You're reading this on kliv.dev, so yes, we have a horse in this race: Kliv competes with these builders, and we'd like you to try it. Prices and limits come from each vendor's own pages, fetched on November 3, 2026 and linked under Sources.
The practical choice
You want everything in one place, with separate allowances for changing the app and for the services it uses, such as email and AI calls.
You want Git sync before you pay anything, or you would rather have one general balance that covers building, Cloud and in-app AI once the grants run out.
Your app would fit either. Build one complete customer task in each, then one maintenance change, using the checklist further down.
For a booking app, start at the whole transaction, a customer signing in, picking a time, getting a confirmation, and coming back to reschedule, because that is where plan gates and running costs show themselves. A good-looking first screen tells you almost nothing about the subscription.
The prices, side by side
| Plan | Monthly price | Annual price | Included monthly credits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base44 Free | $0 | — | 25 message; 100 integration |
| Base44 Starter | $20 | $192/year | 100 message; 2,000 integration |
| Base44 Builder | $50 | $480/year | 250 message; 10,000 integration |
| Lovable Free | $0 | — | Daily build grants, capped at 30/month |
| Lovable Pro 100 | $25 | $250/year | 100 general subscription credits |
| Lovable Business 100 | $50 | $500/year | 100 credits; fewer spent on hosting and in-app AI than Pro at the same dollar cost |
Above Builder, Base44 Pro is $100 a month for 500 message and 20,000 integration credits, and Elite is $200 for 1,200 message and 50,000 integration credits, and the docs mention further Elite and Business credit tiers. Lovable scales inside a plan instead. Pro 200 is $50 a month and Pro 400 is $100, so more allowance does not force you onto Business.
Do not compare the credit columns directly; a Base44 message credit and a Lovable general credit pay for different sets of actions. Pick the plan that includes the features you actually need, then add the cost of changes and running services. For a team, write down who builds the app and who only uses it; those are separate access questions.
Two pools, or one balance
Base44 charges message credits for building, planning and fixes, and integration credits for what the running app does, email and AI calls included. Its examples put a small visual change around 0.5 message credits and an app-wide change around three to four. Those are estimates; the real charge depends on the work and the model and is calculated after the action has run.
On the integration side, an email from the default domain is estimated at roughly one credit and an email from your own domain at roughly two. A multi-step action spends credits on the steps and on the operations inside them, which means a booking confirmation that fires several actions costs more of the pool than one plain email. Count every part of that chain.
Lovable has one general balance that covers building, Cloud resources, in-app AI and some connector usage, once the usage-specific grants are spent. Pro and Business get five daily build credits plus monthly Cloud and AI grants, and those grants expire instead of piling up. One balance is simpler; it also means customer traffic and development compete for the same remaining credits, which you want to know before a launch.
Where the feature gates are
Base44 Starter has unlimited apps, code edits inside the app, a custom domain, and removal of the Base44 badge. Builder adds backend functions, GitHub integration and a choice of model. The free first-year domain is an annual-plan perk. So if you need backend functions or two-way GitHub sync, the honest comparison is Builder at $50 against Lovable Pro, not Starter, however tempting the $20 looks.
Lovable has Git sync on every plan, Free included. Pro adds custom domains, code editing, downloads and badge removal. Business adds SSO, role-based access and the other workspace controls. Free and Pro can also publish invite-only, to up to ten people per project. For a team tool, how the builders get into the workspace and how customers sign in to the app are two separate questions.
On the business tiers, Base44 lists SSO, data residency, IP allowlisting and controls over app publishing. Lovable Business lists workspace governance and excludes workspace data from model training by default. For an internal tool, write the required controls down first: employee sign-in, who may publish, who sees which records, where the data lives. That list decides which business plan belongs in the comparison.
What you can take with you
Base44 offers two-way GitHub sync from Builder up. The project-structure doc describes a React and Vite app, a Base44 SDK connection, JSON-schema entities and TypeScript backend functions. It also says that entities managed through the two-way GitHub integration are absent from the local repository, while the GitHub guide calls the repository the source of truth for entities. We could not reconcile those two sentences, so look at what your own app actually exports before you plan a move.
Lovable has Git sync on Free and code downloads on paid plans. Its FAQ allows hosting elsewhere, and the app can run on Lovable's built-in backend or on your own Supabase project. Tell the developer who inherits it which backend it uses. Secrets, user accounts, stored files and database records are their own line items in the move.
Lovable documents an import from Base44. You give it a code ZIP, then supply the database records and user data separately, and it rebuilds the app on Lovable's backend. Copy the records first, reconnect the services, and check that customers still see only what they should before you move the domain. The code import is the quick step; the data and the accounts are the afternoon; we have lost that afternoon ourselves.
What the free plans let you test, and what a month costs
Base44 Free gives you five apps, 25 message credits a month with a five-a-day limit, and 100 integration credits, and the free message credits belong only to the personal workspace you got at signup; Lovable Free gives five daily build credits capped at 30 a month. Neither allowance is big, so spend it on one narrow slice, a single customer task with its sign-in and data rules.
A portal that needs a custom domain and regular changes starts at Starter, $20 a month, on Base44; the moment it needs backend functions or GitHub sync, the reference tier is Builder at $50. On Lovable it starts at Pro, $25, and a month with one 50-credit top-up is $40. That is subscriptions and credit purchases only, before tax and outside services.
Our entry: Kliv, the site you're on
We're smaller and younger than both Base44 and Lovable, and we are competing for exactly the app this page describes. Kliv is built for a customer portal that needs sign-in, a database, commerce and email together, and Pro is $19/month. That is why this page exists.
Those services, plus edge functions and hosting, are included on Free as well as paid plans; set that against Base44's integration pool and Lovable's general balance. Our builder usage allowance is limited on Free, which covers up to 25 apps (not a typo; we have checked); paying adds capacity, custom domains and removal of our branding. If SSO governance is what you came for, Pro is the wrong Kliv tier; SAML/OIDC SSO and SCIM are on Max 20x at $99 a month.
How we would run the trial
- Write one small acceptance test: a customer signs in, creates a booking, and sees only their own records.
- Build that flow in both tools from the same requirements and sample data, keeping every prompt and retry.
- Once it works, ask for one change, say rescheduling with a conflict warning, then check the original flow still works.
- Export sample records, look at how you get at the code, and estimate development and running usage as two numbers.
“Build a customer portal for my cleaning business. Customers sign in, request a cleaning visit, and see only their own bookings. I approve requests in an admin view. Send an email confirmation and prevent two bookings for the same time.”
Questions people ask
- Is Base44 cheaper than Lovable?
- Starter is $20 a month against $25 for Lovable Pro, and Builder is $50 if you need Base44's backend functions or GitHub integration. Compare required features and measured usage before the entry price.
- Which has better code access on Free?
- Lovable, by a distance. Git sync is on Free. Base44 needs Builder or higher for two-way GitHub integration. Code downloads on Lovable start at Pro.
- Do unused credits roll over?
- Base44 credits normally expire at reset, with a limited carryover when you upgrade between some plans. Lovable monthly-plan credits roll over while you stay subscribed, but expire two months after issue.
- Can Lovable import a Base44 app?
- Yes, by its own docs. You import the code, then move database records and users separately, and the app is rebuilt on Lovable's backend.
Sources
Prices and plan details come from each company’s own pages, checked on November 3, 2026.