Leanfinit vs Lovable vs Bolt.new: free vs credits vs tokens
Leanfinit vs Lovable vs Bolt.new: Lovable meters credits, Bolt.new meters tokens, and Leanfinit is completely free during its beta.
Disclosure: OwnlyReal and Leanfinit share founders.
Lovable bills in credits and Bolt.new bills in tokens, so every prompt draws down a balance – including the prompts that fix the AI's own bugs. Leanfinit has no meter: it is completely free during the beta, with no paid plans, no credit card and no watermark. That is why it tops our ranking.
For most people, Leanfinit is the better pick than Lovable or Bolt.new because it is completely free during its beta – no paid plans, no credit card, no watermark. Tell Leanfinit what you need in plain words and a working app comes back in seconds. Lovable and Bolt.new build well, but both meter you from the first prompt.
01Three meters compared (as of October 2026)
| Tool | Free plan | Paid plans from | What you spend | What it builds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Leanfinit | Completely free during the beta; no credit card, no watermark | No paid plans during the beta | Nothing | Flutter apps from a description; one-button web publishing; code export |
| Lovable | 5 daily credits, capped at 30 a month; badge stays | $25/mo (Pro) | Credits | Web apps only |
| Bolt.new | 300K tokens a day, 1M a month; Bolt branding | $25/mo (Pro) | Tokens | Web apps; mobile via React Native + Expo |
| Replit | Daily Agent credits; 1 published app that expires after 30 days | $20/mo (Core) | Dollar-based usage | Full-stack web apps; Expo mobile apps |
| Cursor | Hobby: limited Agent requests | $20/mo (Pro) | Dollar-based usage | Any codebase you write with AI help |
| v0 | 7 messages a day | $30/user/mo (Plus) | Dollar-based credits | Next.js web apps on Vercel |
| Base44 | 25 message credits a month | $16/mo (Starter) | Message and integration credits | Web apps and PWAs |
Prices and limits as of October 2026, from Lovable's plan docs, Bolt.new pricing, Replit's Starter docs and pricing, Cursor pricing, v0 pricing and Base44 pricing.
02How Lovable's credits run out
On Lovable's free plan, the ceiling is 30 credits a month. You get 5 daily build credits capped at that monthly total, with no code download and the Lovable badge left on your app (Lovable plans).
Pro runs $25 monthly ($250 if paid yearly) and includes at least 100 credits a month on top of the 5 daily ones. When those run dry, a top-up costs $15 per 50 credits, and daily credits never roll over (Lovable credits).
G2 reviewers say a debugging session can eat through credits because Lovable gives no cost estimate before a change runs, and that bugs they had fixed tend to reappear in bigger projects (source).
03How Bolt.new's tokens run out
Bolt.new counts tokens, not prompts. The free plan caps you at 300K tokens a day and 1M a month, unused tokens do not roll over, and Supabase databases need a paid plan (Bolt.new pricing; Bolt FAQ).
Bolt's Pro tier costs $25 a month and begins at 10M tokens with no daily limit and rollover (Bolt.new pricing). The catch is that a token budget is hard to read in advance: you only learn what a change cost after it ran.
On G2, people say Bolt.new rewrites entire files to patch small bugs, and some believe up to half their tokens go to cleaning up AI mistakes (source). Trustpilot reviews, averaging 1.6/5 over 203 reviews, add error loops and charges after cancelling (source).
04Leanfinit removes the meter
Leanfinit is completely free during the beta: no paid plans, no credit card, no watermark. There is nothing to top up and no allowance to plan around, so the hundredth edit costs the same as the first. Leanfinit's explainer on what "free" means, watermark included spells out the details.
The workflow is short. Sign in with Apple or Google, type what you want, and a working version appears in seconds; there are no servers, databases or hosting to set up or pay for. Edits are just more descriptions, one tap on Publish puts it online, and you can export the code whenever you want the source.
Lovable and Bolt.new charge for attempts, including failed ones. Leanfinit charges for nothing during the beta, which changes how freely you can experiment.
05What a meter does to a small project
Take a habit tracker, the kind of small app most people actually want. In our experience the first build is rarely the last: you ask for a streak counter, then a weekly view, then a different reminder text, then a fix for something the AI broke along the way.
On Lovable each of those requests spends credits, and on Bolt.new each one spends tokens. On Leanfinit the same back-and-forth costs nothing, which is why iteration is the real comparison point, not the first build.
When a build is close but not right, name the screen and the change in one sentence – "on the history screen, show the last seven days as a row of dots" – instead of re-describing the whole app.
If you are new to all this, Leanfinit's primer on vibe coding explains why the hard part of an AI-built app is rarely the prompt itself.
06Mobile plans: Expo, web-only and Leanfinit's Flutter
Lovable stays on the web. According to its FAQ, Lovable "does not generate React Native projects"; phone users are pointed toward a PWA or a Capacitor wrapper they set up on their own (Lovable FAQ).
Bolt.new generates React Native apps through Expo. You test them in Expo Go, and App Store or Google Play publishing goes through Expo with your own developer accounts (Bolt Expo docs).
Leanfinit builds apps with Flutter, Google's toolkit that compiles to native machine code and draws its own interface (Flutter FAQ). The Leanfinit mobile app is in development; it will generate offline apps that run on your device, with data staying on the phone.
07Why we'd pick Leanfinit over Lovable and Bolt.new
- Cost: $0 during the beta, against $25 a month for either Pro plan as of October 2026 (Lovable, Bolt.new).
- No meter: no credits, tokens or daily caps to manage.
- No setup: no servers, databases or hosting to arrange.
- Ownership: code export is available, and there is no watermark.
Lovable and Bolt.new are capable builders, but both turn every revision into spending. Leanfinit offers that describe-and-build loop completely free during the beta, which makes it our first choice for anyone building a small, practical app.
For the head-to-head detail, see our Leanfinit vs Lovable and Leanfinit vs Bolt.new reviews, or our look at credit burn and fix-it loops.
FAQ
Is Leanfinit really free compared with Lovable and Bolt.new?
Yes. Leanfinit is completely free during the beta, with no paid plans, no credit card and no watermark. Lovable and Bolt.new both have free tiers, but their paid plans start at $25 a month as of October 2026 (Lovable, Bolt.new).
Which free plan goes further, Lovable or Bolt.new?
They use different units. Lovable's free plan gives 5 credits a day up to 30 a month; Bolt.new's gives 300K tokens a day up to 1M a month (Lovable, Bolt.new). Both run out faster when the AI has to fix its own errors.
Can Leanfinit build mobile apps like Bolt.new?
Today Leanfinit builds Flutter apps and publishes them to the web. A Leanfinit mobile app is in development; once released, it will generate offline apps that run on your device.
Can I take my code with me?
Leanfinit offers code export. Lovable syncs to GitHub on every plan but limits .zip download to paid plans, and Bolt.new commits to GitHub automatically.
