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Every tool below got the same three test builds on Oct 29, 2026: a client intake portal, an invoice tracker and a landing page. Scores are out of 10 and come only from our own test log.
Tested and reviewed
Lovable
Best for code ownership and growing a real product
Fastest in our test: all three apps working in about 16 minutes, with Git sync and code download confirmed.
Free plan · Pro from $25/mo (100 credits)
Base44
Best for all-in-one internal tools and portals
No bug fixes and a real database in all three test apps. Exported code still relies on Base44’s backend.
Free plan · Starter from $16/mo billed annually ($20 monthly)
Bolt.new
Best free option with a real database
Its free plan built all three test apps with a real built-in database, though they used the full 300K daily token limit.
Free plan (1M tokens/mo) · Pro $25/mo ($18/mo billed annually)
Softr
Hands-on notes, not scored
For client portals, go with Pro. On the $25 Basic plan, Softr switched off the user groups our test portal needed, so every client could see every submission. Not scored yet: our tests need Softr Pro.
Free plan · Basic from $19/mo billed yearly · Pro from $99/mo billed yearly ($119 monthly)
Emergent
Coming soon
We’re testing it next with the same three builds. It gets a score here once that test is done, and not before.
At a glance: our test scores
| Tool (plan) | Overall ▼ | Ease | Output | Pricing | Backend | Code | Fixes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lovable (Pro) | 8.4 | 8.5 | 9.0 | 8.0 | 8.0 | 8.0 | 1 |
| Bolt.new (Free) | 8.4 | 7.5 | 9.5 | 7.5 | 8.5 | 9.0 | 1 |
| Base44 (Builder) | 8.1 | 9.0 | 9.5 | 7.0 | 9.5 | 4.5 | 0 |
| Emergent | Coming soon: not tested yet, no scores | ||||||
Scores are out of 10 from our Oct 29, 2026 test round (same three prompts in every tool). Columns: ease of use, output quality, pricing value, backend and data, code ownership and export, and fix messages. Bold marks the best result in each column. Overall scores within half a point are close, so read each tool’s “best for”. Fix messages are the bug-fix prompts we needed across the three builds; Base44 also needed one “continue” message after a checkpoint pause.
Head-to-head comparisons
Deciding between two tools? We put them side by side using the same test results: Base44 vs Lovable and Bolt vs Lovable. All comparisons are on the Compare page.
How we score
Each score is a weighted mix of five parts: ease of use (25%), output quality (25%), pricing value (20%), backend and data (15%) and code ownership (15%). No tool can pay to change its score.