Why this page exists
Buyers in this category tell us the same thing: the tools are fast, and the bill is a surprise. The reason is structural, not moral. When revenue is a function of consumption, every prompt, every fix-it message and — for some vendors — every action your live app takes becomes a line on an invoice.
This page critiques the model, not the people who build with these tools; they are capable builders who deserve a predictable bill. Each vendor below is genuinely good at something, and we say what before we say anything else. Every figure carries a numbered source and a verification date.
How each vendor bills
Cards run in the order the calculator uses. Where a public price does not exist, the card says so rather than guessing; the calculator's assumptions spell out any estimate. Entries marked low confidence (Replit and Retool) rest on thin public data and are shown for completeness.
Base441,2,3
high confidence Tiered subscription with two separate credit pools: message credits spent while building and integration credits spent when the live app runs.
Where they are strong
- Brand awareness and Wix distribution.
- Genuinely easy for builders without a technical background; auth, database, hosting and integrations are bundled.
- Clear tier ladder with published credit counts.
Meters
- Build
- Message credits: every AI message while building spends credits; vague prompts burn credits on wasted iterations.
- Debug
- Same message credits: each fix-it message is another credit.
- Runtime
- Integration credits: spent when your live app runs (LLM calls, emails, file uploads, automations). Your app's users consume your credits.
- Auto-upgrade
- No automatic tier bump, but no a-la-carte top-ups either: to get more credits you must move up a tier.
- Rollover
- None.
- Per seat
- No — priced per organization.
Tiers
Free · Starter: $16/mo per org · Builder: $40/mo per org · Pro: $80/mo per org · Elite: $160/mo per org
Prices shown at annual billing; month-to-month runs higher.
Lovable4,5,6
high confidence Tiered subscription with variable-cost credits while building, plus a second usage-based bill for Lovable Cloud/AI features your deployed app calls at runtime.
Where they are strong
- Largest community, template and content ecosystem in the category.
- Fast, attractive output; GitHub sync on all plans (you own the code).
- Paid credits roll over.
- Enterprise features arriving (SSO, per-user credit limits).
Meters
- Build
- Credits per prompt, variable: published examples run 0.5-1.7 credits per prompt; complex changes burn 2-3+ credits.
- Debug
- Debugging loops burn credits like any other message.
- Runtime
- Usage-based Cloud/AI layer billed separately for what your deployed app calls at runtime.
- Auto-upgrade
- No automatic tier bump; the credit selector lets you raise the allowance yourself.
- Rollover
- Paid credits roll over (monthly credits expire in 2 months; annual +1 month; top-ups 12 months).
- Per seat
- No — priced per organization.
Tiers
Free · Pro: $25/mo per org · Business: $50/mo per org · Enterprise: custom
Tiered subscription metered in tokens; token cost per edit scales with codebase size. Teams pay per member.
Where they are strong
- Raw speed: prompt to running full-stack app in the browser.
- Genuine full-stack capability with Bolt Cloud (hosting, DB, analytics).
- The May 2026 token bump (10M to 13M at the same price) shows price competitiveness.
- Paid tokens roll over.
Meters
- Build
- Tokens per prompt; larger codebases cost more per edit, so mature projects get progressively more expensive.
- Debug
- Every debugging round trip re-sends context and spends tokens.
- Runtime
- Hosting via Bolt Cloud (usage-based; free tier includes about 333K web requests). Not modelled here.
- Auto-upgrade
- No automatic tier bump; token reloads are sold separately.
- Rollover
- Paid tokens roll over (up to two months).
- Per seat
- Yes.
Tiers
Free · Pro: $25/mo per user · Teams: $30/mo per member · Enterprise: custom
Pro is per user; Teams is per member.
Per-user subscription that includes a monthly dollar allowance of credits; each message consumes credits by model tier (Mini/Pro/Max) and tokens.
Where they are strong
- Best-in-class UI output.
- Real enterprise trust through Vercel (SOC 2, SSO, audit logs).
- Predictable-ish per-message economics.
- Strong developer mindshare.
Meters
- Build
- Credits per message, priced by model tier and tokens (three model tiers at different token costs).
- Debug
- Every message spends credits, including fixes.
- Runtime
- Hosting is Vercel usage (billed by Vercel, not v0). Not modelled here.
- Auto-upgrade
- No automatic tier bump; on-demand credit purchases are available.
- Rollover
- Purchased credits have an expiry (see v0 FAQ); monthly allowance does not accumulate.
- Per seat
- Yes.
Tiers
Free · Plus: $30/mo per user · Business: $100/mo per user · Enterprise: custom
Roundups from earlier in 2026 list a $20 Premium tier; the pricing page we captured on 2026-08-14 lists Plus at $30, and the calculator uses $30.
Tiered subscription with AI credits metering every agent interaction; credit auto-billing can bump you into the next tier; separate Cloud Credits after publish.
Where they are strong
- Clear business-buyer positioning with bundled commerce and payments.
- Enterprise checkboxes: SSO/SAML, SCIM, single-tenant.
- MCP integration lets you drive it from your own AI tool.
- Strong support reputation.
Meters
- Build
- AI credits meter every agent interaction, including sessions driven from ChatGPT, Claude, Claude Code, Codex or Cursor over MCP.
- Debug
- Every follow-up interaction is another credit.
- Runtime
- Cloud Credits pay for hosting and usage after publish; the docs list a free allowance but we found no published per-unit rate, so runtime is not modelled here. AI features inside the app spend AI credits.
- Auto-upgrade
- Yes: credit auto-billing can bump you into the next tier automatically so a running agent does not stall.
- Rollover
- Extra credits expire in 28 days, and add-ons carry a $25 minimum subscription. Read the refund terms before you top up; they are in Hercules's terms of service, linked below.
- Per seat
- No — priced per organization.
Tiers
Free · Pro: $25/mo per org · Business: $50/mo per org · Enterprise: custom
Replit17,9
low confidence Subscription that includes a monthly dollar allowance of usage credits; Agent work is billed effort-based against those credits; deployments billed on usage.
Where they are strong
- Agentic builds plus hosting in one place.
- Generous collaborator counts on paid tiers.
- Spending controls and usage visibility.
Meters
- Build
- Effort-based Agent pricing drawn from usage credits.
- Debug
- Fix-it turns are further Agent effort.
- Runtime
- Deployments and hosting billed on usage. Not modelled here.
- Auto-upgrade
- Usage beyond the allowance is billed as overage (spending controls available).
- Rollover
- Not stated in our sources.
- Per seat
- Yes.
Tiers
Starter: free · Core: $25/mo per user · Pro: $100/mo per user · Enterprise: custom
Core and Pro are cheaper on annual billing ($20 and $95).
Per-seat pricing: builders pay one rate, internal end users another; AI credits are a pooled monthly allowance for AI features and agents.
Where they are strong
- Mature internal-tools platform with deep integrations.
- Governance features (audit logs, permissions, custom roles) on business tiers.
- Predictable per-seat billing for builders.
Meters
- Build
- Building is billed per builder seat, not per prompt; AI features draw from a pooled monthly AI-credit allowance.
- Debug
- Not metered separately.
- Runtime
- End users are billed per seat (internal $5-7/user/mo on Team), not per action; external users on a tiered per-user schedule. Not modelled here.
- Auto-upgrade
- No automatic tier bump.
- Rollover
- AI credits are pooled monthly with no rollover.
- Per seat
- Yes.
Tiers
Free · Team: $12/mo per user · Business: $65/mo per user · Enterprise: custom
What CodeMonster meters: nothing
No tokens. No credits. No meter. You bring the AI subscription you already pay for. One organization license covers every builder, every app and every environment; your live apps serve users without spending anything down. Nothing is metered while you build, debug or run — by construction of the pricing model, not by promotion.
The catch, stated plainly: the organization license is a real invoice, quoted per organization and confirmed on a call. Your AI subscription is real money paid to your provider. Two line items, both known before you start, neither one moving when your agent works harder.
- Build
- Not metered. The agent works over MCP on the AI plan already in your name.
- Debug
- Not metered. Stage, preview, commit or roll back for as long as the bug takes.
- Runtime
- Not metered. Hosting on the infrastructure we operate comes with the license, users and all.
- Auto-upgrade
- None. There is no tier to run out of.
- Rollover
- Not applicable. There is no balance to roll over.
- Per seat
- None. Builders are added by invitation under the organization license.
Your AI provider bills you for your AI. We do not touch that relationship, mark it up or resell it. The arithmetic is on the pricing page, with your quote as an input.
Questions to ask any vendor
Five questions separate a sticker price from a real bill. Ask them of us too.
- Is runtime billed? When my finished app serves a user — an LLM call, an email, an upload, an automation — does that spend my balance or open a second usage bill?
- What happens at the cap mid-sprint? Does the agent stop, do I top up, or am I moved to the next tier automatically?
- Who reviews the generated code? If the tool generates a backend, who is responsible for securing and maintaining it — and what did the 2026 scans of that code find? The findings.
- Is there a staging environment before production? Can I show a client a working version, then promote it — and who is allowed to?
- How does rollback work? Is it one click, is it audited, and does it delete anything?
Our answers, in order: no; there is no credit balance and no tier to run out of — the only limits are the abuse and fair-use rules in the acceptable use policy; there is no generated backend to review, because apps are assembled from governed platform primitives; yes, dev, staging and production for custom frontends with role-gated promotion; one click, audited, non-destructive. Details on environments and the security hub.
Methodology and shelf life
Every mechanic on this page was read from the vendor's own pricing page, docs or terms, cross-checked against the roundups listed below, and dated. Where two public sources disagree, the calculator's assumptions say which we used. Where nobody publishes a rate at all — runtime usage bills are the usual gap — the modelled figure is a placeholder set below what we think the real number is, and it is labelled as an estimate everywhere it appears.
This category reprices often, so every mechanic here has a one-quarter shelf life. Past that, read the vendor's page before you quote us. Tell us at press@codemonster.ai if we have a mechanic wrong and we will correct it and say what changed.
