By the PrototypeVerdict Test Team · Tested: Oct 29, 2026 · Pricing checked: Oct 29, 2026 · Dataset: CSV below
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We gave four AI app builders the same three prompts, word for word: a client intake portal, an invoice tracker and a landing page. Then we logged what each one used up, how long it took and what still worked at the end. Here’s the full dataset, free to reuse with a link.
Key findings
- Bolt.new’s free plan used its entire daily limit on our three apps. About 300K tokens in total. A single login fix used about 84K of them, more than five times what the whole landing page build used (~15K). A follow-up request the same day got “You’re out of tokens. Switch to Pro.”
- Base44 used the smallest share of its plan: about 8.75 of 250 monthly message credits (~3.5%) on the Builder plan, with no bug-fix messages.
- Lovable used 5.5 credits from a 100-credit balance, plus that day’s 5 free daily build credits. At Lovable’s own $0.25 per Pro credit, the 5.5 is worth about $1.40.
- Lovable kept the invoice tracker’s data in the browser until we asked for a database. Base44 and Bolt saved it to a real database by default.
- Softr on its Basic plan finished 1 of 3 apps. The portal and invoice tracker still weren’t working after 5 follow-up messages between them. On the portal, Basic switched off the user groups Softr’s AI had set up; the invoice tracker had no Overdue status and no way to add line items in the preview. All three builds used 4.01 AI credits. We haven’t scored Softr; its recommended plan for portals is Pro.
- Total time to three working apps: about 16 minutes in Lovable, 22 in Base44 and 20-21 in Bolt (from our logs).
Summary by tool
| Tool | Plan tested | Apps working at the end | Messages after the first prompt (all 3 apps) | Used for all 3 apps | Share of the plan’s monthly allowance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lovable | Pro, 100 credits ($25/mo, billed monthly) | 3 of 3 | 1 | 10.5 credits (5.5 from the balance + 5 free daily build credits) | 5.5 of 100 balance credits |
| Base44 | Builder ($50/mo, billed monthly) | 3 of 3 | 1 | ~8.75 message credits | ~3.5% of 250 |
| Bolt.new | Free ($0) | 3 of 3 | 1 | ~300K tokens | 100% of the 300K daily limit; 30% of the 1M monthly allowance |
| Softr | Basic ($25/mo, billed monthly) | 1 of 3 | 5 | 4.01 AI credits | 40% of Basic's 10 included credits (a 50-credit bonus was spent first) |
Credits, message credits, tokens and AI credits are each tool’s own unit and can’t be compared directly. Compare the share of each plan instead.
Every build, in detail
| Tool (plan tested) | Test build | What it used | Working at the end? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lovable Pro, 100 credits ($25/mo, billed monthly) | Client intake portal (logins, form, file upload, admin view) | 6 credits 1 credit from the balance + the day's 5 free daily build credits (Lovable's usage page also showed 6) | yes |
| Lovable Pro, 100 credits ($25/mo, billed monthly) | Invoice tracker (clients, line items, statuses, dashboard) | 3 credits from the balance (104 to 101); Lovable's usage page showed 2.70 | yes |
| Lovable Pro, 100 credits ($25/mo, billed monthly) | One-page landing page with a contact form | 1.5 credits from the balance (101 to 99.5) | yes |
| Base44 Builder ($50/mo, billed monthly) | Client intake portal (logins, form, file upload, admin view) | 1.65 message credits message credits (approximate, as shown) | yes |
| Base44 Builder ($50/mo, billed monthly) | Invoice tracker (clients, line items, statuses, dashboard) | 5.45 message credits message credits; includes one 'continue' after a checkpoint pause | yes |
| Base44 Builder ($50/mo, billed monthly) | One-page landing page with a contact form | 1.65 message credits message credits | yes |
| Bolt.new Free ($0) | Client intake portal (logins, form, file upload, admin view) | ~185K tokens about 185K tokens, including one login fix that alone used about 84K | yes |
| Bolt.new Free ($0) | Invoice tracker (clients, line items, statuses, dashboard) | ~100K tokens about 100K tokens | yes |
| Bolt.new Free ($0) | One-page landing page with a contact form | ~15K tokens about 15K tokens; the 300K daily cap was hit as this build finished | yes |
| Softr Basic ($25/mo, billed monthly) | Client intake portal (logins, form, file upload, admin view) | 0.94 AI credits 0.76 for the build + 0.18 for one fix (we also answered the AI's 2 clarifying questions) | no |
| Softr Basic ($25/mo, billed monthly) | Invoice tracker (clients, line items, statuses, dashboard) | 2.7 AI credits 0.77 for the build + 1.93 for follow-ups (follow-up split from session notes) | no |
| Softr Basic ($25/mo, billed monthly) | One-page landing page with a contact form | 0.37 AI credits AI credits | yes |
Download the data
The CSV has one row per build plus our follow-up requests: tool, plan, what it used, messages sent, minutes to first preview and to working, whether it worked at the end, where the data was stored, and the test date.
Free to reuse and cite. Please credit “PrototypeVerdict” and link to this page.
How we tested
- Date: Oct 29, 2026, one run per app per tool. Lovable on Pro (100 credits, $25/mo), Base44 on Builder ($50/mo), Bolt.new on Free ($0), Softr on Basic ($25/mo), all billed monthly.
- Prompts: the same three prompts pasted word for word, then fix messages only if something was broken (maximum 5 per app). Exact prompts and rules.
- Usage was read from each tool’s own balance or usage screen before and after each build. Lovable’s usage page and balance disagreed slightly (the usage page showed about 10.2 credits in total); we report the balance plus the 5 daily credits.
- Times are approximate, from our session notes. “Working” means every feature in the prompt worked when we checked it.
- Fake data and test accounts only. Nothing was published.
Limits of this data
- One run per app per tool. Another run could use more or less.
- Small, unpublished apps. Hosting, live traffic and AI features inside an app weren’t measured.
- Each tool was tested on one plan. Bolt’s paid plans and Softr Pro weren’t tested.
- Bolt’s follow-up (a CSV export) couldn’t run because the free tokens ran out.
Want to estimate your own app? Try the credit and cost calculator. Plan prices change; see the pricing tracker. Full reviews: Lovable, Base44, Bolt.new, Softr.