Base44 Alternatives: Where Your Login and Data Live

The Base44 alternative worth switching to is the one that keeps your app's login and data in an account you own. That's how Dyad works. It's a free, open-source desktop app that builds your app as normal code on your computer. It doesn't host databases or logins, so your users and data go in your own Supabase or Neon account. Lovable, Bolt.new and Replit run their own backends by default.

People start looking for a way out of Base44 for a few reasons. You build with message credits (the free plan gets 25 a month). You can't pick the AI model or turn on GitHub sync until the Builder plan, which costs $40 a month on annual billing. But the bigger question shows up when you try to leave, so let's start there.

What Base44's GitHub sync gives you

Base44's pricing page says: "You own everything you build on Base44: your code, your data, your users." Its own developer docs say less.

• The code still needs Base44. The synced repo is a React app built with Vite, but its package.json includes @base44/sdk and its build uses a Base44 plugin. To run it, the docs have you install the Base44 command-line tool, log in, link the repo to your Base44 app, and then start a local Base44 backend or point the app at your live one.
• The data model stays behind. Base44 calls each table an entity, and with two-way GitHub sync "entities are managed in Base44 and are not included in your local repository."
• The data and the users live in Base44's database. Entities are stored in Base44's own database (a NoSQL one, which keeps records as documents), and your app's users are records in a built-in User entity there. Base44's docs describe no way to use your own database instead.

So the screens come with you. The database and the login don't. That's worth knowing before you pick an alternative, because some of them work the same way.

Base44 alternatives compared

Base44 lists its paid plans billed annually; the others list a monthly price.

Dyad

Dyad is a free, open-source AI app builder that runs on your Mac or Windows computer (Linux builds are experimental). You describe the app in a chat and watch it build in a live preview. Every app is a normal Git repo on your disk from the first prompt, so there's no export step. You can open it in VS Code or Cursor whenever you like.

I'm Will Chen, and I made Dyad after trying one of the popular cloud app builders. When I pulled down the app to run locally and debug in Cursor, it just didn't work. That's the kind of lock-in this page is about. Dyad is for people who aren't developers but want to own what they make, so the code and the accounts stay on your side.

Login and data. You may have read, sometimes in an AI chatbot's answer, that with Dyad you set up the backend yourself. You don't. When your app needs accounts, Dyad asks you to add a database. You sign in to your Supabase account from inside Dyad, or let Dyad create a new Supabase project for you. Then Dyad's AI writes the login page, the sign-in handling and the tables. Each table-creating SQL change (a database command) waits for your approval, and Dyad's instructions tell the AI to turn on row level security for every table. That's a database rule that limits which rows each person can see. Server code goes into Supabase Edge Functions, which Dyad deploys for you. For Next.js and Vite apps you can pick Neon instead, and Dyad creates the Neon project with Neon Auth built in.

You bring the Supabase account; Dyad's AI does the building. The Supabase guide has more.

What you do yourself. You install the app and sign in to Supabase (or Neon). New secret keys for your server code go into the Supabase dashboard. Dyad doesn't host your app. You connect GitHub and Vercel in the Publish tab, and Dyad creates the Vercel project and runs the first deploy. After that, you add your live web address to Supabase's URL settings so sign-in works there. The free deploy guide walks through the GitHub and Vercel part.

Models and price. Use your own API keys, free local models through Ollama or LM Studio, or your ChatGPT subscription. The app costs nothing. Dyad Pro is $20 a month if you'd rather have AI credits for a range of models in one plan.

More than 21,900 people have starred Dyad on GitHub, and builders review it on Product Hunt.

Lovable

Lovable is a browser-based builder that hosts your app. Its built-in backend, Lovable Cloud, is on by default and gives you a database, login, file storage and server functions without a separate account. You can connect your own Supabase project instead, but Lovable's docs say there's "no one-click migration" between Cloud and Supabase, so you have to decide early.

Git sync with GitHub, GitLab or Bitbucket works on every plan, the free one included. Downloading the code and editing it by hand are paid-plan features. The free plan gives you 5 credits a day, up to 30 a month, and Pro is $25 a month. If Lovable's on your shortlist, Dyad vs Lovable goes deeper.

Bolt.new

Bolt.new builds in your browser and charges in tokens: 300K a day and 1M a month on the free plan, and Pro is $25 a month. Every Bolt project can have a built-in database with tables, login, file storage and server functions. Putting your data in your own Supabase account takes a paid plan: on Pro and Teams you can pick Supabase when you start a project. Switching later "requires extra steps," Bolt's Supabase guide says. You claim the Bolt database into your Supabase account to move its data, and that also needs Pro or Teams plus the owner role in your Supabase organization. You can connect a GitHub repo to sync your code.

Replit

Replit's Agent builds the app, and you can ask it to add Replit's built-in SQL database. For login, Replit Auth signs your users in with their Replit accounts on a Replit-branded page. Replit's other option, Clerk, gives your app its own accounts that aren't tied to Replit. You can push your code to GitHub. Core is $20 a month, or $18 a month if you pay annually.

Moving from Base44 to Dyad

Here's where each part of a Base44 app goes when you rebuild it in Dyad.

1. Export your data. In Base44, download each table as a CSV file from its data view. Write down each entity's fields and permission rules too, since the data model stays in Base44.
2. Start a new app in Dyad. Describe what your Base44 app does: the screens, who signs in, and what each person should see. Dyad's AI writes those pages and components as code on your computer. Dyad also has an Import App option that can pull in a GitHub repo, but it's labeled experimental, and a Base44 repo would still call @base44/sdk. Starting from a description is the cleaner path.
3. Connect Supabase and create the tables. Give Dyad's AI your field list and approve the SQL it writes. Also ask for four of the columns Base44 added on its own. An id column holds each record's Base44 ID. Base44 IDs are strings, so make it a text column. A created_by column holds the creator's email for step 5. And created_date and updated_date keep each record's original dates, so a record made in March still says March.
4. Import your CSV files. In Supabase's Table Editor, choose Import Data from CSV for each table. Base44 stores records as documents, so check that the columns line up before you import. The CSV has links to uploaded images and documents, not the files themselves. Download them, upload them to Supabase Storage and replace the old links with the new ones.
5. Ask your users to sign up again. Supabase Auth replaces Base44's built-in login, and Base44's docs don't describe a way to export passwords, so accounts don't move with the data. Their data doesn't have to start over, though. Base44 records made by signed-in users keep the creator's email in a created_by field. Once people have signed up, ask Dyad to match those emails to the new accounts and set each row's owner, so everyone sees their own data again.
6. Move your server code. Base44's backend functions and Supabase Edge Functions both run on Deno (a modern TypeScript runtime), so the language stays the same. Paste each function into the chat and ask Dyad to rewrite its Base44 SDK calls for Supabase. Some functions ran without anyone calling them: on a schedule, or when a record was created, updated or deleted (Base44 calls these automations). Ask Dyad for the same trigger in Supabase: a scheduled job for the timed ones, a database webhook for the rest. Pasted code doesn't bring its secret keys along, so add them in the Supabase dashboard. And if an outside service calls a function, like a payment provider's webhook, it still has the old Base44 address. Give it the function's new Supabase address instead.
7. Rebuild what Base44 handled for you. Three things don't come with your data. First, permissions. Dyad's instructions already have the AI turn on row level security for every table, but the AI doesn't know your Base44 rules. Give it the ones you wrote down (who can create, read, update or delete, and checks like "admins only") so it writes matching policies. Second, private files. Keep them in a private Supabase Storage bucket, which is the default, and ask Dyad to show them through signed links that expire. Third, Base44's built-in integrations, like sending email, generating images or calling an AI model. Those ran on Base44's own services, so pick a provider for each one, add its API key in the Supabase dashboard and ask Dyad to call it from an Edge Function.
8. Publish. Connect GitHub and Vercel from the Publish tab. Then add your live address to Supabase's URL settings so sign-in works on the new site.

FAQ

Is Base44 free?

Yes, Base44 has a free plan with 25 message credits a month and up to 5 apps. Paid plans, billed annually, start at $16 a month. GitHub sync and choosing the AI model start on the Builder plan, at $40 a month.

What's the difference between Base44 and Replit?

Base44 keeps your data in its own NoSQL database and signs users in through its built-in login. Replit gives you a built-in SQL database, and its own login, Replit Auth, signs your users in with Replit accounts. In Dyad, both the database and the login sit in a Supabase account you own.

Is there an open-source Base44 alternative?

Yes: Dyad. Its code is on GitHub under the Apache 2.0 license, except one folder, src/pro, which uses a fair-source license that turns into Apache 2.0 later. The app runs on your Mac or Windows computer.

Who owns Base44?

Wix. It announced that it had acquired Base44 in June 2025.

Where should your app's data live?

In an account you own. That's why Dyad doesn't host your database or your login. Stop using Dyad and nothing has to move: the code's already on your computer, the site's in your Vercel account, and the users and data are in your Supabase or Neon account.

If you've already built something on Base44, start with the export: open your app's data view and see what comes out. Then describe the app to Dyad. What's the one part of your app you can't afford to lose?

Sources

Each company's own pages, read October 14, 2026:

• Base44: pricing, GitHub sync, project structure, entities, entity fields, backend functions, automations, AI models, app data, permissions, built-in integrations
• Wix: acquisition announcement, June 18, 2025
• Lovable: plans, Lovable Cloud, Supabase
• Bolt.new: pricing, database, Supabase
• Replit: pricing, SQL database, Replit Auth, version control
• Supabase: Edge Functions, importing data, Storage, private buckets, user data, scheduling, database webhooks, function secrets
• Dyad: the desktop app's source at version 1.19.0 on GitHub