Base44

Base44 is an AI app builder owned by Wix. You describe an app in chat and it builds the frontend, database, sign-in and hosting in one place. Billed yearly, plans run from Free ($0) through Starter ($16), Builder ($40), Pro ($80) and Elite ($160) a month. We checked every fact below on 31 October 2026 from Base44's own pages, docs and trust centre. We did not test it ourselves.

At a glance

What Base44 is

Base44's home page calls it a "no-code AI platform for building apps, websites and AI agents." Its docs describe it as an app builder where you describe an idea and the AI builds the design, databases, user management and hosting.

Wix announced the purchase on 18 June 2025. The press release gives an initial payment of about $80 million, plus earn-out payments through 2029 tied to performance. Base44's own pages do not say "owned by Wix" in the body text we read. The footer carries a Wix copyright notice, the docs describe payments "powered by Wix", and the trust centre lists Wix.com as a sub-processor.

It belongs to the same group as Lovable, Bolt, v0 and Replit Agent. All of them turn a prompt into a working app. The glossary entry on vibe coding explains the term. Base44 differs from the rest in how much it ships inside the product: the database, sign-in, backend functions and hosting all live on Base44, and you do not wire up a separate backend service.

Who it suits

Base44 fits people who want a working internal tool, customer portal, dashboard or small business app without choosing a database or an auth provider. The site lists internal tools, dashboards, customer portals, CRMs and training platforms as example uses.

It also fits people who already use other Base44-friendly tools. The connector list on the home page names Google Calendar, Gmail, Slack, Notion, HubSpot and Salesforce, and the docs add connectors for Snowflake, Databricks and Google Search Console.

It fits less well if you need to host the code yourself. We cover that under limits.

Pricing

Base44 sells plans by credits. There are two kinds. Message credits pay for talking to the AI chat. Integration credits pay for backend services such as email, AI text generation and image creation that your finished app uses. The pricing page says exact usage "varies based on the action and the selected AI model."

Credit figures are per month. The page says annual billing saves 20%, and the gap between the two price columns matches that.

What each plan unlocks

• Free: core features, authentication, database functionality and analytics, and up to five apps.
• Starter: unlimited apps, in-app code edits, a connected domain and a free domain for one year. No GitHub, no model choice.
• Builder: everything in Starter, plus AI model select, GitHub integration and 25 credits to share with a friend.
• Pro: the same feature list as Builder with more credits, plus early access to beta features.
• Elite: the same as Pro with the highest credits and premium support.

Every plan includes an integrated backend and database, a responsive visual editor, an analytics dashboard, cloud storage, authentication and user management, and debugging tools.

Plan gates worth knowing

The docs place several features behind specific plans:

• Editing code needs a paid plan. On Free you can view the code but not change it.
• GitHub connection and ZIP export need Builder or higher.
• The Base44 MCP server needs Builder or higher.
• Connectors in your app need Builder or higher.
• Static code analysis in security scans and the Wiz integration need Builder or higher.
• SSO needs an Enterprise plan (Business or Enterprise). Workspaces created before October 2026 can also use it on Elite.
• Audit logs and SCIM provisioning need Enterprise.

The backend service is described as in beta and free to use. Backend operations draw on your integration credits, which every plan includes. The docs do not publish a per-operation rate.

Third-party services you connect, such as Stripe, SendGrid or OpenAI, bill you directly on their own pricing, according to the pricing FAQ. The FAQ also mentions education and non-profit pricing case by case, and a Base44 for Startups programme that offers a free annual licence and credits.

How the AI chat works

The chat has two modes. Build acts on your prompt at once and is the default. Discuss lets you ask questions and plan first: the AI answers or proposes a plan, and nothing changes until you click Approve.

Credit use differs by mode:

• Discuss: about 0.3 message credits per message, using its own model whatever model your app uses.
• Build: depends on the model. Auto picks a model per request, and choosing one yourself can cost more. The docs give no per-message figure.
• Edit mode: manual toolbar edits use no credits. AI-assisted Edit Element uses message credits.
• Compare models: builds your message twice, so it costs double.

You can see what any message cost by opening More actions under it and checking Credits Used. That is a useful habit on the smaller plans.

You can start from a prompt, a URL or a Figma design, attach files and connect tools. A plan mode exists for scoping before building, and the docs also describe a testing agent that runs browser-based tests on key flows.

What it builds

Per the home page and docs, Base44 produces three kinds of output:

1. Apps with a built-in backend, authentication, payments and hosting.
2. Websites with AI-generated design, custom domains and SEO tools.
3. AI agents for your apps, with their own guidelines, tools, data access, skills and memory. The docs say you can connect an agent to WhatsApp, Telegram or LINE.

Base44 also sells Superagents, which are agents that work across your tools and can start from a browser or WhatsApp. They are a separate product line from building apps, and we do not cover them in depth here.

Behind the editor, an exported project is a Vite-based React frontend plus backend functions and a data structure, according to the export docs. The docs also describe workflows that run multi-step backend work on a schedule, when data changes, or when your app is published or takes a payment.

Models used

The docs name the models you can select for an app. The default is automatic, which currently runs a fast, low-cost model for everyday tasks. The named list is:

The docs give no credit cost per model. They say that when a retired model is replaced, credit usage stays "in a similar range." Model selection is a Builder-and-above feature on the pricing page. Base44's home page itself does not name the models, so the docs are the source for this table.

Integrations, database, auth and deploy

Database

Data lives in entities, which are tables with a schema, built-in create, read, update and delete calls, validation and security rules. The docs describe row-level and field-level security for entity data. You can explore, filter, import and export table data from the dashboard, and download a table as CSV. There is a separate test database so you can try the app without touching live data, and automatic data backups with restore.

Authentication

Under Dashboard, Settings, Authentication you can turn on email and password, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Apple and SSO. A few details from the docs:

• Email verification is always on when email and password sign-in is enabled.
• Magic links, one-time-code sign-in and two-factor authentication for app users are not supported. Users who need two-step verification can use Google, Microsoft, Apple or SSO.
• Google login shows base44.com branding by default. A custom Google OAuth client needs Builder or higher, a custom domain and a few Google Cloud requirements.
• Apple login uses Base44's Apple credentials, so Apple's sign-in page shows Base44 rather than your app name.
• Auth tokens are stored in the browser's localStorage. The security docs say HttpOnly cookie storage is not currently available.

Custom domains and hosting

Custom domains work from Starter up. You can buy a domain in the editor, and domains bought from 9 September 2026 come from Wix unless your plan is billed through the Apple App Store. You can also connect one you own, which can take up to 48 hours with an external provider. SSL is issued and renewed automatically. The limits are 150 domains and subdomains per app and 350 across an account. Wildcard subdomains are not supported.

The trust centre lists Cloudflare for edge delivery and hosting of published apps, Deno for running backend functions and MongoDB for data storage. Those come from the sub-processor table, not from a hosting guide.

GitHub and code export

Base44 has two separate GitHub features, and they are easy to mix up.

• GitHub connector: lets your app call the GitHub API, for pull requests, issues and repository activity. It is API access, not code sync. A shared connector uses one account for everyone. An app-user connector lets each person sign in with their own account, and a workspace owner or admin sets it up with their own GitHub OAuth client.
• Base Code: a shared cloud workspace for an existing GitHub repository. You chat, Base Code commits to a branch, and you open pull requests. GitHub stays the source of truth. It is a development preview, not production hosting, and it needs Builder or higher plus Editor role and write access to the repo.

The docs say apps built in Base44 should stay in the app editor and sync through the GitHub integration. The pricing FAQ describes two-way GitHub sync that exports full source to your repo. The developer-tools page covers branches and pull requests for that workflow.

You can also download a ZIP on Builder or higher. It holds the frontend, backend functions and data structure. It leaves out app data, secrets, app users and version history. The same page says Base44 does not support self-hosting, so exported code still relies on Base44 for data, logins, functions and integrations.

Migrating in

Base44 documents imports from Lovable and Bolt.new (Supabase tables, schema, keys, row level security flags and optionally frontend code from GitHub), Salesforce, HubSpot, Shopify and WordPress. It first imports 100 items per entity as a preview, then prompts you to migrate everything. WordPress custom fields are not imported.

MCP support

Two separate things exist.

Base44 as an MCP server. The server at https://app.base44.com/mcp exposes your account to MCP-compatible assistants. The docs name ChatGPT, Claude and Cursor. Sign-in uses OAuth, and you pick a workspace during consent. Tools include creating and editing apps, listing apps and branches, working with entity schemas and records, listing connectors, reading and writing files in the app sandbox, running commands and creating checkpoints. It needs Builder or higher.

Two notes from the docs are worth repeating. The assistant acts with your role in the workspace, so it can do what you can do in the editor. And update_entity_schema replaces all field definitions with the ones you send, so an omitted field is removed. Sandbox changes save at once, but only checkpoints show in version history, so ask the assistant to create one when it finishes.

MCP for your build chat. You can add custom MCP servers to your account so the AI chat can use external tools and data while it builds. If you work with agents in an editor, the MCP tools page and the glossary entry on MCP servers cover the basics. The docs also describe a way to connect your own coding agent to an app with no local copy of the code.

Privacy, security and data handling

From the security overview and trust centre:

• Data is encrypted in transit (TLS 1.2 or higher) and at rest (AES-256), including backups.
• Stored API keys and integration credentials are encrypted at rest with AWS Key Management Service. Enterprise workspaces can get a dedicated key or bring their own AWS key.
• Base44 lists SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001 and GDPR compliance, with a Data Processing Agreement on request, and PCI DSS-certified providers for payments.
• Enterprise plans can choose to store app data in the EU, UK or US. The docs do not say where data is hosted by default.
• Public endpoints are rate-limited by default. Penetration tests run regularly and a bug bounty exists.
• A built-in security scan checks dependencies, exposed secrets and backend functions on all plans. Static code analysis and Wiz integration need Builder or higher.

The security docs say nothing about data ownership or training use. The pricing FAQ says you own your code, data and users. The trust centre has an Artificial Intelligence section with 11 answers, but it needs an access request, so we could not read them. Its sub-processor list names Anthropic, OpenAI, Google (Gemini), xAI, Z.ai in China and several inference hosts for model calls. If your data is sensitive, read that list before you build.

CORS settings and headers such as Content-Security-Policy cannot be set per app.

Limits and gotchas

• Credits go quickly on small plans. Starter has 100 message credits a month. Watch Credits Used per message.
• No self-hosting. Exported code still needs Base44 for data, auth and functions.
• Code edits are paid. Free plans can view code only.
• 5,000 records per request. Each data request returns at most 5,000 records on every plan. Page long lists in chunks of 50 to 200.
• Rate limits. Signed-in users get their own per-minute allowance, anonymous visitors share one by IP address, and admin-level backend calls share one app-wide allowance. Over the limit you get a 429.
• Function chains stop at 7. A backend function chain deeper than seven fails with a 403 error.
• Webhook senders cannot log in. Telegram and WhatsApp cannot send credentials, so authenticated functions return 403 to them.
• Apple sign-in in native wrappers. It only works in the app built from Base44's generated store files.
• Integration credits pause actions. When they run out, email, AI text and image actions stop until they reset.
• Reverting. Sandbox changes only reach version history through checkpoints.

How it compares with peers

For head-to-heads we already have Bolt vs Lovable, Lovable vs v0 and Replit vs Lovable. The wider shortlist is in best vibe coding tools and best vibe coding platform. Pricing across coding tools is on the pricing comparison.

The main trade-off is where the backend lives. Base44 puts it on the platform and gives you little to configure. Tools that generate a project around a separate database give you more freedom to move, at the cost of more setup.

Who should pick something else

• Developers who live in an editor. Look at Cursor or Claude Code. Our guide to choosing a coding agent compares them.
• Teams that must host the code on their own infrastructure. Base44 does not support self-hosting.
• Anyone who needs two-factor authentication or magic links for app users. The docs say neither is supported.
• Buyers who need a published data-training statement before they start. Ask Base44 for its AI answers from the trust centre first.
• People fixing a half-built app. See vibe code rescue services.

Before you ship an app

Treat anything built this way as code a person must review. Our guides on deploying a vibe-coded app and securing a vibe-coded app walk through the checks. Base44's own docs add a few of its own: run the security scan before publishing, set data permissions deliberately, and use the separate test database for trials.

A short first-week plan:

• Day one: build on Free and see how many credits one real change costs.
• Day two: set data permissions on every entity and read the security scan.
• Day three: add sign-in and test with a second account.
• Day four: connect a domain if you are on a paid plan.
• Day five: decide on Builder if you want GitHub, model choice or the MCP server.

Our take

This is an editorial reading of Base44's pages and docs, not a hands-on test. The facts were checked on 31 October 2026 from the vendor's own pages.

Base44's strongest point is that it bundles the parts a first-time builder would otherwise have to choose: database, sign-in, functions, hosting and a domain. The pricing page is clear about the two credit pools, and the monthly and yearly prices are easy to find once you flip the toggle.

The cost of that bundle is dependence. The docs say outright that exported code still relies on Base44, and the free plan does not let you edit code. If you treat Base44 as the place the app will live, that is fine. If you treat it as a prototype stage, pay for Builder early so you can connect GitHub and pull a ZIP.

Checklist

• Decide whether the app will live on Base44 for good or is a prototype
• Start on Free and note what one real prompt costs in message credits
• Set data permissions on every entity before publishing
• Run the security scan and read each finding
• Remember that email verification is always on for email and password sign-in
• Pick Builder if you need GitHub, ZIP export, model choice or the MCP server
• Ask Base44 for the trust-centre AI answers if you handle customer data
• Re-check pricing on base44.com on the day you subscribe