Best Bolt.new Alternatives in 2026

Lovable is the best of the ten Bolt.new alternatives I verified this month, and Dyad is the best free one. Bolt remains a good product - it is still the fastest route I would recommend from a blank prompt to a hosted app with a database - but its free tier is tight, its token model burns quickly on real projects, and there is no API or CLI to build on. Below are ten verified alternatives with pricing read from each vendor’s own page on 14 October 2026, plus an honest case for staying put.

Bolt.new alternatives at a glance

Alternative	Best for	Free plan	Starting price	Main advantage	Main limitation
Lovable	Teams needing apps with a real database	Yes	$25/month (Pro)	Two-way Git sync, unlimited members on every plan	Cannot import an existing repo; one branch at a time
Replit	Builders who want a full IDE and infra	Yes (Starter)	$20/month (Core)	Real shell, 10 parallel agents, multiple output types	Starter is thin; Pro costs $100/month
Cursor	Developers who want an agent in an editor	Yes (Hobby)	$20/month (Pro)	Git, terminal and CI-native AI editing	Desktop only; third-party models billed separately
v0	React and Next.js teams on Vercel	Yes	$30/user/month (Plus)	PR-based review and one-click Vercel deploys	Free tier capped at 7 messages/day
Netlify	Teams wanting hosting plus an AI agent	Yes ($0 forever)	$0 (300 credits/month)	Free tier has hard, unbillable limits	300 credits is thin; one project hitting the cap pauses all
Dyad	Builders refusing platform lock-in	Yes (forever)	$20/month (Pro)	Local, open source, your files stay yours	No built-in hosting, database or publishing
Base44	Internal tools replacing spreadsheets	Yes	$16/month annually (Starter)	Up to 5 free apps with auth and connectors	Owned by Wix; priced per credit block
Onlook	Designers editing real code visually	Yes	Free, self-hostable	Open source, uses your existing AI subscription	No backend, database or hosting
Google AI Studio	Zero-cost prompt-to-app prototyping	Yes	Free tier; paid tiers from $250 caps	Google’s official path for browser-based apps	Rate-limited free tier; prepaid credit billing
Hostinger AI Builder	Small-business sites and stores	No	$11.99/month	Cheapest entry price, free domain for a year	14-day trial only, no permanent free plan

Why look for a Bolt.new alternative?

Most people arrive at this question from one of four places.

The free tier ran out. Bolt’s free plan is permanent, which is genuinely rare in this category, and it is not a trial. But Bolt’s official pricing page caps it at 300K tokens a day and 1M tokens a month, limits file uploads to 10MB, blocks custom domains, and adds a “Made in Bolt” badge on anything you publish. Free hosting gets you 10GB of bandwidth and 333,333 requests a month, which Bolt’s own docs estimate is roughly 10,000 to 15,000 monthly visits. Go past it and the site goes offline until the cycle resets, with no way to buy your way out.

Tokens evaporate on real projects. Bolt’s documentation is refreshingly honest that most token usage comes from Bolt re-reading and syncing your project files, so bigger projects cost more per message. If you are maintaining an app rather than prototyping one, that is the whole argument against Bolt.

You need the code, not the chat. Bolt’s GitHub integration is the escape hatch and it works - connect a repo, Bolt commits after every prompt that processes without breaking, and it polls GitHub every 30 seconds for outside changes. But it is one project, one repo, and Bolt does not handle pull-request review. Disconnecting a project permanently removes the link and you cannot manually reconnect it.

You want automation. Bolt’s own FAQ states plainly that it has no public API, CLI or SDK. If your build needs to be scriptable, Bolt is a dead end by design.

One more reason worth naming: vendor risk. The clearest recent example in this category is Firebase Studio. Per Firebase Studio’s official sunset and migration notice, Google announced the sunset on 19 March 2026, disabled new workspace creation and signups on 22 June 2026, and will shut it down entirely on 22 March 2027, deleting all remaining data. Any prompt-to-app platform can be repositioned by its owner. Check that the thing you are about to commit to is still being actively developed.

How I chose these alternatives

Prices, plan names and limits come from vendor pricing pages and documentation checked on 14 October 2026. Monthly and annual billing rates are labelled separately.

The scoring criteria were: output quality on real full-stack work, how fast a non-specialist reaches a working app, total cost including hosting and database, the value of the free tier, integrations and collaboration, how much control you keep over the code, reliability of the platform, privacy and security posture, platform support, migration difficulty, and whether the thing scales past a prototype.

Ratings are editorial judgements on a five-point scale, based on published features, pricing and plan limits.

You can find more tool comparisons in our full tools directory.

1. Lovable - Best overall

Lovable builds websites and web apps by chat, with a built-in backend, database and cloud hosting, and it is the nearest equivalent to Bolt on the market today. If you only read one section of this guide, read this one.

What it does

You describe an app in plain language and Lovable writes the frontend, the backend logic, the database schema and the authentication. Projects live in a workspace, and every plan includes unlimited collaborators with no per-seat charge. Lovable’s official pricing page states plainly that you own the code you build, subject to third-party rights in the underlying models.

Who it is best for

Teams and founders shipping a customer-facing app with real data who want more than one person working on it. If you are currently paying $30 per member for Bolt Teams, Lovable is the single most obvious line item to move.

Why it is a valid alternative

The workflows genuinely match: prompt for a feature, watch it build, preview, publish, connect a domain. Lovable’s Pro plan is $25/month with 100 monthly credits, the same headline price as Bolt’s entry paid tier, and its Business plan is $50/month for team workspaces, role-based access, internal publishing, SSO and a security centre.

Strengths

Two-way GitHub sync is the headline. Changes made in Lovable sync to GitHub and pushes to the active branch sync back in, with branch switching and pull request creation supported. Lovable also offers GitHub Enterprise Cloud with regional data residency, and self-hosted GitHub Enterprise Server, both on the Enterprise plan. The free tier is generous by this category’s standards: 5 daily build credits (capped at 30 a month), 20 monthly Cloud credits, 4 monthly AI credits, 1 monthly connector credit, 5 free lovable.app domains and unlimited collaborators.

Pricing transparency is a real advantage. Lovable publishes a per-credit rate - $0.25 on Pro, $0.50 on Business - and lists what individual prompts cost: changing a button’s styles runs 0.50 credits, removing a footer 0.90, adding authentication 1.20, building an image-rich landing page about 2.00. Bolt sells you an abstract token bucket; Lovable tells you roughly what the message will cost before you send it.

Limitations

The Git sync is one branch at a time. More importantly, Lovable’s documentation states that the integration cannot import existing GitHub repositories into Lovable - export only. If you are coming from Bolt, the route is: sync Bolt to GitHub, rebuild inside Lovable, then sync Lovable out to GitHub. That is a real project, not a weekend.

Business-plan credits cost twice as much each, so a Business workspace burns its balance about twice as fast for identical work. TechCrunch’s August 2025 report on Lovable confirmed that the company had raised $200 million at a $1.8 billion valuation led by Accel and passed $100 million ARR with over 10 million projects built, which tells you both that the product is well-funded and that it is not a hobby project.

Current pricing

Free is $0 with the grants listed above. Pro is $25/month including 100 monthly credits, rollovers, on-demand top-ups, unlimited lovable.app domains, custom domains, roles and permissions, per-member credit limits, badge removal and email support. Business is $50/month with team workspace, role-based access, internal publish, personal projects, SSO, security centre, design templates and priority support. Enterprise is a platform fee plus volume-based credit pricing, with SCIM, audit logs, scheduled deep security scans and a custom SLA. Switching to yearly billing adds two months free. These are monthly-billing figures as displayed on 14 October 2026.

Free plan or trial?

Permanent free plan, not a trial. One credit system covers building, chat, hosting and AI features inside your deployed app.

Direct comparison with Bolt

Bolt wins on three things: built-in hosting you do not have to think about, the browser-based runtime that needs no install, and mobile app support via Expo. Lovable wins on team economics, Git ergonomics, published per-message pricing, and security tooling - it runs a basic security scan on every publish and offers on-demand deep scans taking around three minutes.

Verdict

Move if collaboration or code ownership is the bottleneck. Stay on Bolt if you are a solo builder who never opens GitHub and prefers not to start.

2. Replit - Best for teams

Replit is an entire cloud development platform with an agent attached, not a chat box with a database bolted on. That difference shapes everything.

What it does

Replit Agent takes an idea, plans it, builds it, checks its own work and deploys it. You get a real IDE with a shell, plus Design Canvas for visual exploration, Plan Mode for planning without editing code, and connectors to external services.

Who it is best for

Builders whose projects have outgrown single-threaded prompting, and teams that want mobile apps, slide decks, data visualisations and videos from the same backend.

Why it is a valid alternative

Replit’s Agent supports web apps, mobile apps, dashboards and AI-powered tools, and multiple output types inside a single project sharing one backend. It runs in Free, Auto, Power and Max modes, where Free mode is no-cost Agent work within your allowance.

Strengths

The environment is real. You get a terminal, a filesystem and your own deployment options, which means you can do the things Bolt’s chat interface makes awkward. Publishing is available on every plan, and Core removes the badge. Pro supports up to 10 parallel Agent tasks, up to 15 builders with pooled credits and no per-seat fees, 28-day database recovery instead of the standard 7 days, and priority support.

Limitations

The free tier, called Starter, is genuinely thin: Lite build only, one published app whose link dies after 30 days, a “Made with Replit” badge, no Full build, no Plan Mode, no third-party connectors, no badge removal and no extra artifact types. And Pro is $100/month - five times Bolt’s entry paid plan.

Current pricing

Starter is free. Per Replit’s official pricing page, Core is $20/month on monthly billing or $18/month billed annually, and includes unlimited published apps, Full build, connectors, Plan Mode, up to 5 collaborators and monthly credits. Pro is $100/month monthly or $90/month annually. Enterprise is custom, with SSO/SAML, advanced privacy controls, single-tenant environments and static outbound IPs. Figures verified 14 October 2026.

Direct comparison with Bolt

Replit costs more and gives you more control. Bolt’s Pro at $25/month is the cheapest credible paid tier in this whole list. Replit earns its money back if you deploy real traffic, need a shell, or want a mobile app alongside your web app.

Verdict

Pick Replit when the project needs infrastructure decisions rather than prompts. Pick Bolt when you want the shortest possible path to a hosted link.

3. Cursor - Best for power users

Cursor puts an AI agent inside a real code editor. It is the most powerful option here and the least like Bolt.

What it does

Cursor is a fork of VS Code with agentic editing, tab completions, cloud agents that work in parallel, Bugbot code review, an Origin code-hosting layer, a CLI and an SDK. Two usage pools govern cost: a Cursor Models pool covering Grok 4.7, Grok 4.6, Grok 4.5 and Composer 2.5, and an “Other Models” pool drawn at each model’s API price.

Who it is best for

Professional developers who will read every diff. Cursor turns a coding agent into a colleague rather than a vending machine.

Why it is a valid alternative

If your Bolt workflow has degraded into “prompt, read the preview, prompt again, undo, prompt again” - a familiar pattern - the problem is the interface, not the model. Cursor closes the loop with git, a terminal and CI in the same window.

Strengths

You choose the model per task, including frontier models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and xAI. Teams get a Cursor Token Rate of $0.25 per million tokens on top of third-party model pricing, SCIM, audit logs, SAML/OIDC SSO and granular spend controls. The Origin layer handles code hosting and AI code reviews.

Limitations

Desktop only. There is no browser experience, which is Bolt’s single most convenient property. Free-tier usage is genuinely limited, and any third-party model you select is billed separately from your subscription.

Current pricing

Hobby is free with limited usage, giving access to Agent, Chat and Tab completions on the Auto model. Pro is $20/month, Pro+ is $60/month and Ultra is $200/month. Teams Standard is $40/user/month and Teams Premium is $120/user/month. There is also a Start plan at ₹649/month for developers in India only. Enterprise is custom. Verified 14 October 2026.

Direct comparison with Bolt

Same entry price for Pro, completely different shape. Cursor will produce better code on a codebase you care about. Bolt will produce a working demo faster from nothing.

Verdict

Upgrade to Cursor the day your project stops being a prototype. Before that, it is overkill.

4. v0 - Best for React and Next.js

v0 is Vercel’s AI agent for building real code and full-stack applications, with deploys to Vercel or pull requests for review.

What it does

v0 generates high-fidelity UI from wireframes or mockups, connects to backends for data-driven applications, and deploys one click to Vercel’s infrastructure. It also generates Python and SQL data applications and connects to Snowflake.

Who it is best for

Teams whose stack is React, Next.js, Tailwind and shadcn/ui, and whose review process runs through pull requests.

Why it is a valid alternative

v0’s two-way relationship with GitHub and Vercel is the cleanest code-review loop in this category. Deploy to production immediately, or open a pull request and let humans read it first.

Strengths

One-click database integrations with Upstash, Neon, Supabase and Vercel Blob, managed through the Vercel Marketplace. ChatGPT Plus and Pro subscribers can connect their ChatGPT account to cover eligible AI responses from supported OpenAI models, with v0 credits as fallback. Plus and Business plans get a shared credit pool.

Limitations

The free tier allows 7 messages a day, the tightest limit on this list. Premium at $20/month is being sunset and is no longer available to new users. Pricing moves to per-user from Plus onward, which costs real money on a ten-person team. Unused monthly credits roll over but expire after 65 days.

Current pricing

According to v0’s pricing documentation, Free is $0 with a 7-message daily limit. Premium is $20/month, sunsetting. Plus is $30/user/month with shared projects, shared credit pools and central billing. Business is $100/user/month, adding data opt-out, RBAC and SAML SSO. Enterprise is custom with SSO and priority access. Verified 14 October 2026.

Direct comparison with Bolt

v0 produces framework-native code that your engineers will not fight. Bolt produces a working whole application faster. If you have engineers, that trade usually favours v0.

Verdict

Choose v0 when code quality in your own stack matters more than time-to-hosted-link.

5. Netlify - Best free hosting option

Netlify is not a Bolt replacement so much as a Bolt companion, and the most generous permanent free tier in this guide.

What it does

Netlify deploys any framework from AI, Git or an API, with Agent Runners that let Claude Code, OpenAI Codex, Google Gemini or OpenCode create, fix and ship code directly from your Netlify dashboard using your project’s real context, environment variables, build settings and deployment pipeline.

Who it is best for

Teams that already think in deploy previews and pull requests, and who want an AI agent pointed at a real hosting platform rather than a sandbox.

Why it is a valid alternative

Agent Runners are available on the Free, Personal and Pro credit-based plans. That means you can run an agent against a real Netlify project at no cost.

Strengths

The free plan is $0 forever with 300 credits a month, custom domains with SSL, unlimited deploy previews, Netlify Database, Blob storage, edge functions, a firewall and a global CDN. Critically, Netlify states the free plan has hard monthly limits that cannot be exceeded and cannot incur any costs, so there is no surprise invoice path. Production deploys cost 15 credits each, compute 10 credits per GB-hour, bandwidth 20 credits per GB, and web requests 2 credits per 10,000.

Limitations

300 credits is thin, and the sting is structural: Netlify states that if one project exceeds its limits, all projects on the account pause. Agent Runners only work with GitHub-hosted repositories - not GitLab, Bitbucket, Azure DevOps or Cursor Origin - and are incompatible with Split Testing.

Current pricing

Free is $0 forever with 300 credits/month. Personal is $9/month with 1,000 credits. Pro is $20/month with unlimited members and credit tiers from 3,000 to 20,000 per month. Enterprise is custom with a 99.99% SLA, SSO and SCIM, log drains and 24/7 support. Verified 14 October 2026.

Direct comparison with Bolt

Bolt’s free hosting gives 10GB bandwidth and 333,333 requests. Netlify’s free plan gives more infrastructure for free, but you must wire up a database and an agent separately.

Verdict

Pair Netlify with Bolt, Cursor or Lovable rather than replacing all three with it. For pure hosting, it is hard to argue with free.

6. Dyad - Best free

Dyad is a local, open-source AI app builder for macOS and Windows, built by the creator of bolt.diy. It runs Bolt’s core loop with none of the platform.

What it does

You download the desktop app, no sign-up required, and either bring your own API key or use your existing ChatGPT subscription. Any AI model is supported and you can add custom ones.

Who it is best for

Builders who want the chat-to-app experience and refuse to have a vendor own their project files.

Why it is a valid alternative

The free plan is permanent and genuinely usable: Basic Agent with 20 messages a day, plus 20 messages a day each for checking build errors, running tests automatically, and debugging from logs. That is real agentic capability, not a demo.

Strengths

Your files sit on your machine. You pick the model. Dyad charges 1.5 credits per million tokens for orchestration on custom models, which is transparent. The project is open source, so it cannot be switched off under you.

Limitations

There is no built-in hosting, database, authentication or publishing - you assemble those yourself, which is exactly the work Bolt Cloud does for you. On Pro, the Pro Agent, web search, website cloning and image generation all draw from a monthly credit allowance of 200 credits at the entry tier, and a larger tier offers 900 credits with prioritised office hours.

Current pricing

Free is free forever. Pro starts at $20/month. Your own API key support on Pro is listed as coming soon. Verified 14 October 2026.

Direct comparison with Bolt

Bolt removes the infrastructure work. Dyad removes the lock-in. If your app is a prototype or a personal tool, Dyad is the better deal at any budget.

Verdict

The best free answer on this list for a solo builder. The worst answer for someone who does not want to set up a server.

7. Base44 - Best for internal tools

Base44 builds fully functional apps - frontend, backend, database, user auth and payments - and states that two-way GitHub sync exports the full source code to your own repository at any time.

Who it is best for

Operations teams replacing the shared spreadsheet that four people are already editing.

Why it is a valid alternative

Its connector catalogue covers Gmail, Slack, Notion, Google Drive, HubSpot and Salesforce, which is the part most prompt-to-app builders are weak on. Every plan includes authentication and user management, analytics, cloud storage, a responsive visual editor and multi-user editing.

Strengths

The free plan allows up to 5 apps with 25 message credits and 100 integration credits a month. That is enough to prove an internal tool works before paying anything.

Limitations

Base44 is now owned by Wix - its site footer reads © 2026 Wix.com Ltd. That brings stability and a large platform behind it, and it moves product decisions outside the founding team. Paid tiers are credit blocks: Starter 100 message credits, Builder 250, Pro 500, Elite 1,200, with integration credits scaling from 2,000 to 50,000.

Current pricing

Free is $0. Starter is $16/month, Builder $40/month, Pro $80/month and Elite $160/month, all billed annually with a 20% saving versus monthly. Enterprise is custom with SSO and a dedicated architect. Verified 14 October 2026.

Direct comparison with Bolt

Base44 gets you to a working authenticated app with third-party integrations faster. Bolt gives you more control over the code and a proper mobile path through Expo.

Verdict

Choose Base44 for internal operations tools. Choose Bolt when the app is a product.

8. Onlook - Best open-source visual editor

Onlook is a free, local-first visual editor where you design directly on the real product rather than a mockup, and the code is the source of truth.

Who it is best for

Designers and front-end engineers who keep rebuilding static mockups that the implementation never matches.

Why it is a valid alternative

Onlook is the answer to a specific Bolt pain point: after the AI builds the layout, making it look right is slow. Onlook lets you adjust text, colour and style on a canvas while writing real code underneath, and the result exports to your machine, publishes to GitHub or hosts at a link.

Strengths

Free, open source and self-hostable on GitHub. It works with your existing framework and component library rather than imposing its own. You use the Claude or ChatGPT subscription you already pay for, so there is no new line item. OpenCode support is listed as coming soon.

Limitations

No backend, no database, no hosting and no authentication. Onlook complements a coding agent rather than replacing a prompt-to-app builder, which makes it a weaker answer to “I need a working app today”.

Current pricing

Free and open source. The hosted cloud version requires contacting the team or booking a demo rather than self-serve signup. Verified 14 October 2026.

Verdict

Pair it with Cursor or Claude Code. Do not expect it to build your backend.

9. Google AI Studio - Best free prototyping

Google AI Studio is Google’s browser-based environment for building with Gemini, and the official landing spot for anyone coming from Firebase Studio.

What it does

You describe an app, Gemini builds it, and you can publish it. Gemini’s billing documentation describes a Google Cloud Starter Tier that lets eligible accounts publish up to two full-stack applications from Build mode without setting up a Google Cloud project or a billing account.

Who it is best for

Builders prototyping at zero cost who are already comfortable inside Google’s ecosystem.

Why it is a valid alternative

It is the destination Google named for browser-based prompt-to-app work when it retired Firebase Studio, which is a meaningful signal of where the effort is going.

Strengths

Google’s own Gemini billing documentation puts it plainly:

“AI Studio usage remains free of charge unless users link a paid API key for access to paid features.”

The models are frontier-class, and regional data residency is not a bolt-on here - it is Google’s default posture.

Limitations

Free-tier rate limits are finite and you will hit them. Billing is prepaid credits with a $5 minimum purchase and 12-month expiry, which is a different mental model from a subscription. Publishing beyond two apps requires a billing account.

Current pricing

Free tier at no cost. Paid Gemini API tiers run from Tier 1 with a $250 monthly spend cap through Tier 3 at $20,000 to $100,000-plus. Verified 14 October 2026.

Direct comparison with Bolt

Bolt’s free plan is more predictable - you know you get 300K tokens a day. Google AI Studio’s free tier is more generous when it works and opaque when it does not.

Verdict

Use it for zero-cost prototyping. Move to a paid tier once the app matters.

10. Hostinger AI Builder - Best budget option

Hostinger AI Builder combines a drag-and-drop editor with an Agentic mode that builds websites and web apps through prompting.

Who it is best for

A small business that needs a site, a domain, mailboxes and an online store rather than an application architecture.

Strengths

It is the cheapest entry price in this guide, with a free domain and mailboxes for the first year, 400+ templates, built-in ecommerce with no transaction fees, and AI logo, copy and image generation. The Premium plan includes 5 AI credits as a one-time gift and Unlimited includes 15.

Limitations

There is no permanent free plan. Hostinger offers a 14-day free trial, after which Premium starts at $11.99/month on a 48-month commitment, Unlimited at $18.99/month and Cloud Startup at $27.99/month. The AI creation credits are a one-time gift rather than a monthly allowance, so ongoing AI-assisted building is not funded by the base plan. And this is a website builder, not a database-and-authentication platform.

Current pricing

14-day free trial only. Premium $11.99/month, Unlimited $18.99/month, Cloud Startup $27.99/month at list rate on 48-month terms. Verified 14 October 2026.

Direct comparison with Bolt

You are buying hosting, a domain and ecommerce. If you need user accounts and application data, Bolt is the wrong price point.

Verdict

Right call for a brochure-plus-cart site. Wrong call for anything with real application logic.

Which Bolt.new alternative should you choose?

1. You want the single best swap - Lovable. Same $25 entry price, better team economics, real GitHub sync.
2. You need an actual development environment - Replit. Real shell, real deployments, real infrastructure.
3. You are a developer and want the best code - Cursor. Editor-native, model choice, git and CI.
4. Your stack is React on Vercel - v0. Pull-request review as the default workflow.
5. You want hosting that is genuinely free forever - Netlify. Hard limits that cannot bill you.
6. You want Bolt’s loop with no lock-in - Dyad. Free forever, local, open source.
7. You are replacing an internal spreadsheet - Base44. Fastest authenticated app with real connectors.
8. Your bottleneck is visual polish - Onlook. Edit real code on a canvas.
9. You want zero cost and Google models - Google AI Studio. Free tier, two publishable apps on Starter Tier.
10. You need a domain, mailboxes and a store - Hostinger AI Builder. Cheapest, but not an app builder.

When you should keep Bolt.new

Stay on Bolt if you are a solo founder or a very small team, you have never had to open a terminal, and your apps live at bolt.host addresses or a custom domain you connected inside Bolt. The bundled experience - database created automatically, authentication, file storage, server functions, custom domain, publishing - is genuinely hard to replicate elsewhere, and you would be giving it up for nothing.

Stay if you build mobile apps through Expo, because Bolt has a documented path for it and most alternatives here do not. Stay if you like that publishing is free at up to 333,333 requests a month with a hard stop rather than an invoice.

Stay for now if you like the browser runtime. Bolt runs on WebContainers, StackBlitz’s in-browser development environment, so nothing installs and nothing rents a server per build. That is a real engineering advantage for occasional users and locked-down machines.

One specific reason to stay, dated: Bolt Forge, the open-model agent that launched as a research preview on 14 September 2026, closes its preview window on 14 October 2026 - today. Bolt’s own Forge explainer sets out that Forge ran on GLM 5.3, GLM 5.3 Flash, Kimi K3 and DeepSeek v4 Pro, that it gave every individual Pro plan up to 50X more usage at no extra cost during the preview, and that on Bolt’s own Build Index the open models scored 92.2 against 101.0 for its top paid model - about 91% of the ceiling. It also explains the trade: Forge sessions are de-identified and licensed to AI developers, starting with Arcee AI, with EEA, UK and Swiss sessions excluded. If that extra capacity is doing real work for you, you have until tonight to use it.

When switching makes sense

Your tokens run out before the day does. Bolt’s free plan gives 300K tokens a day. If you are iterating on an existing app rather than starting one, move to Lovable, where published per-message costs mean you can price a change before sending it, or to Dyad, where the ceiling is your own API key.

Collaboration is now the bottleneck. Bolt Teams is $30 per member per month and processes one prompt at a time across a single shared chat thread. Lovable includes unlimited collaborators and unlimited members on every plan, priced on credits.

You need pull requests. Bolt commits to GitHub but does not run review. v0 and Cursor both make code review the default path.

You need to automate building it. Bolt has no public API, CLI or SDK. Cursor ships an SDK, a CLI and an admin API; Netlify ships a full OpenAPI specification and an MCP server.

You are worried about platform risk. Firebase Studio is shutting down on 22 March 2027 after being announced for sunset on 19 March 2026 and closed to new users on 22 June 2026. Any platform in this category carries that risk; the mitigation is Git sync, not brand loyalty.

How to migrate without chaos

Step one: get your code out of Bolt first. In your project, click the GitHub icon and create a repository, or connect an existing one. Bolt commits automatically after every prompt that processes without breaking the project, and polls GitHub every 30 seconds for outside changes. If you cannot do this, your migration is a rewrite, not a move.

Step two: copy data separately. Bolt databases are not part of your repo. Export row data from the Tables section of Database Settings, or connect the project to Supabase instead of Bolt’s database before you leave. Do this before you cancel, not after.

Step three: understand the hosting decision. Bolt can publish to Netlify as well as Bolt Cloud, but the switch is one-way - Netlify’s own documentation is blunt that it cannot host a database or a traditional backend. If you want your database out, plan the backend separately.

Step four: pick the destination based on one variable. Already on GitHub and want the smoothest handover: Replit or Netlify. Want a chat-first rebuild with the same feel: Lovable, knowing you must rebuild inside it because it cannot import an existing repository. Want your own machine: Dyad. Want your own stack: Cursor or v0.

Step five: do not cancel Bolt until the new project works. Bolt’s subscriptions are non-refundable and cancelling at period end forfeits all allocated tokens including rollover, so there is no financial incentive to rush. Keep the old project live as your reference.

Final recommendation

Best overall: Lovable. It matches Bolt’s core promise, costs the same at entry, treats teams far better, and syncs to Git in both directions. You give up Bolt’s bundled hosting and Expo path; you get code ownership and no per-seat fees.

Best free: Dyad. A permanent free plan with 20 agent messages a day, running locally with any model, with zero lock-in. You give up hosted deployment and the built-in database, and you take on that setup work yourself.

Best for power users: Cursor. The $20/month Pro tier puts an agent next to your git history and your terminal, which is the only way to get reliable results on a codebase you actually care about.

Who should stay on Bolt: solo builders who never open a terminal, teams already paying for Pro with a custom domain and GitHub sync, and anyone who needs Bolt’s Expo mobile path or its all-in-one Cloud database. Bolt is not broken - its free plan is permanent, its hosting is bundled, and its Forge preview has been genuinely generous this month.

Who should switch: anyone hitting the 300K daily token ceiling, anyone whose collaborators are costing $30 each per month, anyone who needs a public API or CLI, and anyone uneasy about depending on a single platform’s roadmap.

If you want to keep one foot in each world, the least disruptive combination is Bolt or Lovable to build, Netlify to host, and GitHub to own the code.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best Bolt.new alternative overall? Lovable. It reaches the same speed-to-first-app, Pro costs $25/month with 100 monthly credits, and it adds two-way GitHub sync plus unlimited workspace members on every tier. Bolt keeps the advantage on bundled hosting, its browser runtime and Expo mobile support.

Is there a free alternative to Bolt.new? Yes. Dyad is the best free option: a permanent free plan with 20 Basic Agent messages a day, any model, running locally with no account. Netlify’s $0-forever plan with 300 credits a month and Google AI Studio’s free tier are the other two credible no-cost routes.

How much does Bolt.new cost? Bolt has a permanent free plan capped at 300K tokens a day and 1M tokens a month, per its own pricing page. Pro starts at $25/month billed monthly with 10M tokens a month and rollover, Teams is $30 per member per month, and Enterprise is quoted. Bolt advertises savings of up to 28% on yearly billing.

Is Lovable better than Bolt.new? For most people moving off Bolt, yes. Lovable matches Bolt’s prompt-to-app speed but adds per-seat-free team pricing and two-way GitHub sync with branches. Bolt’s advantage is built-in hosting, browser-based code execution and mobile apps through Expo.

Can I move a Bolt.new project to another platform? Yes, with manual steps. Connect the Bolt project to GitHub first, then import that repository into Replit or connect Lovable to the same GitHub account. Note that Lovable cannot import an existing repository, so a Bolt-to-Lovable move means rebuilding inside Lovable and syncing back out to GitHub.

Which alternative is best if I am not a developer? Base44 for internal tools, and Replit or Lovable for anything customer-facing. Bolt.new itself remains reasonable for non-developers; the switch becomes worthwhile when you need paid collaborators, because Lovable and Replit do not charge per seat.

What is the best Bolt.new alternative for professional developers? Cursor. It is the only option here that puts an AI agent inside a real editor with git, a terminal and CI, and lets you pick the model per task. Hobby is free with limited usage; Pro is $20/month.

Did Firebase Studio shut down? Not yet, but it is closing. Google announced the sunset on 19 March 2026, disabled new workspace creation and signups on 22 June 2026, and will shut Firebase Studio down on 22 March 2027 with all remaining data permanently deleted. Google AI Studio is the official destination for browser-based prototyping.

Can I keep using Bolt.new’s free plan forever? Yes - it is a permanent free plan, not a trial, and it includes public and private projects, unlimited databases and free bolt.host hosting. The catch is the 300K daily token limit, the 1M monthly cap, a 10MB upload limit, no custom domains and a Made in Bolt badge on published sites.

What happened to Bolt Forge and Bolt Lite? Bolt Forge launched as a research preview on 14 September 2026 and its preview window closes on 14 October 2026. It ran on GLM 5.3, Kimi K3 and DeepSeek v4 Pro, gave Pro plans up to 50X more usage, and scored 92.2 against 101.0 for Bolt’s top paid model on the Bolt Build Index. Bolt Lite, the $9/month Forge-only plan, also closes signups on 14 October, though existing subscribers keep the $9/month price.