Speed now, or control later
Base44 vs Bubble is the new style of no-code against the established one. Pick Base44 if you want a working app from a description quickly; it builds the screens, data, login and integrations, and you refine it by chatting. Pick Bubble if you are building something complex enough to justify learning an editor: you design pages, data types and workflows visually, its AI agent can draft a first version, and paid plans publish native mobile apps.
Checked Oct 2026 on base44.com/pricing and bubble.io/pricing. Both pages lead with yearly billing.
What the plans cost
Base44, billed yearly:
- Free: $0, 25 message credits and 100 integration credits a month, up to 5 apps.
- Starter: $16 a month, 100 message credits, 2,000 integration credits, connect a domain, a domain included for one year.
- Builder: $40 a month, 250 message credits, GitHub integration, model selection.
- Pro: $80 a month. Elite: $160 a month with 1,200 message credits and premium support.
Bubble, billed yearly:
- Free: $0, 50K workload units, 1 editor, development version only.
- Starter: $59 a month, 175K workload units, custom domain, live app, 5 mobile build submissions a month.
- Growth: $209 a month, 250K workload units, 2 editors.
- Team: $549 a month, 500K workload units, 5 editors.
The meters differ. Base44 meters AI building and integration actions. Bubble meters the server work your live app does, in workload units, so a busy app costs more to run even if you stop building.
How you build
On Base44 you write a description and get a working app. Base44's FAQ puts it plainly: it builds the full thing, front end, back end, database, user login and payments. You change it by chatting, by clicking into the visual editor, and from Starter up by editing code in the app.
On Bubble you work in the editor. You drag elements onto pages, define data types and their privacy rules, and build workflows that react to clicks, schedules and API calls. Bubble's AI agent generates a first draft from a prompt, and Bubble says the result is an app in its visual editor with pages, workflows and a database, not a code file. That is a fair description of the whole platform: powerful, visual and self-contained.
A useful test is a small marketplace: sellers list items with photos, buyers message sellers, and an admin approves new listings. Base44 will usually get a working draft faster. Bubble lets you tune each step of the approval and messaging flows more precisely, once you know the editor. Create a seller, a buyer and an admin account and check each sees only what they should. Permissions are where marketplace apps tend to break, on any platform, and finding that in week one saves a rebuild.
Backend, integrations and mobile
Both include a backend. Base44 lists an integrated backend and database, login, analytics and cloud storage on every plan, plus integrations with tools such as Gmail, Slack, Notion, Google Drive, HubSpot and Salesforce, billed in integration credits. Bubble has its own database and workflow engine, an API connector for outside services, and a large plugin ecosystem built up over many years.
On mobile, Bubble is ahead. Its pricing lists a native mobile editor and on-device testing on Free, and mobile build submissions and live app versions on paid plans. Base44's pricing page focuses on web apps.
Code and moving later
Base44's FAQ says you own your code, data and users, and that two-way GitHub sync exports the full source to your own repository. The pricing page lists GitHub integration from Builder up. Parts tied to Base44's backend services may need replacing if you move.
Bubble apps run on Bubble. You can export data, but the app itself lives in Bubble's editor. For many businesses that is fine, since Bubble has hosted production apps for years. It is worth knowing before you start if you expect to hand the project to developers.
What month six costs
The two price the same success very differently, so think about month six, not week one.
On Base44, building and integrations use credits. A finished app that people use every day mostly costs integration credits, for example each email it sends or each call it makes to an outside tool. If you stop changing the app, message credits matter less. Larger plans raise both allowances: Builder has 10,000 integration credits a month, Pro 20,000 and Elite 50,000.
On Bubble, a live app uses workload units every time it loads data, runs a workflow or calls an API. Starter includes 175K a month, Growth 250K and Team 500K. Tuning searches and workflows to use fewer units is a real skill on Bubble, and it pays off as traffic grows.
In both cases, watch the meter in the first busy week. That tells you far more than a plan table.
Which one, project by project
- A solo founder testing an idea this month. Base44, for speed.
- An operations team that needs an internal tool connected to email and a CRM. Base44.
- A startup building a complex web product with many user roles. Bubble, for control.
- A product that needs a native mobile app next to the web app. Bubble.
- An agency building client apps it will maintain for years. Often Bubble, for its ecosystem and editor.
Signs you have outgrown Base44
Stay on Base44 while the app is mostly forms, lists and integrations, and while a chat message still fixes what you need. Consider Bubble when you keep asking for a precise behaviour and the chat keeps getting it slightly wrong, when you need a store-listed mobile app, or when two or more people need to edit the same app and see each change clearly. Those are the jobs Bubble's editor was built for.
If you want the code instead
VibeDream is chat-first like Base44, and the output is plain code. Describe the app by typing, recording a voice note or attaching a screenshot, and a live preview appears in seconds. Apps are React + FastAPI, games are Phaser, and every file is in the Code tab with ZIP export and GitHub sync on every plan.
Putting it online is one screen: Put it online, pick a vibedreams.ai name, live in a few minutes with HTTPS, 5 credits per update. Your own domain takes a TXT and a CNAME record, as the deployment guide shows.
It is the wrong pick for native store apps or for business integrations out of the box, and VibeDream's one-tap payments are coming soon. There is no free plan; see pricing. The template gallery shows finished projects.