AI buildersOct 19, 20263 min read

Lovable vs Vercel

Lovable writes your app from a chat and hosts it. Vercel writes nothing. It takes code from a GitHub repository, builds it and puts it online. So for an app you already have in Lovable, the question is where the same code runs: on Lovable hosting or on Vercel.

vsSame code, two places to run it

Side by side

	Lovable	Vercel
What it is	An app builder in the browser, with hosting	A host for code from a Git repository
Writes the code	Yes, from chat	No
Address	your-app.lovable.app	your-app.vercel.app
Custom domain	On paid plans	On every plan, up to 50 per project on Hobby
Backend	Lovable Cloud (built on Supabase) or your own Supabase	None. The app keeps the backend it has
Deploys	When you click Publish	Every push to GitHub
Price	Free plan with 5 build credits a day, up to 30 a month. Pro $25 a month, or $21 billed yearly	Hobby $0, for personal, non-commercial use only. Pro $20 a month plus $20 per developer seat

Prices checked on 19 October 2026. Both change often, so check the pricing pages before you decide.

Vercel takes the frontend, not the backend

If the app uses Lovable Cloud for the database, logins and files, it keeps using Lovable Cloud after the move. Lovable treats the hosting and the backend as separate moves that you can do in any order. The database moves only when you decide to move it.

Since July 2026 there is nothing to configure

On 9 July 2026 Vercel added support for Lovable apps with zero configuration. Apps made in Lovable since 13 May 2026 use TanStack Start with Nitro. Vercel detects that and builds the app. You sync the project to GitHub and import the repository in Vercel.

There are two catches. The detection needs @lovable.dev/vite-tanstack-config version 2.6.2 or newer in package.json. And Lovable's own Lovable vs Vercel page still says you will need some custom configuration. That page reflects what was public in May 2026, before the change.

Older Vite apps

Apps made before 13 May 2026 use React and Vite and build to static files in dist. Vercel serves those too. If any page other than the home page gives a 404 when you open it directly, add a vercel.json file to the root of the project that sends every path to index.html. This is the file from the Vercel docs:

{
  "rewrites": [{ "source": "/(.*)", "destination": "/index.html" }]
}

Not sure which kind you have? Open package.json. If it lists @tanstack/react-start, it is a TanStack Start app.

What it costs

On Lovable, hosting most small apps costs nothing for now. A monthly grant of Cloud credits covers it, and Lovable says that grant is temporary. A custom domain needs a paid plan.

Vercel Hobby is free, but for personal, non-commercial use only. It includes 100 GB of data transfer, 1 million function calls and 4 hours of active CPU a month. When you go over, the feature stops, in most cases until 30 days have passed. An app that makes money needs Pro: $20 a month plus $20 for each developer seat. Viewer seats are free. Pro includes 1 TB of data transfer, then from $0.15 per GB.

If you keep building in Lovable, you still pay Lovable for the building. Vercel replaces only the hosting. A business app then pays for both: a Lovable plan and at least $20 a month for Vercel Pro.

What becomes your job

Lovable's docs list what you take over when the app runs outside Lovable:

Deploys and rollbacks
Production environment variables
Caching
Uptime
Production logs and deploy history
Preview environments

Vercel does most of this for you, but Lovable can no longer see it or fix it. Vercel keeps runtime logs for 1 hour on Hobby and 1 day on Pro.

Can you keep building in Lovable?

Yes. With GitHub sync on, every change in Lovable goes to GitHub, and every push deploys again on Vercel. If you also edit the code in Claude Code, Codex or Cursor, pull before you start and push when you finish, so the two copies do not drift apart.

Which one fits you?

Stay on Lovable hosting for a side project on a lovable.app address. It costs nothing, and Vercel Hobby cannot be used for anything commercial anyway.
Move to Vercel when you want deploys from GitHub, preview environments or a host that does not depend on your Lovable plan.
Looking at other hosts too? Where to host a Lovable app compares Vercel, Cloudflare Pages and your own VPS.

How to move

Connect the project to GitHub, import the repository at vercel.com/new and add your environment variables. When the app works on its vercel.app address, update the login redirect URLs and move the domain. The step-by-step guide above asks a few questions about your app and shows only the steps you need.