Base44 vs Replit, and what your app needs once it’s live

On Base44, you describe the app in the AI chat and Base44 builds all of it, from the pages to the data model, sign-in and hosting. Discuss mode talks an idea through without changing the app, Edit mode lets you point at the element you want changed, and the visual editor handles text and layout by hand. Editing the source in the Code tab starts on Starter, and backend functions, for logic that runs on the server, start on Builder.

On Replit, you describe the app to Agent in the Project Editor and watch it build in a live preview. Agent is one tool in a full cloud workspace, with a file tree, a code editor and a shell beside it. Plan Mode turns an idea into a task list you approve before any code changes, and Full build lets Agent work with more autonomy. Both need Core, so the free Starter plan builds with Lite build, Replit’s fast, focused mode for quick edits and targeted changes. Agent also makes mobile apps, and from Core, slides, data visualisations and other kinds of project.

So the real difference is how close the code sits. Base44 treats it as something you might open one day. Replit treats it as the thing you’re making, with Agent doing most of the typing.

Both host your app, at an address of theirs to begin with. A Base44 app is live at a base44.app address from the moment you create it, and you can rename that address for free. Your own domain connects from Starter, with 301 redirects for pages you move. A Replit app gets a replit.app address when you publish it, and once it’s live, the Domains tab buys a domain or connects one you own, for whatever your domain provider charges. On the free Starter plan, the one published app goes down after 30 days and has to be republished.

Your data is where they differ most. Base44 builds a database into every app and keeps the data model, which it calls entities, managed in Base44. Even with GitHub sync the entities stay out of your repository, though each table on the Data page has an Export option and deleted records can be restored for 30 days. Replit gives your app a managed PostgreSQL database. The development database you build against is free, with 20 GiB of storage, and the production one is billed by use, up to 10 GiB a database. Pro stretches the window for restoring a database to 28 days, from the standard 7.

The code sits closer to hand on Replit. Base44 apps are React apps built with Vite. From Starter you can edit any file in the Code tab, and from Builder, two-way GitHub sync keeps a repository of your own up to date and lets you work on the code locally. On Replit, the code is what you see as you build. You can open any file, run commands in the shell, push to GitHub from the Git pane and download the whole project as a zip.

Once people use your app, the same questions arrive every day, and each one pulls you away from building. On Base44 you’d answer them with an agent that spends integration credits on every reply and, unless you open it to everyone, asks visitors to sign in first. On Replit you’d have Agent build a chat and then keep it running. Deacon answers them for you in seconds, at any hour, from your own docs and in the visitor’s language. Nobody has to sign in first. When your docs don’t cover a question, it says it doesn’t know rather than guess, and asks for the visitor’s email. You’re emailed when they leave one or ask for a person, and your reply from Deacon’s dashboard lands in their chat while it’s open.

Deacon’s answers come from its own plan, so a busy week spends none of your Base44 credits or your Replit credit, and nothing is billed past a Deacon plan’s answers. It gets better the more you answer. A question your docs missed gets an Answer this button, and what you write becomes part of what Deacon knows. Save & check then shows the reply Deacon now gives and how many other open questions your answer covers.

You also see what people need, not only how many came. Every conversation is saved and searchable by what visitors asked, and Topics group the questions, count the people behind each one and label most of them, as a bug report, a feature ask, a how-to and so on. That tells you what to ask Base44’s chat or Replit’s Agent to build next. The same script runs your website analytics, with visitors, sources, goals, funnels and the JavaScript errors people hit, and ranges up to all time. Base44 keeps 7 days on its free plan, and Replit’s ranges stop at 30 days.

It takes one script tag on either builder. On Base44, the tag goes in your app’s index.html, which Base44’s search guide names as the place for third-party scripts. From Base44’s Starter plan you paste it in the Code tab, and on Base44’s Free plan you ask the AI chat to add it. On Replit, copy the tag from Deacon’s Install page, paste it into the Agent chat and ask Agent to put it on every page. Then republish, because changes in the workspace don’t reach the live app until you do. List your base44.app or replit.app address, or your own domain, in Deacon’s allowed domains. Deacon and Base44 and Deacon and Replit have every step.

Pick Base44 if you want a working app without ever opening the code. The database, sign-in, hosting and analytics come with the first prompt, reading and writing data costs no credits, and an in-app agent can create and update records for your users. Your own domain comes with Starter, at $16 a month billed yearly, and your bill stays fixed, because the credits stop at zero rather than running on.

Pick Replit if you want the code in front of you from day one, or more than a web app. The files, the shell and Git sit beside Agent, Free Mode covers everyday building, and the same workspace makes mobile apps and runs scheduled jobs. Hosting and the database are billed by use, and Core carries on at pay-as-you-go rates when its credit runs out, so a launch-week spike doesn’t stop your app. Set a budget if you’d rather it did.

If you’d rather write the code yourself, in an editor on your own machine, Cursor alternatives is the place to start. Whichever you pick, Deacon goes on with one tag the day real people start using the app.