Are AI app builders good?

This research does not measure quality. Lovable, Replit and Base44 have the largest sourced figures on the page. Whether a builder is a fit for your app is a question to test on a small project.

What does an AI app builder cost?

Most start free and charge $16 to $30 a month for the first paid plan: Base44 from $16, Emergent from $20, Replit Core $20, Lovable Pro $25, Bolt Pro $25, v0 Plus $30 per user, Figma Make $16 a seat, Bubble $32 and Retool $10 a builder. Heavy use costs more, because plans meter credits or tokens.

Is there a free, open-source AI app builder?

Yes. Dyad runs on your computer and is free to download. You pay your own AI provider for the model use. Google AI Studio Build is also free to try, but it is not open source.

The research does not measure code quality or failure rates. The weak spot on this page is that most figures are company statements about growth, not studies of finished apps.

How do Lovable, Replit and Bolt.new compare?

Lovable has a $13.3 billion valuation (its own post, August 2026) and ARR above $600 million (iMasters, September 2026). Replit has a $9 billion valuation (its own post, March 2026) and has not published ARR. Bolt.new’s newest figures are from 2025. No comparison article is linked from this page.

Shortlist

Which AI app builder to shortlist

Lovable leads this shortlist. Its own August 2026 post gives a $13.3 billion valuation, and iMasters reported ARR above $600 million in September. Replit’s March 2026 post gives $9 billion. Wix says Base44’s ARR is close to $250 million (November 2026). Emergent raised at $1.5 billion in July. Dyad is the open-source option.

Quick pick

Top pick
Lovable
Turns a plain-English prompt into a working app.
Best for build and hosting
Replit Agent
Builds and hosts apps from a prompt inside Replit.
Best open source
Dyad
Free, runs on your machine, and you bring your own AI keys.

Ordered shortlist

01
Lovable
Commercial
App builders
A prompt-to-app builder.
$13.3B valuationVerifiedAs of Aug 12, 2026Lovable blog
$600M+ ARRVerified As of Sep 24, 2026
Evidence notes
- Evidence level: Verified, primary.
- Lead by judgment. Lovable’s own figures are the newest and largest. Plans start at $25 a month, with no per-seat fee.
- A $400 million Series C led by Menlo Ventures, double the $6.6 billion valuation of December 2025. Reuters and TechCrunch carry the same figures. Lovable says people have built more than 60 million projects.
- ARR above $600 million. Up from about $500 million in June. Lovable told Reuters in August that it was tracking toward $600 million.
02
Replit Agent
Commercial
App builders
Builds and hosts apps from a prompt, inside Replit.
$9B valuationVerifiedAs of Mar 11, 2026Replit blog
ARR est. $525MEstimated As of April 2026
Evidence notes
- Evidence level: Verified, primary.
- Builds and hosts in one workspace. Valuation is from Replit’s March 2026 post, but it has not published a current ARR.
- A $400 million Series D, up from $3 billion in September 2025. Replit says it is on track for $1 billion in run-rate revenue by the end of 2026, and that it has more than 50 million users (Georgian).
- ARR estimated at $525 million. Sacra’s estimate for April 2026. Replit did not release a current figure; TechCrunch notes this.
03
Base44
Commercial
App builders
Wix's app builder, with sign-in and a database built in.
ARR close to $250MVerifiedAs of Nov 10, 2026Wix results
Evidence notes
- Evidence level: Verified, primary.
- Wix’s builder, with sign-in and a database included. Plans start at $16 a month billed annually.
- Wix expects Base44 gross margin to exit the year above 60%. Wix bought Base44 in June 2025.
04
Emergent
Commercial
App builders
Builds web and mobile apps from a prompt.
$1.5B valuationVerifiedAs of Jul 15, 2026TechCrunch
ARR about $120MReported As of Jul 15, 2026
Evidence notes
- Evidence level: Verified, secondary.
- Newer builder for web and mobile apps. The ARR is a company statement.
- A $130 million Series C. Emergent also posted the announcement on its own news page.
- ARR about $120 million. A company statement for June 2026. TechCrunch carried a $100 million figure in February.
05
v0
Commercial
App builders
Vercel's UI and app generator.
3.5M+ unique usersReportedAs of September 2025Devgraphiq
Evidence notes
- Evidence level: Reported.
- Vercel’s builder, strongest on React front ends. Vercel has not published revenue.
- Vercel’s figure for unique users, which counts people who tried v0, not paying customers. Over half of v0 revenue comes from Teams and Enterprise.
06
Figma Make
Commercial
App builders
Prompt to prototype inside Figma.
No Make-only figure publishedNo figure stored
Evidence notes
- Turns a prompt into a working prototype inside Figma. Free to start, then $16 a seat. Figma has not published a Make figure.
07
Bolt.new
Commercial
App builders
A browser-based app builder.
About $700M valuationStaleAs of January 2025Sacra
Evidence notes
- Evidence level: Stale date.
- Browser-based builder. Its newest company figures are from 2025.
- From a $105.5 million Series B. StackBlitz had raised $135 million in total by December 2025. Sacra’s last ARR estimate is $40 million for March 2025.
08
Bubble
Commercial
App builders
Visual builder for full web and mobile apps.
Agent 2 and Bubble MCP launchedVerifiedAs of Oct 6, 2026Bubble blog
Evidence notes
- Evidence level: Verified, primary.
- Visual builder for full web and mobile apps. Launched Agent 2 and an MCP server on Oct 6, 2026. Plans from $32 a month billed annually.
- A product launch, not a size figure. Bubble also added AI credits.
09
Retool
Commercial
App builders
Internal tools and agents on your own data.
About $120M ARREstimatedAs of 2025-10Sacra
Evidence notes
- Evidence level: Estimated.
- Builds internal tools and agents on your own data, with self-hosting. Builders from $10 a month. About $120 million ARR, a Sacra estimate.
- Sacra’s estimate for October 2025.
10
Google AI Studio Build
Commercial
App builders
Google's Gemini app builder, from prompt to deployed app.
No dollar figure publishedNo figure stored
Evidence notes
- Free to try with a Google account. Google has not published a figure.
11
Dyad
Open source
App builders
A free, open-source app builder that runs on your own computer.
22,300 GitHub starsGitHubAs of Nov 11, 2026GitHub repository
Evidence notes
- Evidence level: GitHub snapshot.
- Open source and local. Code outside src/pro is Apache 2.0. Stars are the scale signal.
- GitHub star count on Nov 11, 2026. The repository was created in April 2025.

Compare on

Brand	Plans from	How you pay	Scale
Lovable	Free, then $25/mo	Credits, no per-seat fee	$13.3B valuation (Aug 2026)
Replit Agent	Core $20/mo	Plan plus credits for stronger models	$9B valuation (Mar 2026)
Base44	Free, then $16/mo	Monthly message credits	ARR near $250M (Nov 2026)
Emergent	Free, then $20/mo	Monthly credits	$1.5B valuation (Jul 2026)
v0	Free, then $30 per user/mo	Per-user plan plus credits	3.5M+ unique users (Sep 2025)
Figma Make	Free, then $16 per seat/mo	Per seat plus AI credits	No figure published
Bolt.new	Free, then $25/mo	Monthly tokens	$700M valuation (Jan 2025)
Bubble	Free, then $32/mo billed annually	Plan plus usage units and AI credits	No figure published
Retool	Free, then $10 per builder/mo billed annually	Per builder and user, plus AI credits	About $120M ARR (Sacra estimate, Oct 2025)
Google AI Studio Build	Free	Paid Gemini API for higher limits	No figure published
Dyad	Free, open source	Your own AI keys	22,300 GitHub stars

Prices come from each vendor’s pricing page, checked November 11, 2026. Annual billing is cheaper on most plans. Not recorded: output quality and who maintains the code afterwards.

How we picked

Commercial builders come first, ordered by their newest sourced figure. The open-source pick comes last.
Lovable leads on judgment and on the newest figures. Replit’s March 2026 post gives a lower valuation, but Replit has not published a current ARR.
Dyad replaces gpt-engineer. gpt-engineer is an older command-line repo. Dyad is a desktop builder with 2026 commits and about 22,300 stars.
bolt.diy (about 20,100 stars, MIT) and Open Lovable (about 28,900 stars, MIT) were also checked. bolt.diy’s README says only bug fixes are planned, and Open Lovable is a small example app.
Bolt.new stays but is marked stale: its newest company figures are from 2025.
Figma Make, Bubble and Retool joined in November 2026. Figma and Bubble have not published a size figure, so their rows lean on pricing. Retool’s ARR is a Sacra estimate.

Questions and answers

Are AI app builders good?: Our judgmentThis research does not measure quality. Lovable, Replit and Base44 have the largest sourced figures on the page. Whether a builder is a fit for your app is a question to test on a small project.
What does an AI app builder cost?: Most start free and charge $16 to $30 a month for the first paid plan: Base44 from $16, Emergent from $20, Replit Core $20, Lovable Pro $25, Bolt Pro $25, v0 Plus $30 per user, Figma Make $16 a seat, Bubble $32 and Retool $10 a builder. Heavy use costs more, because plans meter credits or tokens.
Is there a free, open-source AI app builder?: Yes. Dyad runs on your computer and is free to download. You pay your own AI provider for the model use. Google AI Studio Build is also free to try, but it is not open source.
Is vibe coding bad?: Our judgmentThe research does not measure code quality or failure rates. The weak spot on this page is that most figures are company statements about growth, not studies of finished apps.
How do Lovable, Replit and Bolt.new compare?: Our judgmentLovable has a $13.3 billion valuation (its own post, August 2026) and ARR above $600 million (iMasters, September 2026). Replit has a $9 billion valuation (its own post, March 2026) and has not published ARR. Bolt.new’s newest figures are from 2025. No comparison article is linked from this page.

Runners-up

bolt.diy and Open Lovable
Open-source builders checked this round. bolt.diy is in maintenance mode; Open Lovable is a small example app from Firecrawl.
OpenHands and Dify
Named as neighbours in the plan. They are not ordered on this page.

Neighbours

Coding agents
Coding agents edit a repository you already have. App builders start from a prompt and a new app.
MCP
MCP is how agents call tools. It is not a way to generate an app.

Homepage shortlistCoding agentsAgentic development environmentsCustomer supportLegalMCPInsurance