Base44 review (2026): what it builds, what the store app is, what the credits cover

The homepage headline is “Every builder needs a base”, with the line “Build your own apps, websites, products and AI agents on Base44 using your own words.” The site footer reads “© 2026 Wix.com Ltd. All rights reserved.” The Code tab documentation notes that “basic familiarity with React and JSX helps”, which fixes the front-end as React.

What the platform includes on the free plan, from the pricing page: “Authentication, database functionality, analytics” and “Up to 5 apps.” Paid plans add “In-app code edits”, “Connect a domain”, “AI model select”, and from Builder up “Github integration” and “Early access to beta features.” Backend functions are listed from Builder up in the billing documentation.

Two things the homepage does not say: it does not mention mobile apps or app stores, and it does not state ownership or export terms for the code. Both are covered in the documentation sections below, where the docs speak.

The page docs.base44.com/…/uploading-to-app-stores is the source for what the App Store and Google Play app is.

Architecture. “Your mobile app runs your published Base44 app inside a secure web view. This is a lightweight native wrapper around your web app that opens only your app’s URL.” Updates you make in Base44 “also appear in your app without sending a new version to the Apple App Store or Google Play.”

Steps. Create your Apple and Google developer accounts; run Base44’s scan against the store guidelines; fix the flagged items in the AI chat; generate the IPA (iOS) and AAB (Android) files; submit them through App Store Connect and the Play Console. “Base44 helps you prepare your app for submission, but does not create or manage your developer accounts.”

Plan gate. “You can run the scan to prepare your app for stores on the Free plan, but to download the files for app submission you must be on the Builder plan or higher.” Builder is $40 a month billed annually on the pricing page.

Push notifications. Supported, with setup: “You turn them on in the same window where you generate your store files, then upload credentials from your Apple Developer account or your own Firebase project.” Existing installs receive push “after you generate new app files and submit an updated version.”

Stated limits. “Full offline mode and HealthKit are not supported yet.”

Digital purchases. “Apple and Google require their own billing systems for digital content. If your app uses Stripe for digital content, your app is rejected.” The documented workaround is to sell on the web version and have the app check payment status.

Native app vs web app sets out what a web view can and cannot reach on the phone; the short version is that the app is one web page rendered in a browser component, so camera, files and notifications go through what the wrapper exposes, and screens do not use SwiftUI or Jetpack Compose components.

Two meters run at once. Message credits are “used when you interact with Base44’s AI while building apps.” Integration credits are “used whenever your app uses Base44’s built-in services, such as sending an email, generating an image, running an LLM call.” The second meter runs while your users use the app, not only while you build it.

The cost of a message is not fixed; the documentation says it “is worked out after each message runs.” Expiry is stated plainly: “Unused monthly credits expire at the end of your credit cycle and do not carry over to the next month.” Paid credits “reset monthly on your reset date, which is the same day of the month you subscribed.” When message credits run out, “you cannot send new messages in the AI chat until you have message credits again”; the pricing page says “you can top up at any time.”

For planning: count the edits, not the features. A twentieth spacing change and a fifth retry on a failing flow each cost a message; the free plan’s 25 monthly message credits cover a first prototype, not iteration.

“GitHub 2 way sync requires the Builder plan or higher.” The documentation describes the sync as two-way: “Connect your app to GitHub to write code in your local development environment or in Base44 and keep them in sync with each other.” Local development “starts a local Base44 backend and your frontend dev server together”; the base44 dev --remote command runs “against your app’s live hosted backend.”

What this means for leaving: the React front-end can live in your GitHub repository from Builder up; the backend — database, authentication, functions, integrations — is Base44’s service, run locally through Base44’s tooling or against Base44’s hosting. Neither the homepage nor the GitHub page states code-ownership or export terms in so many words; the mechanism that is stated is the sync. The code-export guide lists export terms across builders plan by plan.

The workspace documentation lists five roles. Owner: “Has full control over the whole workspace, including billing, members, settings, apps, and credits.” Admin: manages members and settings, Enterprise plans only. Editor: creates and edits the apps they are invited to. Viewer: “Views only the specific apps they are invited to. Cannot edit apps, use the AI chat, or access most of the app dashboard.” Guest: invited to specific apps.

Seats are not priced separately: “Everyone you invite uses the workspace’s shared plan and credits. They do not need their own paid plan to access what you give them in your workspace.” Access is per app: “you need to invite them as a collaborator on each app you want them to access.” Seat limits per plan are not stated on the pages we read. Because every editor draws from the same credit pool, a team’s iteration rate is bounded by the workspace’s monthly credits, not by headcount.

Base44 fits a person or team building a web product — an internal tool, a portal, a marketplace, a content app — who wants database, authentication, hosting, payments and a store listing from one platform, and whose phone app can be the same web app inside a wrapper. The updates-without-resubmission property is a real operational advantage for content-driven apps.

Look elsewhere if the phone app needs full offline mode or HealthKit (listed as not supported), the platform’s own UI components and navigation, or a codebase an iOS or Android developer can open in Xcode or Android Studio. A web view renders one page; it does not produce Swift or Kotlin.

The native route, stated briefly: Modaal is a Mac app; the coding agent you already pay for — Claude Code, Codex, Gemini, Copilot or Cursor — writes a plan you approve, then real Swift and SwiftUI for iPhone and Kotlin and Jetpack Compose for Android from one project; the result is an Xcode project and an Android Studio project in Git on your Mac. There is no credit meter; the free plan is one project on one platform with unlimited prompts; Pro is €9 per user per month billed annually (€15 monthly) for both platforms and store distribution — pricing. It requires a Mac and does not host a backend for you; you connect the backend you choose. The cheapest way to build a mobile app sets out the cost routes; the no-code mobile builders guide covers the other wrapper and PWA builders by what they output.