# Base44 vs Lovable: Credits, Code Export and Pricing Compared > Base44 vs Lovable (Nov 2026): credit expiry and top-ups, prices on the same billing term, GitHub and code export, phone apps, payments and AI training. _Source: https://professionalstoolkit.com/articles/base44-vs-lovable — The Professional's Toolkit · updated November 2026_ --- Base44 and Lovable both turn a plain-English prompt into a hosted web app with a database, logins and a public address, and both price a workspace by monthly credits rather than by seat. The split is in the details. On monthly billing, Base44 Starter costs $20 per month for 100 message credits [1]. Lovable Pro with 100 credits costs $25 per month billed monthly [2]. Lovable rolls unused monthly plan credits over for one month on monthly billing (they expire two months after issue), or until one month after the annual period on annual billing, and sells top-ups, while Base44 does neither. Base44 keeps GitHub behind its Builder plan but produces store-ready phone app files; Lovable syncs to Git even on Free and builds no native apps. **Pick Base44 for app-store wrappers and model choice; pick Lovable for portable code and flexible credits.** **$20 vs $25** — Base44 Starter (100 message credits) vs Lovable Pro (100 credits), per month billed monthly - **Builder** — Lowest Base44 plan with GitHub sync; Lovable syncs to Git on Free - **2 months** — Lovable monthly-plan credits roll over up to 2 months; Base44 credits expire at each monthly reset - **Builder+** — Base44 store-ready app files (web-view wrapper); Lovable builds no native apps ## Two credit meters with different expiry rules Base44 runs two meters. Message credits pay for building with the AI, at about 0.5 to 4 credits per change by Base44's own estimates, and Discuss mode costs about 0.3 per message. Integration credits pay for the built-in services your app uses, such as email, AI calls, image generation and in-app agents. End users of a published Base44 app spend the owner's integration credits, so a busy app can drain the pool without anyone opening the editor. Credits spent on failed AI output are not refunded. Lovable keeps one balance for building, chat, its Cloud backend, AI features in deployed apps and connectors [3]. Its Pro and Business plans also grant 5 daily build credits with no monthly cap. Lovable publishes sample costs: about half a credit to turn a button gray, 1.20 to add authentication, 1.70 for a landing page with images, and 1 credit per Plan-mode message plus any subagent research. A Base44 message credit and a Lovable credit are not the same unit. Compare plans by features and habits, never by credit counts alone. Expiry is where the two really part ways. **Base44 grants credits monthly on both billing terms, and unused credits expire at each reset**; the only exception is a one-cycle carryover when you upgrade from a monthly plan to a higher monthly plan. Base44 publishes no way to buy extra credits outside a plan. Lovable rolls unused monthly plan credits over while the subscription stays active, expiring two months after issue on monthly plans. Lovable Pro sells top-ups at $15 per 50 credits, valid for 12 months. Uneven workloads favor Lovable here. > 💡 **Size Base44 to your busiest month:** Even an annual Base44 plan grants credits month by month and they expire at each reset, so pick the plan that covers your heaviest month of building. ## What the same budget buys on each side Base44 lists five self-serve plans per workspace. Starter is $16 per month billed annually or $20 per month billed monthly, with 100 message and 2,000 integration credits a month. Builder is $40 per month billed annually or $50 per month billed monthly, with 250 and 10,000. Base44 Pro is $80 per month billed annually or $100 per month billed monthly, and Elite with 1,200 message credits is $160 per month billed annually or $200 per month billed monthly. Annual plans save 20% and are charged once a year; Enterprise is quote-only. Lovable sells Pro and Business in credit tiers, with annual billing worth two months free. Lovable Pro with 100 credits is $25 per month billed monthly or $250 a year. Lovable Pro with 200 credits is $50 per month billed monthly or $500 a year. Lovable Business with 100 credits is $50 per month billed monthly or $500 a year, and adds training exclusion by default plus workspace SSO. Enterprise goes through sales on both sides. By our arithmetic, Base44 Starter undercuts Lovable's entry Pro tier by $5 a month on monthly billing, or $60 a year. On annual billing the gap is $192 a year for Base44 Starter against $250 a year for Lovable Pro with 100 credits, a $58 difference. At the next step, Base44 Builder and Lovable Pro with 200 credits both cost $50 per month billed monthly, while annual billing puts them at $480 against $500 a year. Matching prices hide unmatched gates, so compare the plan your project actually needs. The free plans differ in shape too. Base44 Free gives 25 message credits a month, at most 5 a day, plus 100 integration credits and up to 5 apps, and only your personal workspace gets them. Lovable Free grants 5 daily build credits up to 30 a month, plus small monthly grants for Cloud, AI and connectors that Lovable calls temporary. For the full Base44 credit math, see our [Base44 pricing breakdown](/articles/base44-pricing). > ⚠ **Base44's $16 is billed annually:** Base44 Starter is $16 per month billed annually, charged once a year as $192 by our arithmetic; billed monthly, Starter is $20 per month. ## Code ownership and the exit door Base44 opens in-app code edits on Starter; Free can only view code. GitHub two-way sync and ZIP export start on Builder. 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. **Leaving Base44 therefore means a replacement backend and code changes.** Lovable offers Git sync with GitHub, GitLab and Bitbucket on every plan, Free included, though it always creates a new repository rather than connecting an existing one. Code editing and ZIP downloads need a paid plan, and editing code yourself spends no credits. Lovable says you own your code and data and can host parts or all of the app elsewhere. Its frontend can move to Netlify, Vercel or a cloud provider, yet its built-in backend migrates only to managed or self-hosted Supabase. Lovable exports the full database on every plan, as a separate step from the code; its Enterprise-only data exports send audit logs to SIEM or storage. Running out of credits plays out differently. On Base44, building with the AI also pauses until the monthly reset when message credits run out; actions that need integration credits fail and end users see a generic error, but pages and the database keep working. On Lovable, building stops, AI features in deployed apps stop, and the built-in backend pauses; data is kept but cannot be reached or exported until it runs again, while published pages keep serving. That matters for live apps. Moving between them is possible both ways. Base44's migration page says it reads a Lovable app's Supabase schema and data and pulls the frontend from GitHub. Lovable says it imports a ZIP of code from Base44 and other builders and moves the database and users to its own backend. Base44's January 2026 comparison post, built on September 2025 data, describes Lovable as leaning on Supabase. Lovable's current docs put a built-in backend on by default, so treat that older framing with care. ## Phones, payments, models and training Mobile is Base44's clearest lead. From Builder up, Base44 generates App Store and Google Play files: a store-ready wrapper that runs your published web app inside a web view. You submit through your own developer accounts, which Base44's guides put at $99 per membership year for Apple and $25 one-time for Google Play. Digital goods cannot be sold inside those store apps. Lovable does not build native mobile apps or React Native projects; its FAQ points to a PWA or a Capacitor wrapper built outside Lovable [4]. Our [Base44 mobile apps guide](/articles/base44-mobile-apps) covers the submission steps. Payments start on Base44 Builder, through Base44 Payments (powered by Wix) or Stripe; since November 2026 Base44's SDK payments module also handles PayPal from backend functions (Builder plan and up). Base44's product pages put Base44 Payments at 2.9% + $0.30 per US card sale. Lovable's built-in payments, which provision Stripe or Paddle for you, need a paid plan, but connecting your own Stripe account works on Free. Lovable lists Paddle at 5.0% plus 50 cents per transaction. Model control runs the other way. Base44 lets you pick the building model from Builder up, while Free and Starter use Auto. A manually chosen model may cost more credits than Auto, and Base44's Compare models option spends twice the credits. Lovable chooses the model for Build, Plan and Chat itself. It offers no picker. Developer hooks follow the same split. Lovable's MCP server works on all plans; Base44's MCP server needs Builder. Base44 says it holds SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001. Lovable says it holds SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001:2022 and AIUC-1. Neither signs Business Associate Agreements, and both say they do not meet HIPAA. Training rules differ sharply. **On Base44, only Enterprise workspaces are excluded from AI model training, with no opt-out elsewhere.** Since September 2026, Lovable may train on Free and Pro data unless the user opts out, while Business and Enterprise are excluded by default. > 💡 **Test the exit early:** Export a Base44 ZIP (Builder plan or higher) or a Lovable Git repository in week one and check which parts still depend on the vendor's backend. ## Which buyer belongs on which platform Match the minimum plan to the job. If your code must live in Git from day one, Lovable Free already syncs, while Base44 needs Builder at $40 per month billed annually or $50 per month billed monthly. If you need a phone app in the stores, Base44 Builder plus your own developer accounts is the route; Lovable leaves the wrapper to you. Spiky months suit Lovable's rollover and top-ups. Teams that want to choose the AI model (Builder or higher), or keep pages and database running when integration credits hit zero, lean toward Base44. A custom domain arrives on Base44 Starter; yearly plans (Starter bought in or after early October 2026, Builder, Pro and Elite) add a free domain for one year, monthly plans do not. Lovable unlocks custom domains on any paid plan. Support differs at the low end: Lovable Free gets community help only and Pro gets email, while Base44 routes tickets through an AI assistant first, then a human, and publishes no response times. Refunds are thin everywhere. Both vendors call fees non-refundable; Base44's help center adds that Customer Care may approve a prorated refund, minus processing fees, for a mistaken purchase or special circumstances. **What users rate it, by platform** | Platform | Rating | Reviews | As of | |---|---|---|---| _Rendered from our current record; these are other platforms' user scores, separate from our own Toolkit Score._ Review sites tell a narrower story than the feature lists. Base44's Trustpilot complaints cluster around support, billing, credits and refunds, which is a map of where things go wrong rather than a measure of how often. Read it as a checklist. Set a credit budget, read the refund terms, and test an export before a client depends on the app. For the wider field beyond these two, see our [Base44 alternatives roundup](/articles/base44-alternatives). ## FAQ **Do teammates cost extra on Base44 or Lovable?** No seat fees on either. Base44 members share the owner's plan and credits, with per-member credit limits only on its Enterprise plans (Business or Enterprise); Lovable charges no seat fees: its paid plans list unlimited users and Free unlimited collaborators (Free and Pro cap owner, admin and editor roles at 200 members), and owners can cap credits per member on any paid plan. **Do both offer a student discount?** Yes, with different scope. Base44 gives verified students and educators 50% off Starter or Builder on the first paid subscription, personal billing only, claimed while on Free, for up to 12 months on monthly billing or the first year on annual billing, then the standard rate; Lovable gives verified students and teachers 50% off Pro with 100 credits billed monthly for up to 12 months, verified from a Free-plan workspace. **What happens to my apps if I cancel?** Both cancellations take effect at the end of the billing period. Base44 then moves the workspace to Free, keeps up to 5 apps published (the rest are unpublished, not deleted), stops custom domains and payments and keeps your data; Lovable apps stay live on Free but may be unpublished after 12 months or more with no visits, no owner login and no custom domain. **Who is behind each product?** Base44 was founded by Maor Shlomo and is operated by Wix.com Ltd.; a Base44 guide says Wix acquired it in June 2025. Lovable was founded in 2023 in Stockholm by Anton Osika and Fabian Hedin. ## The bottom line Choose Base44 if you want store-ready phone wrappers, model choice from Builder, and an app whose pages and database keep running when integration credits run out (building still pauses until the monthly reset when message credits do), and accept that credits expire monthly and the exported code stays tied to Base44's backend. Choose Lovable if Git sync on Free, rolling credits, top-ups and a Supabase-based exit path matter more than native store files. On monthly billing the entry tiers sit $5 apart, so the decision rests on gates, not price. ## Sources [1] Base44 plans and pricing — https://base44.com/pricing (2026-11) [2] Lovable docs: Subscription plans — https://docs.lovable.dev/introduction/subscription-plans (2026-11) [3] Lovable docs: Credits and usage — https://docs.lovable.dev/introduction/credits-and-usage (2026-11) [4] Lovable docs: FAQ — https://docs.lovable.dev/introduction/faq (2026-11) [5] Base44 documentation — https://docs.base44.com/Account-and-billing/Credits [6] Base44 Terms of Service — https://base44.com/about-us/legal/terms-of-service [7] Base44 Privacy Policy — https://base44.com/about-us/legal/privacy-policy