Bolt.new
Describe a full-stack web app in plain English and it writes and runs the actual code in your browser, with one click to deploy it live.
What you'd use it for
Turning a plain-English description of an app into working code you can see running immediately, without setting up a development environment first.
- Describe an app in plain English and get a working, running preview inside the browser within minutes, with nothing to install
- Import a starting point from Figma, GitHub, or a team template instead of building up from a blank prompt
- Read and edit the underlying generated code directly, not just re-prompt it, which matters if you want to hand it to a developer later
- Publish the app live with one click, on Bolt's own hosting or a custom domain on Pro
- Add a database to the app without a separate account or exporting anywhere else
The verdict
Bolt is at its best for a solo builder or small team who wants a working full-stack prototype today, not a mockup — describe it, watch it run in the browser within minutes, and take the actual code with you if you outgrow the tool. The free tier is genuinely useful for judging output quality, but its daily token cap is too tight to carry a real project past the first few days of active building. It suits someone happy to pay $25 a month once the app actually matters, and it suits a solo builder more than a small team, since Teams billing charges per member with no smaller shared-seat option in between.
What it costs
| Tier | Price | For | Includes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | Trying the tool on a small project before paying. | Public and private projects, 300K tokens daily / 1M tokens monthly, Bolt branding on hosted sites, unlimited databases. |
| Pro | $25/month, billed monthly (a yearly option saves up to 28%) | One person building real projects regularly. | No daily token limit, 10M tokens monthly to start (unused tokens roll over), no Bolt branding, custom domain support, expanded database capacity. |
| Teams | $30/month per member, billed monthly | A small team building and sharing projects together. | Everything in Pro, plus centralised billing, team-level access management, shared organisation projects. |
| Enterprise | Custom, arranged with sales | Organisations needing security and procurement controls. | Everything in Teams, plus SSO, audit logs, dedicated account management, custom SLAs. |
Read from Bolt.new's own pricing page on 25 Sep 2026. Vendors change prices without notice.
What you need to start
- A Chrome or Chromium-based browser (Edge, Brave, Opera, Vivaldi) — WebContainers doesn't run properly elsewhere
- A free account via Google, GitHub, or email — no credit card needed to start
About 10 to 15 minutes to a first working preview, including sign-up; publishing it live with a real URL adds roughly another minute.
Your first run Describe your app, run through a short sign-up survey, and Bolt builds a working version in your browser in around five minutes — you can click around a live preview and test it before deciding whether to publish, which takes about another minute.
Where it breaks
Pricing is metered in tokens, and how far a token budget stretches depends heavily on how large and complex the app being built is — a simple landing page and a database-backed multi-page app consume very different amounts from the same monthly allowance. There is no meaningful middle tier between Pro (one person) and Teams (per-member billing); a two-person team pays $60/month minimum on Teams rather than sharing a Pro seat.
Runs entirely in the browser using WebContainers technology — there is nothing to install, and the generated app runs in-browser before you ever deploy it. Deploys to Netlify with one click.
First entry in this reference. There is no previous check to compare it against.
When not to use it
Not for a team of two or three who want to share one paid seat — Teams billing starts at $30/month per member, with no smaller shared tier below it. Not for anyone who wants to run the app on infrastructure other than Bolt's own browser-based build and one-click Netlify deploy, without first exporting the code elsewhere. And not for anyone without a Chromium-based browser, since WebContainers depends on it and Bolt won't run properly without one.
Bolt.new belongs to the newest and fastest-moving corner of this directory: tools that write and run real application code from a description, rather than assembling a page from templates. Reported to reach $40M in annual revenue within five months of launch, it was one of the clearest signals that “build me an app” had become a viable product category, not a demo.
What actually happens when you describe an app
The description becomes real, running code — a database, a frontend, server logic where needed — executing inside your browser via WebContainers rather than on a remote server you have to configure. You can inspect and edit the code directly, which matters: unlike a no-code tool, what comes out is genuinely yours to take elsewhere if you outgrow Bolt.
Free versus Pro is a real decision, not a taster
The free tier’s daily token cap is tight enough that a real project will hit it during active development, not after weeks of casual use. Treat Free as a way to judge whether Bolt’s output quality suits the kind of app you want to build, and budget for Pro from the start if the project is more than a weekend experiment.
Against Lovable, Base44 and Replit
All four compete in the same prompt-to-app space, and the honest differentiator between them shifts monthly as each ships new capability. Bolt’s edge has historically been WebContainers’ in-browser execution speed; Base44’s is Wix’s distribution and support behind it since its 2025 acquisition; Replit leans on its longer history as a full development environment, not just a generator. Trial two on the same small project before committing — the output quality difference on your actual use case will tell you more than any comparison here.
Alternatives
Websites & appsHarnessLovable
Describe the web app or site you want in plain English and it writes, hosts and deploys a working version you can keep editing by conversation.
Websites & appsHarnessReplit
Build a small web app from a plain-English prompt entirely in the browser, with a database and one-click deploys included.
Websites & appsHarnessv0
Vercel's tool for describing a web interface in plain English and getting back working, styled code you can keep editing, deploy, or hand to a developer.
Get Bolt.new
Buying the tool is not the hard part.
The ebook is about what to hand over, in what order, and how you find out when it goes wrong. One payment, no subscription.