web app in a web view and cannot sell digital goods through in-app purchases, by export limits (the exported code still calls Base44's backend through its SDK and Base44 does not support self-hosting that backend; data, secrets, app users and version history are not in the code export), by per-app database caps on apps created from October 2026 (200 MB on Free up to 25 GB on Elite), and by Base44's own guidance that the first build is a strong draft that usually needs validation, permission rules and edge cases added.
AI is the product itself: the AI chat builds and changes the whole app in Build mode, Discuss mode plans without changing code (about 0.3 message credit per message on its own cheaper model), Plan mode asks short question cards first, and Edit mode applies visual changes by hand for free. From Builder you choose the model and its effort level and can compare models side by side (2x credits); as of November 2026 the picker lists Auto, Base 1 (Base44's in-house model, introduced June 2026), Opus 5.5, Sonnet 5.5, GPT-6.1 Sol, Gemini 4 Argon, GPT-6.1 Terra, GPT 6 Astra, Gemini 3.8 Flash, Fable 5.1 and Haiku 5.5, some rolling out gradually. AI also runs inside the apps: in-app agents on every plan with any model (paid in integration credits), with context files, memory, skills, record actions and WhatsApp, Telegram and LINE channels; built-in LLM, image, video, speech and transcription calls; and Superagents, personal agents that work across connected tools on a schedule or trigger, control a cloud browser or the Chrome extension, join Google Meet or Zoom meetings as a notetaker and stop for approval before a button that charges money. Quality tools (Verification in the background, the Testing Agent, Resolve with AI for found issues at no credit cost) back up the builder. Held back by cost uncertainty: a message has no fixed price (about 0.5 to 4 message credits per change, Base44's estimates), there is no way to preview an integration credit cost, credits used on failed, buggy or unsatisfactory AI output are not restored or refunded under the Terms, automatic AI fixes cost message credits on Free, and Free and Starter are limited to the Auto model.
Base44 integrates at three levels: built-in integrations that need no API keys (LLM calls, email, push notifications, uploads, image generation, data extraction from files), OAuth connectors whose credentials Base44 manages (shared or per user), and manual integrations with your own keys stored as encrypted secrets, plus custom OpenAPI integrations at workspace level and MCP connections for the AI chat. Connectors named by Base44 include Gmail, Google Calendar, Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slack, Notion, HubSpot, Salesforce, Airtable, Dropbox, Microsoft Teams, Outlook, SharePoint, Calendly, GitLab, Supabase, ClickUp, Wrike, Google Analytics, GitHub, Mailchimp, Intercom, Zoho CRM, Klaviyo, Asana, Snowflake, Databricks, QuickBooks and Google Ads; manual integrations cover monday.com, OpenAI, ElevenLabs, Twilio, Resend and Zapier. Base44 says integrations are included in the plan with no per-integration fee (November 2026). Developers get two-way GitHub sync, a CLI, a JavaScript SDK, an API page per app with personal access tokens and an OpenAPI spec, a Base44 MCP server, an app MCP server and skills for coding agents. Payments: Base44 Payments (powered by Wix) and Stripe are built in, and since November 2026 the SDK payments module also handles PayPal from backend functions. Held back by gates: connectors, creating custom OpenAPI integrations (using one works on any plan), MCP connections, backend-function APIs, GitHub, payments and the Base44 MCP server all need Builder, and after a downgrade below Builder connectors and custom integrations may stop working (built-in integrations remain); Base44 Payments needs a business in one of 13 supported countries; built-in email goes out from a Base44 sender with no reply-to unless you connect your own domain (Starter and up); and end users' use of built-in services is paid from the owner's integration credits.
The core promise is easy to start: describe the app in plain language, preview it, publish with one button to a base44.app address with hosting and SSL included and no separate deployment; the first build uses about 1 message credit regardless of prompt length or model, manual visual edits and previews are free, real-time co-editing and comments are built in, a custom domain connects with automatic DNS set-up (usually live within 30 minutes, up to 48 hours), and the interface comes in English, German, Spanish, French, Japanese and Portuguese, on the web, in iOS and Android apps and a Mac app. Held back by what a non-coder has to manage: two credit types with variable costs, a Free plan capped at 5 message credits a day, credit-using actions that pause at zero until the next reset, the security of the app staying the owner's responsibility (Base44 says the AI does not guarantee a secure setup and default settings may permit public access), SEO that is designed for apps on a custom domain because base44.app addresses are treated as staging sites by search engines, store submission through your own Apple and Google developer accounts with approval up to Apple and Google, several tools only on desktop (Edit mode, data permissions, code editing, APIs, templates), and an app file library that is public by default until made private.
Base44 is priced per workspace, not per seat: invited members share the owner's plan and credits and need no plan of their own, viewers use no credits, and published apps have no cap on visitors or sign-ups. A real Free plan ($0, no credit card) gives 25 message credits a month (at most 5 a day, personal workspace only), 100 integration credits a month and up to 5 apps that can be published. Paid plans: Starter $16 per month per workspace billed annually or $20 per month billed monthly (100 message and 2,000 integration credits a month, unlimited number of apps, custom domain, in-app code edits); Builder $40 per month billed annually or $50 per month billed monthly (250 and 10,000); Pro $80 per month billed annually or $100 per month billed monthly (500 and 20,000); Elite $160 per month billed annually or $200 per month billed monthly (1,200 and 50,000); Enterprise by quote. Annual billing saves 20% and is charged once a year ($192 / $480 / $960 / $1,920 a year, by our arithmetic), and yearly plans add a free domain for 1 year (and, from Builder, 25 credits to share with a friend). A 50% student discount on Starter or Builder and Base44 for Startups (Pro or Builder free for one year, subject to eligibility or approval) lower the entry cost for those who qualify. Held back by the credit model: credits are granted monthly on both terms and unused credits expire at each reset (only a one-cycle carryover on a monthly-to-higher-monthly upgrade), Base44 publishes no way to buy extra credits outside a plan, credits spent on failed AI output are not refunded, end users of a published app spend the owner's integration credits, and the features that make an app a business tool (backend functions, connectors, payments, GitHub, store files) start on Builder at $40 per month billed annually or $50 per month billed monthly. Plans are non-refundable under Base44's Terms (its help center says Customer Care may approve a prorated refund minus processing fees for a mistaken purchase or special circumstances), a yearly plan cannot be switched to monthly, paid accounts are for business or professional use only under the Terms, and on every plan except Enterprise workspace data can be used to train AI models with no opt-out setting.
Support runs through tickets: an AI assistant answers first from the docs and hands over to a human Customer Care specialist when it cannot solve the issue, when a person is needed (such as a billing change) or on request; it covers billing, account, platform bugs, Base44 connectors and GitHub sync, and a Partners directory (no Base44 fee or commission) helps with hands-on app work. Premium support is listed on the Elite card only; Base44's help center describes priority support on Business and Enterprise and a dedicated account manager on Enterprise, and the Enterprise page lists a dedicated support queue, an Account Manager and a Solution Engineer. On reliability and security, Base44 says it holds SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 and runs a 24/7/365 SOC, a bug bounty and annual third-party penetration tests (November 2026); apps are delivered through the Cloudflare CDN, deleted apps, records and app users can be recovered for 30 days, and app data backups are kept 7 days on Elite and 28 days on Business and Enterprise. Held back by Customer Care working in English only, a daily ticket limit, no published response times or support hours, support that does not cover debugging of your app's code, prompts or architecture, no published uptime SLA for self-serve plans (detailed disaster-recovery commitments only in Enterprise SLAs), no data backups below Elite, Base44 not being HIPAA compliant, and the Terms capping liability at the greater of fees paid in the prior 12 months or USD 100.
Mean of each platform's displayed rating with at least 30 reviews, weighted by review count (read November 2026): Trustpilot 2.7 from 928 reviews and Product Hunt 4.4 from 41 reviews give 2.77, so the axis rests mostly on Trustpilot. Trustpilot reviewers skew toward complaints, and the 1-2 star reviews there cluster around support, billing, credits and refunds; that is a map of complaints, not a measure of all users. G2 (3 reviews) and Capterra (2 reviews) are below the threshold and not counted. No ad-hoc adjustment is applied. Base44's own usage figures on its site are vendor material, not ratings.
docs.base44.com is deep and specific: help pages on credits (what each action costs, resets, what happens at zero), billing and plans, every plan gate, publishing, domains, SEO and GEO, mobile store submission, login and access, privacy and security, Enterprise administration and Superagents; developer docs for the backend, SDK, CLI, local development, GitHub and an API reference including the Monitoring API; a product changelog and a developer changelog dated entry by entry; a Docs MCP server and skills for coding agents; plus guides, a prompt guide and use-case pages on base44.com. Held back by most help pages being undated and by many guides, product and use-case pages that were not updated and contradict the pricing page or newer docs (custom domains on Builder rather than Starter, premium support on Pro, a wrong monthly Starter price, backend functions on Pro and Elite, a free domain only from Builder, data residency and SSO on every Elite workspace (only Elite workspaces created before October 2026 keep them), an older line saying customer data never trains AI models), which leaves the pricing page, the Terms and the dated help and changelog entries as the reliable sources.
Weighted across the axes above (weights reflect what actually drives the decision in this category). How we score →
Together those axes put Base44 at 3.7/5. The number rewards a builder that turns a description into a live app with logins, data and payments, and it marks down the costs that arrive later: credits you cannot top up, code you cannot run on your own servers and data you cannot keep out of training below Enterprise. If you are weighing other builders, our Base44 alternatives guide covers them with their own prices.
Frequently asked questions
Do teammates need their own paid Base44 plan?+
No. Only the workspace owner buys a plan, and invited members share its credits; viewers use no credits. Per-member credit limits need Base44's Enterprise offering (Business or Enterprise).
Is there a limit on how many people can use a published Base44 app?+
Base44 sets no limit on how many people sign up for or use a published app. Their actions that use built-in services still spend the owner's integration credits.
Can I bring an existing app into Base44?+
Base44 lists migration paths from tools such as Shopify, WordPress, Lovable and Bolt.new, importing 100 items per entity as a preview first. It can also import a GitHub repository, or a Figma design if you have a Full or Dev Figma seat.
Can I build and edit apps from my phone?+
Base44 runs on the web, in iOS and Android apps and in a Mac app. Edit mode, data permissions, code editing, APIs and templates are desktop only.
The bottom line
Base44 earns its fee when you want a working app on a hosted backend and accept that it stays on that backend. Judge the output on Free first, within its 25 message credits a month (at most 5 a day). Move to Starter for a custom domain and private apps, and to Builder the moment you need payments, connectors, GitHub or store files. Pay monthly until you are sure, since monthly only loses if you stay past 9 months. Skip it if you need self-hosting, HIPAA coverage, a training opt-out without Enterprise or a fully predictable bill. Our score reflects that split: fast to build, costly to leave.
- [1] Base44 plans and pricing (2026-11) https://base44.com/pricing
- [2] Base44 docs: Credits (2026-11) https://docs.base44.com/Account-and-billing/Credits
- [3] Base44 docs: Base44 developer tools (2026-11) https://docs.base44.com/documentation/building-your-app/developer-tools
- [4] Base44 docs: Privacy and security (2026-11) https://docs.base44.com/Community-and-support/Privacy-and-security