Replit vs Lovable: what you build, what you pay and how hard it is to leave

Everything below comes from the official pricing pages and docs, checked on 12 November 2026. The Replit Git and publishing details also come from our own test on the free Starter plan in November 2026.

Side by side

What you can build

Lovable makes web apps. Every project uses the same stack and you cannot switch it. Apps made since 13 May 2026 use TanStack Start, which runs server code. Older apps use React and Vite and build to static files. If you are not sure which one you have, Is your Lovable app TanStack Start or Vite? shows how to check.

Lovable does not build native mobile apps. Its FAQ gives two options: turn the published app into a Progressive Web App, or wrap the published site with a tool like Capacitor outside Lovable.

Replit is wider. The Agent builds native mobile apps with Expo. You try them in a simulator inside the Project Editor or on your phone with Expo Go, and Replit can prepare builds for TestFlight and App Store submission. On the web side you are not tied to one framework. Python, Node.js or whatever the project needs.

If you need a phone app in the App Store, this point decides it on its own.

How you build

On Lovable you chat. Lovable picks the AI model and you cannot choose one for building, so there is nothing to tune. Editing and downloading the code inside Lovable start at Pro.

On Replit you chat with the Agent too, but you sit in a full editor with a Shell, a Database tool and a Git pane. The Agent has modes:

• Free Mode: no extra cost within an allowance on Core and Pro. Starter gets it with a daily cap.
• Power or Max: paid by effort, based on how complex the request is. Replit asks before a paid action starts.
• Plan Mode: for planning without changing code, on Core and Pro. In the paid path it can still bill for reasoning.

On the free Starter plan you only get Lite build. Full build needs Core or Pro.

The backend

Lovable's built-in backend runs on Supabase's open-source foundation. Database, logins, file storage, edge functions, scheduled jobs and secrets live in one place, and it is on by default. You can connect your own Supabase project instead. Not sure which one your app uses? Lovable Cloud or Supabase: which one does your app use? shows how to tell, and Lovable Cloud vs Supabase compares the two.

Replit gives an app two PostgreSQL databases. The development database is free, with 20 GB of storage, or 50 GB on Pro and Enterprise. The production database is created when you publish, if the development database has data in it. It is billed for compute and storage. The Agent can read it but cannot change it. Your published app gets its own DATABASE_URL that points to it.

Logins are where Replit is different. There are two options, and the Agent adds both:

• Replit Auth. Your users sign in with a Replit account, on a Replit-branded login page. Replit says the only way to add it is through the Agent.
• Clerk Auth. Users create accounts inside your app and need no Replit account. You control the branding and the login methods. Replit calls it the better fit for customer-facing or commercial apps.

Remember this one. It matters a lot later.

Hosting

Lovable publishes your app to a lovable.app address on every plan. A custom domain needs a paid plan. Hosting is paid in credits, from the same balance you build with. Lovable says hosting a small or new app usually costs nothing, and that apps with a lot of traffic or data start to cost more.

Replit has four deployment types. It picks one for you based on the project, and you can choose another:

Replit's own example: a small business site with 500 visitors a day costs about $2.39 a month on Autoscale. Publishing costs come out of your monthly credits first.

On Starter you get one published app, and it goes down after 30 days. In our test Publishing said the app would expire in 29 days, right after the first publish. Core allows unlimited published apps.

Pricing

Prices checked on 12 November 2026, in US dollars, without tax. Replit's help page lists Core at $204 a year, which is $17 a month, while the pricing page shows $18. Check the checkout screen before you pay for a year.

On both platforms one balance pays for building and for running the app. What the AI spends, the app cannot. The full Lovable breakdown is in Lovable pricing and Out of Lovable credits?

The headline prices are close. The real difference is team size. Five people on Lovable Pro still pay $25 and share 100 credits. On Replit, a sixth builder means moving to Pro.

Getting your code out

This is the part most comparisons skip.

Lovable. Git sync with GitHub, GitLab and Bitbucket works on every plan, Free included. It works both ways: changes in Lovable go to the repository, and pushes to the active branch come back into Lovable, one branch at a time. Git sync cannot connect a repository you already have. Lovable always creates a new one. On paid plans you can also download the whole project as a ZIP file with the Download codebase button, at the bottom of the file panel in the code editor or in Project settings, Git. Step by step: Export a Lovable project to GitHub.

The database is separate from the code. Lovable's FAQ says you export it from More, Database, Manage, Settings, under Export project data. The export does not include stored files, edge function code or secrets. Those three need their own steps, in Back up the database of a Lovable app, Move Lovable storage files to your own Supabase project and Deploy Lovable edge functions with the Supabase CLI.

Replit. Open Tools, then Git. The Git pane can create a repository, connect it to GitHub, commit, push and pull. In our test it worked on the free Starter plan, even after the monthly Agent quota ran out. You can also download a zip from the three-dot menu of the file tree. The code is a normal project in the language you picked, so it runs elsewhere with the usual tools for that language. Full walkthrough: Export a Replit project.

The rest stays behind. Replit's own guide to copying a project says the code copy does not touch the database and that secret values never leave the project. The database is PostgreSQL, so pg_dump and pg_restore copy it. Use the production database for the live data. App Storage files have to be downloaded and uploaded to new storage.

Replit Auth is the hard one. Your users' accounts are Replit accounts, and they do not come with you. Leaving means a new login system, and people sign up again with the same email address. The guides are Move a Replit database to Supabase, Replace Replit Auth with Supabase Auth and Move Replit App Storage files to Supabase.

Which one is easier to leave

Lovable is easier to leave in the boring sense. The stack is fixed and known, the code can be on GitHub from day one even on Free and the backend is Supabase underneath. Moving it means moving to your own Supabase project, and the steps are well documented. The catch is that you cannot choose another framework while you are there.

Replit is easier to leave in the flexible sense. It is a normal project in a normal language, and nothing ties you to one framework. But if the Agent added Replit Auth, your users are tied to Replit accounts, and that is the most painful part of any move off Replit. If you start on Replit and think you might leave one day, ask the Agent for Clerk Auth from the start. Its accounts do not need Replit.

Which one fits you?

Pick Lovable if:

• you are building a web app and do not want to think about the stack
• you want the code on GitHub from day one, on the free plan
• your team is bigger than five and you would rather share credits than move to a bigger plan
• you need your data in Europe or Asia Pacific without an Enterprise contract

Pick Replit if:

• you need a native iOS or Android app in the App Store
• your project needs Python or another language Lovable does not use
• you want a full editor and a Shell next to the AI
• you want to choose how the app is hosted, from a $2 Autoscale app to a dedicated VM

Already on one of them and want out?

The step-by-step guides start where your app is now. From Lovable: Lovable to Claude Code, Lovable to Codex, Lovable to Cursor, Lovable to Vercel and Lovable to own VPS. From Replit: Replit to Claude Code and Replit to Codex.

The Claude Code, Codex and Cursor guides keep the app where it is hosted now and move the editing to your computer. Before a full move off Lovable, go through the Lovable migration checklist. For Replit, start with Export a Replit project.

Sources

1. Lovable: Pricing
2. Lovable docs: Subscription plans
3. Lovable docs: FAQ
4. Lovable docs: Built-in backend
5. Lovable docs: GitHub integration
6. Lovable docs: Git sync
7. Lovable docs: Deploy and host outside Lovable
8. Replit: Pricing
9. Replit docs: Pricing and plans
10. Replit docs: Starter Plan
11. Replit docs: Replit Core
12. Replit docs: Replit Pro
13. Replit docs: Replit AI Billing
14. Replit docs: Publishing costs
15. Replit docs: Publishing
16. Replit docs: Database
17. Replit docs: Development and production databases
18. Replit docs: Replit Auth
19. Replit docs: Auth
20. Replit docs: Native mobile apps
21. Replit docs: Dependency management
22. Replit docs: Git pane
23. Replit docs: Manually copy a project to another workspace

• Replit to Claude Code
• Lovable to Claude Code
• Export a Replit project
• Export a Lovable project to GitHub
• Replace Replit Auth with Supabase Auth
• Lovable pricing
• Replit pricing