Lovable builds a good-looking React web app fast, and its built-in Cloud backend now covers the database, logins and scheduled jobs. Replit gives you the same plus a shell, the whole file tree and native mobile apps. The first is the shorter road to something that looks finished, the second is the one you can open up when it breaks in production.
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Pick Lovable if you are making a landing page, a marketing site or a front-end prototype and you want it to look designed without hiring anyone.
Pick Replit if the thing has to ship as a native app in the App Store, or needs a stack other than React, and you are willing to open the shell and read the code when the agent goes sideways.
Pick neither if you already know how to code, because a terminal agent working in your own repo costs less per attempt and does not bill you again every time it fails to fix a bug it wrote.
prices checked 2026-10-13 · by dan scutaru
| Lovable | Replit | |
|---|---|---|
| price | free tier · from $25/mo | free tier · from $20/mo |
| free tier | 5 build credits per day capped at 30/month, plus a 20 Cloud credit monthly grant and 4 AI credits. | Starter: daily Agent credits up to a monthly cap, one published app that expires after 30 days, 2GB storage, 'Made with Replit' badge. |
| runs on | web, ios, android, mac, windows | web, ios, android, mac, windows, linux |
| What one request costs | Credits by the work done: 0.5 for a small change, about 2 for a landing page with images. Plan mode is 1 credit a message | Nothing in Free Mode, within an allowance that resets every 5 hours with a weekly cap. Power and Max bill by effort per checkpoint, and you approve each paid request |
| When the plan's credits run out | Building stops and the Cloud backend pauses soon after, unless you buy a top-up ($15 per 50 credits on Pro) or turn on auto top-up | Paid Agent work, hosting and the database bill pay-as-you-go up to a usage limit you set. Credit packs start at $100 |
| Native mobile apps | No. Web apps only, installable as a PWA or wrapped in Capacitor outside Lovable | Yes, with Expo. Guided upload to App Store Connect, Google Play by hand |
| Getting the code out | Two-way GitHub sync on every plan, code download from Pro | Git under every project, push and pull to GitHub from the Git pane or shell |
Both start near $20 and neither stays there. Lovable Pro is $25 a month for 100 credits plus 5 build credits a day, and each prompt costs what the work costs: 0.5 credits to make a button gray, 1.2 to add sign-up and login, 2 for a landing page with images.
Replit Core is $20 ($18 billed annually) and splits the work in two. Free Mode costs nothing inside an allowance that resets every five hours under a weekly cap. Power and Max are billed by effort against $20 of included credit, and past that credit you pay as you go, up to a usage limit you set yourself.
The old split, Lovable for the front end and Replit for the backend, no longer holds. Lovable Cloud runs on Supabase's open-source stack: Postgres, logins, file storage, edge functions, scheduled jobs and a SQL editor, switched on by the agent when a feature needs them. Replit gives you PostgreSQL, object storage and API routes.
They part ways when the money stops. Lovable's backend pauses shortly after the workspace runs out of credits, with the data kept but unreachable. Replit keeps billing hosting and the database until it reaches the usage limit you set.
If the thing has to be in the App Store, this decides it. Replit builds native mobile apps with Expo, previews them in a streamed simulator or on your phone through Expo Go, and its Launch wizard builds, signs and uploads the iOS app to App Store Connect. Google Play is still manual, and you need your own Apple developer account.
Lovable builds web apps only. Its docs offer an installable PWA, or a Capacitor wrapper you set up outside Lovable. Lovable's own iOS and Android apps are for building from your phone, not for shipping what you built.
Both hand you real code. Lovable syncs both ways with GitHub on every plan, the free one included, and lets you download the code from Pro. Replit keeps a Git repository under every project: each Agent checkpoint is a commit, and you push to and pull from GitHub in the Git pane or the shell.
What Git does not carry on Lovable is the running backend. The Cloud database, users and files move by a separate migration that Lovable documents, so read that page before you build something you may take elsewhere.
Yes, on the Starter plan, with tight limits: daily Agent credits up to a monthly cap, Free Mode under a daily cap, and one published app that goes down after 30 days and carries a Made with Replit badge. Plan Mode, connectors and more published apps need Core at $20 a month.
Yes. The free plan gives you 5 build credits a day, capped at 30 a month, plus a monthly grant of 20 Cloud credits and 4 AI credits for running what you build. GitHub sync works on it. Editing code by hand, downloading it and a custom domain need Pro at $25 a month.
For a native mobile app, a shell or a stack other than React, yes. For a web app that should look finished in few prompts, with a bill that stops when the credits do, Lovable is the easier one. On retries Replit has the edge: Lovable charges credits for every attempt, while Replit's Free Mode costs nothing until its allowance runs out.
Safe to use, with one lesson from its history: keep the agent away from live data. In July 2025 Replit's agent deleted a SaaStr founder's production database during a code freeze. Replit's CEO called it unacceptable and the company added automatic separation of development and production databases, which the docs still describe.