Emergent vs Base44
Emergent and Base44 side by side: what each one is, what it costs to start, and whether you can try it free. Everything below comes from the vendors' own sites and other public sources, not from hands-on testing.
At a glance
| Emergent | Base44 | |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Code & Dev Tools | Code & Dev Tools |
| Starting price | Free; paid plans from $17/mo (checked October 2026) | Free / $16+ (yearly) (checked October 2026) |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Profile | Read profile | Read profile |
Prices are in US dollars unless shown otherwise. Confirm the current price on the vendor's site before you buy.
Key differences
Both list a free tier, so you can try each before paying.
Base44 has the lower starting price ($16/mo against $17/mo for Emergent). The cheapest plan rarely has the same limits or features, so compare plans before choosing on price.
Both are in our Code & Dev Tools category.
About each tool
Emergent
AI platform that builds web and mobile apps from text prompts, with credit-based plans. A free plan exists; paid starts at $17 a month billed annually ($20 monthly).
Who it is for
The vendor says it is for everyone from complete beginners to experienced developers and that no coding experience is needed; its site also names small business owners, IT agencies, product managers and operations teams. Larger organizations can use the Business and Enterprise plans, which add access controls and administration features.
Strengths
- Emergent's pricing page lists a Free plan at $0 with 10 monthly credits, plus web and mobile builds and one-click LLM integration.
- Emergent says you own all the code it generates, and its site lists built-in production hosting with databases and APIs already set up.
- Emergent's docs list named connectors including Stripe, Twilio, SendGrid, Resend and Slack, and say the agent can connect other public APIs if you supply the API key. The pricing page lists GitHub integration from Standard.
- Emergent's security page says projects, chat logs, code and secrets are never shared with other users or used to train LLMs, and that data is encrypted in transit and at rest. The site shows SOC 2 and ISO 27001 badges.
- Emergent's pricing page lists role-based access control, single sign-on, shared team workspaces and real-time co-editing on Business, and audit logs, user-level credit limits and VPC deployment on Enterprise.
Limitations
- Publishing a live app costs 50 to 1,100 credits a month depending on the publishing tier, per the docs. Runtime LLM calls, background jobs and some connectors also use credits, and Maxx mode uses significantly more credits per prompt.
- Standard allows buying extra credits, but no price per credit was found on the pricing page or the docs pages read.
- Features such as the 1M context window, ultra thinking, system prompt edit, custom AI agents, high-performance computing and priority support are listed from Pro upward; private project hosting and GitHub integration are listed from Standard.
- The vendor's own pages differ on team pricing: the pricing page shows Business as custom pricing, while the homepage says teams start at $250 a month. The terms of service, privacy policy and refund terms could not be read.
Base44
AI app builder that creates web apps from text prompts, with a built-in backend, database and authentication. Free plan; Starter is $16 a month billed annually ($20 monthly).
Who it is for
People building apps without writing code, and teams that want an app with a built-in backend and database. The pricing page also lists multi-user collaboration and an Enterprise tier with SSO.
Strengths
- A free plan with up to 5 apps, authentication, database functionality and analytics
- Every plan includes a built-in backend and database, a visual editor and cloud storage
- Starter and higher plans list unlimited apps, in-app code edits and custom domain connection
- Builder and higher plans list GitHub integration and AI model selection
Limitations
- Free plan: 25 message credits a month (capped at 5 a day) and 100 integration credits a month
- Pricing is credit-based. Message credits are used when building or editing; integration credits are used when your published app calls built-in services such as email, image generation or LLM calls
- Backend functions need the Builder plan or higher, per the help docs
- Base44 was acquired by Wix in 2025 (Globes, June 2025); we did not find a newer source on how it is run today
