Base44 Review for 2026: Is It the Right Vibe Coding Tool for You?

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A plethora of vibe coding tools have emerged amidst the AI-coding trend, but which is right for you? Base44 is a top player, offering a user-friendly interface, a plethora of built-in integrations, budget-friendly pricing and credit-saving chat features.

In this Base44 review, I break down its features, pricing, pros and cons, and how it fares against the competition. To give you more insight, I’ll also show you how to use Base44 from my beginner’s perspective.

Key Takeaways 🔍

  • Base44 is a great choice for group projects and brainstorming, as well as creating fast prototypes, thanks to its collaboration and ideation tools
  • Base44 is one of the most beginner-friendly vibe coding tools we’ve testing, offering an out-the-box solution for managing the frontend, database, and hosting of apps
  • Save on Base44 credits by using the conversational mode to ideate and the visual editor to make cost-free manual changes
  • Code export is only available on the builder plan ($40 month) and upwards

What is Base44?

Base44 is an AI-powered vibe coding tool that lets users turn their ideas into functional web apps, such as dashboards, websites, employee systems, or even customer portals with member logins – without coding.

The tool supports multiple coding models and styling options to tailor your experience and the overall outcome to your needs.

Base44 chatbot dropdown to choose between AI models
I was able to change between AI models at any point of the build, although I decided to let Base44 choose for me automatically. Source: Website Builder Expert

Base44 Pricing Explained

Base44’s pricing consists of a free-forever plan and four premium plans that range from $16 to $160 per month, when billed annually. Each plan gives you a set amount of credits per month, which are charged as you start to build and run your app.

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Plan Name

Free

Plan Name

Starter

Plan Name

Builder

Plan Name

Pro

Plan Name

Elite

Monthly price (paid annually)

$0

Monthly price (paid annually)

$16

Monthly price (paid annually)

$40

Monthly price (paid annually)

$80

Monthly price (paid annually)

$160

Monthly price (paid monthly)

$0

Monthly price (paid monthly)

$20

Monthly price (paid monthly)

$50

Monthly price (paid monthly)

$100

Monthly price (paid monthly)

$200

Message credits (per month)

25

Message credits (per month)

100

Message credits (per month)

250

Message credits (per month)

500

Message credits (per month)

1,200

Integration credits (per month)

100

Integration credits (per month)

2,000

Integration credits (per month)

10,000

Integration credits (per month)

20,000

Integration credits (per month)

50,000

Try Base44 Try Base44 Try Base44 Try Base44 Try Base44

What’s the Difference Between Message Credits and Integration Credits?

Message credits are used up during the building process, whereas integration credits are billed every time a user triggers the use of your integration. Message credits are deducted for every request to add a new feature, debug an error, ask AI to rewrite copy.

Integration credits are used up when your app connects to an external tool or service, such as using an AI chatbot or sending post-purchase emails. They limit your app’s monthly usage by displaying an error message to customers once your limit is reached.

How Many Credits Will I Be Charged? 🤔

  • Discussion mode: 0.3 credits per message
  • Visual edit mode: 0 Credits
  • Default chat mode: 1 credit per message
  • Using app integrations: 1 integration credit per action
  • Using AI automations: 3 integration credits per message

How Base44 Works: My Hands-On Test

Here’s how I got on using Base44 for the first time:

1. Getting Started With My First Prompt

To get started, enter your prompt on Base44’s welcome page. I decided to test create a quiz for my home page, and entered the following prompt:

“I have a beauty brand called Glowup Gloworm. I would like to create a short quiz to match site visitors to the right product. The quiz must include questions about skin type, makeup preferences, and any allergies.”

When crafting your initial Base44 prompt, you’ll have the choice to personalize your app with one of five styling options:

  1. Neo-Brutalism
  2. Neumorphism
  3. Material design
  4. Glassmorphism
  5. Claymorphism

Each styling option was paired with examples of brands that use it, making the choice much easier. You can also add an image, document, video, or audio file to your Base44 prompt, which makes it easy to share additional data and requirements with the AI agent.

✨ Struggling to start? Learn how to write AI app building prompts.

2. The Initial Outcome

After submitting your first prompt to Base44, you’ll enter the AI chat, where you can watch as your first draft is coded. The chatbot explains what it understands from your prompt and its approach to creation, including the key features and style choices.

Base44 interface showcasing a personalized quiz for Glowup Glowworm products, inviting users to discover their perfect match.
The Base44 chatbot talked me through its process and added “thinking…” to indicate that it was still building. Source: Website Builder Expert

After the Base44 agent downloaded my product data PDF in the backend, I could click the button to view and manage the information from the dashboard. While my products had been accurately named and categorized, it was good to know where the information was stored and that I could update it if needed.

video navigating to the product data from the base44 chat
Clicking the “Curated 32 records” button took me straight to my product data in the backend. Source: Website Builder Expert

Testing notes:

After running the same prompt on two other popular vibe coding tools, Lovable and Hostinger Horizons, I was most impressed with Base44’s first draft. Not only did it follow the brief requirements, but it also created intelligent questions and a visually appealing design with no noticeable bugs.

Smiling headshot of Annie Angus looking at the camera
Annie Angus Writer

3. Editing My Base44 Project

There are three ways to interact with Base44. On top of the default messaging mode, which responds to prompts and uses up credits, you can also use the:

  • Visual editor: Manually change the style of fonts across your website, such as size, content, formatting, and positioning
  • Discussion mode: Allows you to discuss, plan, and analyze ideas with the AI chatbot before making edits to the code

The discussion mode helps you save credits by cutting out unnecessary back and forth between test ideas. I asked the AI agent for advice on the style of answer box to use for an ecommerce quiz question about allergies:

Base44 discussion mode response to question about an answer box structure
The discussion mode helped me decide the most suitable element for the “Allergies" section of my quiz. Source: Website Builder Expert

Testing notes:

Base44’s Discussion mode gave a balanced analysis of my ideas, and pointed out flaws to both that I hadn’t considered. I was impressed at its ability to think outside the box and provide a solution that incorporated both of my ideas. Still, it seemed odd that it criticized the custom text box, since this was its original generation.

Smiling headshot of Annie Angus looking at the camera
Annie Angus Writer

Base44’s visual editor works similarly to that of a website builder. Unlike Hostinger Horizons’ editor, it gives you options of fonts and formatting styles to choose from, which makes it easy to test different ideas that may work.

However, there are some clunky and unintuitive aspects to Base44’s visual editor. For instance, the style changes box covered the text that I was editing, and I couldn’t deselect stylistic changes easily.

changing the text formatting on a selected paragraph and clicking the undo button
It was difficult to edit the text due to the positioning of the pop-up windows. Source: Website Builder Expert

Base44 Key Features

To start this Base44 review, let’s look at the platform’s standout features:

App Templates

If you’re struggling to get started, Base44 has a library with hundreds of free and paid app templates across popular categories, such as:

  • Marketing and sales
  • Operations
  • Content generation
  • Finance
  • Education
  • Data and analytics

Templates are made by Base44 users and are fully customizable once downloaded.

Collaboration Tools

In July 2025, Base44 introduced Workspaces, which allow multiple users to collaborate on a project together. Each account can create up to two workspaces, where they can control who joins and their individual permissions – such as granting power to edit or simply view the updates.

Integrations

Base44 has 20 pre-built integrations to add functionality to your site across CRM, ecommerce, task automation, lead generation, and AI content creation.

Users on the Pro plan or above can also sync their apps with systems they already use. The four available connections are:

  • Salesforce
  • Slack
  • Notion
  • Google Calendar
Base44 page showing 4 connectors and 4 custom integrations
I could learn about and install the latest Base44 integrations from its integration library. Source: Website Builder Expert

Version Control

Every AI prompt has a “Revert this” button next to it, which allows you to instantly undo any changes. You can also view the version history at a glance, where you can restore your app back to any previously saved version – a helpful overview for when your chat gets lengthy.

For advanced version control, Base44 has a GitHub integration. Once added, you can export and back up your code at any time.

Analytics Dashboard

Once your app is live, the analytics dashboard will provide easy access to important visitor  metrics, such as:

  • Top pages: View the visit count of your most popular app pages
  • Unique users over time: The number of different users visiting your app every day
  • Total usage over time: The total amount of unique and repeat app visits per day

Security Features

Base44 comes with a comprehensive set of security features to help keep yours and your users’ data safe:

  • Built-in security scanner: Checks your app’s code for vulnerabilities
  • API key management: Secure sensitive information safely in the backend
  • User permissions management: Choose who can access backend settings and permissions, and create custom roles with AI chat prompts
  • Row-level security (RLS) rules: Control who can access and manage your app’s data
  • Secure authentication: Offer multiple recognized sign up methods, such as Google and email
Dashboard showing App Security settings with scan results: RLS recommendations found, no exposed secrets, and no unauthenticated backend functions.
My security scan was complete in less than two minutes and flagged an RLS recommendation, which I could view and correct in one click. Source: Website Builder Expert

Pros and Cons of Base44

To help you decide whether Base44 is the right choice for you, read the following pros and cons:

Base44 Pros

  • Generous free plan with 25 monthly message credits
  • Extra personalization with app styling options
  • Switch between four AI models to handle different tasks
  • Low/no credit options with discussion and visual editing modes

Base44 Cons

  • Code export is only available on Builder plan and above
  • Separate integration credits are more confusing for beginners to track

🤔 Unsure about vibe coding in general? Check out the pros and cons of vibe coding here.

Who is Base44 For? (And Who Is It Not For?)

If you’re not sure whether Base44 is the right choice for your needs, here are my top recommendations:

✅ For Small Businesses

Small businesses will benefit from using Base44 for internal tools and simple customer-facing portals. However, avoid using it for your main, mission-critical application before double checking with a coding professional.

✅ For Entrepreneurs and Founders

If you’re in a time crunch then Base44 is one of the best tools on the market to build a minimal viable product (MVP) in a weekend to show investors or test a market.

❌ Base44 vs. Website Builders

While Base44 can build websites, it’s shines most at making for custom web apps. For creating a website, it’s best to use a website builder like Wix or Squarespace, since these have airtight security and user-friendly editors. However, Base44 can be used in conjunction with a website builder to add extra functionality to your site with web apps.

⚠️ For Complete Beginners

While Base44 is a no-code app builder, beginners will struggle to spot security bugs and errors in code. Tread carefully and seek professional guidance to ensure your app is safe and functional before publishing it.

Base44 Alternatives

It’s a good idea to research Base44 alternatives before you make a final decision. Here is a snapshot of its top competitors:

Starting price (billed annually) Free plan? Key features:
Hostinger Horizons $6.99/mo 7-day free trial • Full access to code
• Version control
• Builds websites & apps
• Supports 80+ languages
• Hosting included
Lovable $25/mo Yes • Full access to code
• Version control
• Security scans
• Low credit agent chat mode
Replit $25/mo Yes • Mobile app to build on the go
• AI user testing simulation
• Switch between Replit Agent and Assistant for different tasks
• Team collaboration
Bolt $25/mo Yes • Hosting included
• Built-in SEO optimization
• Analytics tracking
• Multiple AI models
v0 $20/mo Yes • Design kits to use across projects
• iOS app for mobile building
• Template & block libraries
• Version control

How We Tested Base44

To accurately review Base44, we carried out in-depth first-hand testing. This involved making an ecommerce website quiz and testing prompt refinement, security, and overall app functionality.

On top of our user tests, our in-house research team evaluated Base44 in line with five non-negotiable categories. Each category was weighted uniquely to reflect the priorities of vibe coders:

  1. Pricing & Value: We look at the monthly pricing, what’s included in plans, the credit system, and whether they have a free plans or introductory offers
  2. Product Capabilities: We assessed backend and frontend creation, integrations and native tools, and hosting and deployment options
  3. Market Perception: We looked at online forums and review platforms to see the overall public sentiment around the tool
  4. Customer Support: We tested the support options online to see whether it could answer common queries and monitored the speed and quality of replies

Is Base44 the Right Vibe Coding Platform for You?

Base44 is a great tool for small businesses and entrepreneurs looking to build a prototype or simple app as quickly as possible. With collaborative workspaces, a low-credit discussion mode, and a range of integrations, Base44 is perfect for time conscious businesses collaborating on internal tools and simple customer apps.

Written by:
Annie Angus is a Writer for Website Builder Expert with a passion for shaping jargon-heavy research into digestible content. She has previously researched and written about industries ranging from tech to fashion, and now, after testing our top website builders such as Wix and Squarespace, she is enthusiastic to share her findings with our readers. With first-hand experience in utilizing social media and online marketplaces to grow a small handmade clothing business, Annie understands the priorities and concerns held by SME owners, and knows precisely what they look for in a website builder. She combines this unique perspective with her knowledge of website builders to produce engaging content spanning all areas of the small business journey, from creating a strong website to growing and maintaining an audience.

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