What is Lovable? How the AI app builder works

Lovable is an AI app and website builder. You describe what you want in a chat, in plain words, and it writes a working web app, with its pages, a database and sign-in, ready to publish to a link you can share. It’s a vibe coding tool, so you build by describing rather than by writing code. Its docs say you don’t need any coding experience.

You can start for free, and Pro is $25 a month for 100 credits, which pay for building and running your app. Lovable pricing goes through what they buy. We read Lovable’s docs, pricing page and blog for this page on 27 September 2026.

Deacon is ours, and it’s for what comes after you publish. It’s an AI customer support agent, made for founders who handle their own support. It answers your app’s visitors in seconds from your own docs, shows you what they asked and where they got stuck, and counts where they came from with the same script. You can try it on the free plan, with no card to enter and no end date.

How you build an app on Lovable

Every Lovable app is made the same way, in a loop Lovable’s docs call describe, refine, publish. Here is each step, under the name Lovable gives it.

1. Describe the app in the prompt box

On the dashboard, with Build picked in the mode picker, you describe the app in plain words, in any language. You can attach a mockup or a screenshot of a site you like, or remix one of Lovable’s templates instead of starting blank. The first version takes a few minutes. Then you’re in the editor, with the project chat on the left and a live preview of the app on the right.

2. Change it in the project chat, in one of three modes

Every change after that is a message in the project chat, sent in one of three modes. Build mode, previously called Agent mode, changes the app. Plan mode looks into your project and writes a plan you approve before any code changes, and Lovable suggests it for anything bigger than a tweak. Chat mode talks the app through without touching it. You can switch at any time, and the conversation carries across all three.

3. Lovable writes standard code

Lovable writes real code in standard frameworks. Projects started since 13 May 2026 use TanStack Start, a React framework that renders pages on the server, and older ones use React with Vite. Styling is Tailwind. Every change becomes a version in the project’s history, so you can go back to any earlier one.

4. The backend, on Lovable Cloud or your own Supabase

When a feature needs to store data, sign people in or keep files, Lovable turns on Lovable Cloud, its built-in backend, or asks you first. Cloud is built on Supabase’s open-source foundation. It gives your app a database, user accounts, file storage, secrets and backend functions, managed from inside Lovable and paid for from your credits. The other route is to connect a Supabase project you own, which Supabase bills you for directly. There’s no one-click move between the two, so Lovable’s docs say to decide early.

5. Edit by pointing, or in the code

For small changes, pointing is quicker than describing. The preview toolbar, on every plan, lets you select an element and say what to change, type over text in place, draw on the page or leave a comment. The Code tab shows every file Lovable wrote. Editing code there needs a paid plan, and on Free it’s read-only.

6. Sync the code to GitHub

Git sync links a project to a repository you own on GitHub, GitLab or Bitbucket, on every plan including Free. It works both ways. Lovable commits its changes to your repository, and commits you push to the synced branch show up in Lovable. So a developer can clone the code, work on it in their own editor and push the changes back. Downloading the code as a zip file needs a paid plan.

7. Publish, then add your own domain

Publish puts a snapshot of the app live on a lovable.app address, free on every plan and with HTTPS included. Each publish also runs a quick security scan. Changes you make afterwards stay in the preview until you click Publish changes, which Lovable calls the most common surprise for new users. A custom domain needs a paid plan, whether you buy it through Lovable or connect one you own. So does hiding the Lovable badge, which reads “Edit with Lovable” on your live app.

What people build with Lovable

Lovable says it’s used mostly for full-stack web apps. Its own list runs from SaaS products, internal tools and dashboards to CRMs, client portals, booking and marketplace apps, company websites, landing pages and AI apps such as chatbots. It also makes things that aren’t apps, such as pitch decks that present in the browser, generated images, short videos and PDF reports.

Lovable’s page for founders tells three stories. Yannis Karagiannidis couldn’t customise newsletters the way his marketing clients needed, so he built PrintPigeon, a small SaaS product that was live three days later. Tom Skyrme, a holistic health coach with no coding experience, built Elora Health for his clients in a month. Sabrine Matos, with no technical background, built Plinq to help women in Brazil look up public criminal records before meeting someone new.

When an app should earn money, Lovable’s built-in payments take subscriptions and one-off payments for digital products through Paddle or Stripe, from the Pro plan up. On Free, you connect your own Stripe account instead.

Where Lovable stops

Lovable builds web apps, and its own docs name the limits below.

• No native phone apps. Lovable doesn’t write React Native, a framework for native phone apps, and has no built-in way to put an app in the App Store or Google Play.
• No starting from existing code. For now, you can’t start a Lovable project from code you already have, on GitHub or anywhere else.
• Going back restores code, not data. Restoring an earlier version rolls back your code, but records added or deleted in the database since then stay as they are.
• No choice of model. Lovable picks the model behind Build and Plan mode and upgrades it for everyone, so there’s no setting to switch it.
• A live app needs credits. Publishing is free, but an app that uses Lovable Cloud or AI features needs credits in the workspace to keep serving requests.
• Security is still yours. Lovable’s scans catch common mistakes, and its docs say they don’t replace a thorough security review and that you’re responsible for your app’s security.

Who Lovable suits, and who it doesn’t

Lovable suits a founder who can describe the product but doesn’t want to write the code. You get a working web app with sign-in and a database, and Lovable says you can go from idea to live project in the same day. The code can sit in your own repository, ready for a developer later. Plans are priced by credits rather than seats, and every plan takes unlimited workspace members, so a co-founder or contractor adds nothing to the subscription.

It suits you less in a few cases.

If you want to work in the code yourself from the start, a coding agent fits better. Lovable vs Cursor and Lovable vs Claude Code set Lovable against two of them, and either can pick up the repository Git sync keeps.

If you need a native app in the App Store, Replit’s Agent builds native iOS and Android apps, and Replit vs Lovable compares the two builders.

If you’re still choosing a chat builder, Base44 also builds the whole app from your own words, with its backend and storage built in, and Base44 vs Lovable sets them side by side. Bolt makes apps and websites from a chat too, and Lovable vs Bolt weighs the pair. v0, from Vercel, deploys the apps it builds to Vercel, and Lovable vs v0 sets that against Lovable’s own hosting.

If credits are what’s pushing you away, Lovable alternatives goes through seven options, each set against a reason founders leave.

Who makes Lovable

Lovable has Swedish roots. Stockholm is its home, in its own words, and it’s expanding in London, Boston, San Francisco and New York. It began as GPT Engineer, an open-source project, and launched as Lovable in November 2024. Lovable says people have created more than 60 million projects on it since then, and in August 2026 it raised $400 million at a $13.3 billion valuation.

What happens after you publish a Lovable app

Once your app is live, people start using it, getting stuck and asking questions. Lovable’s own guide to building a real product says the fastest way to grow early on is a conversation with your users, not a feature. It suggests asking Lovable for a “Something wrong?” form that saves messages to your database, and letting what you see pick what you build next, such as a user getting stuck or the same request coming in twice.

Lovable’s Project analytics shows your visits, pages and where visits came from. It doesn’t answer the people who have a question, though, or count who asked what. You could ask Lovable to build a support chatbot, paid from the same credits you build with, and building a chatbot in Lovable covers what that takes.

Deacon on a Lovable app

Deacon answers your visitors for you, in seconds, at any hour and in the language they write in, from the docs and pages you give it. If your docs don’t hold the answer, it tells the visitor it doesn’t know instead of making one up, and asks for their email. You get an email when someone leaves an address or asks for a person, and your reply from Deacon’s dashboard shows up in their chat while it’s open.

It also does the listening Lovable’s guide asks for, with no form to build. Every conversation is saved and searchable. Topics group the questions, count the people asking each one and label most of them, for example as a bug report, a feature ask or a how-to, so the same request coming in twice becomes a number you can build from. Each question your docs missed waits with an Answer this button, and what you write becomes part of what Deacon knows, so it needs you less over time.

The same script counts your visitors, where they came from, your sign-up goals, your funnels and the JavaScript errors people hit, so there’s no second script to add. Its answers are counted on Deacon’s own plan, so your Lovable credits stay for building.

Adding Deacon takes one script tag, and Deacon and Lovable has the steps. Its free plan has every feature the paid ones have, with 50 answers a month and 1 seat, no card and no end date. Paid plans start at $50 a month, or $40 a month billed yearly. Nothing is ever billed past a plan’s answers, and no plan shows a “powered by” line.

Questions about Lovable

Is Lovable free?

Yes, to start. The Free plan gives you 5 build credits a day, up to 30 a month, plus 20 credits a month for hosting on Lovable Cloud and 4 for AI features inside your app. Lovable pitches it at trying Lovable out and building smaller projects.

Is Lovable good for beginners?

Yes. Lovable’s docs say it’s designed for every level of experience and you don’t need to code. Its quick start takes you from a first prompt to a live app in about ten minutes. Ask for one change at a time and check the preview after each, as Lovable advises. When something breaks, the Try to fix button has Lovable look into the error, and your account gets 10 free fixes, each available again 24 hours after you use it.

Do you own the code Lovable writes?

Yes. Lovable’s pricing FAQ says you own your code, the apps you build, the customer data stored in Lovable and the AI output you generate, subject to any third-party rights in the underlying AI models. Its docs add that you can host the app wherever you choose and export your database to move it elsewhere.

Can Lovable build a mobile app?

Not a native one. Lovable builds web apps that you can design to work well on a phone. To make one installable, Lovable suggests turning it into a progressive web app that people add to their home screen, or wrapping the published app in a tool such as Capacitor, outside Lovable, to submit it to the App Store or Google Play. The Lovable mobile app is for building your projects from your phone, not for turning them into phone apps.

Does Lovable train its AI on my projects?

It can, unless you turn it off. From 9 September 2026, Lovable may use prompts, code, project files and generated output from Free and Pro workspaces to train and improve its AI models. To opt out, turn off Use my Lovable content for model training in Account settings, under Preferences. Business and Enterprise workspaces are left out by default, and your app’s end-user data isn’t used.

Can I add Deacon to a free Lovable app?

Yes. Deacon runs on a lovable.app address as well as a custom domain, so a free Lovable plan is enough. Its replies count against Deacon’s own plan, 50 answers a month on the free one, and never against your Lovable credits.

Can Deacon answer questions about a user’s account in my app?

No. Deacon answers from your docs and declines questions about a visitor’s own account, invoices or data. Your app can pass details such as the visitor’s plan with Deacon.setContext(), and Deacon takes them into account when it answers.