Base44

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Base44 is an all-in-one AI app builder. You describe an application in chat, and it produces a working product with the database, authentication, storage, and hosting already wired up behind it.

Overview

Base44 was built by Maor Shlomo, working alone. It began as a side project in late 2024, became Base44 in January 2025, and was bootstrapped on roughly ten to twenty thousand dollars of the founder's own money with no outside investment.

On June 18, 2025, Wix acquired it for approximately $80 million in cash, with earn-out payments running through 2029. Wix's announcement stated that Base44 "will continue to operate as a distinct product and business, maintaining its unique identity and momentum" — a commitment it appears to have kept, since Base44 still runs its own site, pricing, and documentation a year later.

Widely reported figures — several hundred thousand users and around $3.5M ARR within six months — come from press coverage and the founder's own interviews rather than audited disclosures, and should be read accordingly.

Key Features

• Chat to app: describe what you want; Base44 generates structure, design, and logic.
• Managed database: NoSQL and MongoDB-compatible. Entities and schemas are defined rather than migrated, since schemas are not enforced.
• Built-in authentication: email and password, social sign-in via Google, Microsoft, Facebook, and Apple, plus custom SSO through an identity provider.
• Serverless functions: Deno-based, written in TypeScript, with access to your data and integrations.
• Realtime: subscribe to record changes with entities.subscribe().
• Authorization: row-level and field-level rules.
• Built-in integrations: AI text generation, image creation, email, and file uploads, plus OpenAPI-based custom integrations and OAuth connectors.
• Agents and automations alongside conventional apps.

How It Works

1. Describe: state what the app should do in plain language.
2. Generate: Base44 produces the interface, the data model, and the logic together.
3. Provision: the database, auth, and hosting are created automatically. There is nothing to configure.
4. Refine: iterate in chat, or edit code in-app on a paid plan.
5. Extend: add serverless functions, custom integrations, or OAuth connectors.
6. Publish: deploy to a Base44 URL, or attach a custom domain on a paid plan.

The design philosophy is that infrastructure should be invisible. That is both the appeal and the catch.

Use Cases

Internal Business Tools

• Dashboards and admin panels where auth matters and portability does not.
• Approval and workflow apps built on row-level authorization rules.

Client and Customer Apps

• Portals with social sign-in already handled.
• Directories and CRUD applications over the built-in database.

AI-Powered Products

• Apps with AI features, using built-in text and image generation rather than your own API keys.
• Agents and automations, a first-class output alongside apps.

Rapid Validation

• Weekend MVPs where infrastructure setup would otherwise consume the weekend.

Pricing & Access

Base44 uses two distinct credit types, which is the part most people misread:

• Message credits are consumed while building, and vary with the AI workload of each request.
• Integration credits are consumed at runtime, whenever your deployed app calls a built-in service — sending email, generating an image, calling an LLM, running an automation.

The second kind means a popular app keeps costing you credits after it is built. Neither type rolls over; both reset each billing cycle.

The figures above reflect annual billing, which Base44 discounts by roughly 20%; month-to-month rates are higher. The free plan allows up to 5 apps. Starter and above unlock unlimited apps, in-app code editing, backend functions, model selection, a custom domain, and GitHub integration. Confirm current pricing at base44.com/pricing.

Getting Started

Step 1: Create an account

Go to base44.com. The free plan needs no card.

Step 2: Describe the app

Say what it does, who uses it, and what data it holds. Base44 designs the data model from this, so vagueness here is expensive later.

Step 3: Review the entities

Check the generated schema before building on it. Schemas are unenforced, which is convenient early and unhelpful once data is inconsistent.

Step 4: Configure auth

Pick the sign-in methods you want. Set row-level and field-level authorization rules before anyone else has access.

Step 5: Add logic

Write Deno serverless functions in TypeScript for anything the generator cannot express.

Step 6: Publish

Deploy, and attach a custom domain on a paid plan.

Best Practices

• Budget integration credits separately from message credits. Runtime cost scales with your users, not your building.
• Set authorization rules early. Retrofitting field-level rules onto live data is unpleasant.
• Export to GitHub anyway, even knowing the backend does not come with it. Frontend history is better than none.
• Do not rely on schema enforcement. There is none. Validate in functions.

Limitations

• Partial code export, and therefore real lock-in. GitHub export covers frontend code. Database queries, auth, business logic, and API endpoints stay behind the Base44 SDK. This is the single most consequential constraint, and it is reported by independent reviewers rather than documented officially.
• Integration credits create ongoing runtime cost. A successful app costs more to run than an unsuccessful one, in credits rather than servers.
• Credits do not roll over. Unused allowance evaporates each cycle.
• No enforced schemas. Convenient during prototyping, a source of dirty data afterwards.
• Export and GitHub integration are paid-plan features, and were still in beta on most plans through mid-2026.
• Acquisition risk. Wix has committed to Base44 as a distinct product. Commitments of that kind have a shelf life.

Alternatives

• Lovable - Full code export; Supabase as a service you own
• Bolt - Browser-native environment, terminal access, React Native output
• v0 - Next.js and shadcn/ui, with Git workflows
• Replit Agent - Autonomous builds with a self-testing loop

Community & Support

• Website: base44.com
• Docs: docs.base44.com
• Blog: base44.com/blog
• Discord: Community server
• X: @Base44