Build an App Online Free in 2026: What's Actually Free

Can You Really Build an App for Free?

Yes, but "build" and "publish" are two different things.

Building for free is easy. Almost every tool below lets you make something without paying.
Publishing a web app for free is possible, with limits. Base44, Lovable, Bolt, and Google AI Studio can put your app online at no cost, on an address the tool owns.
Publishing to the App Store or Google Play is never fully free. Apple charges US$99 per membership year and Google charges a one-time US$25. Most tools also ask for a paid plan before they will prepare a store release.
Some well-known free plans stop before launch. Bubble and Glide free apps cannot go live. Appy Pie has no free plan at all, only a 7-day trial.

If you search for a "free app builder," check one thing first: can other people open your app without you paying? This guide answers that question for each tool.

How we made this comparison: we read official pricing pages and documentation on 2026-11-01. We did not test these tools ourselves for this article. Where an official page was silent, we say "not stated." That does not mean the feature is missing. Plans change often, and some pricing pages show local prices depending on where you are, so check the price in your own country before paying.

Quick Pick: Where to Start

What you want	Start with	Expect to pay
A web app people open with a link	Base44 or Lovable. Google AI Studio if your account qualifies	$0 on the tool's own address
A phone app in the stores	MIT App Inventor if you can learn blocks. FlutterFlow or Thunkable if you want more help	Store fees, plus a paid plan on most tools
An internal tool for your team	AppSheet to test with your team, Softr for a very small group	Testing is free. Team rollout usually costs money
To learn how apps work	MIT App Inventor, then Replit	$0 to learn

Not sure which you need? Choose a web app. It works on phones through the browser, needs no store account, and costs less. You can move to the stores later if people really use it.

Comparison Table: Free Plans at a Glance

"Publish free" here means other people can use your app without you paying the tool. All prices are in US dollars per month unless noted.

Tool	Publish free?	App stores?	Export code?	Paid plans from
Base44	Yes, on base44.app	Yes, from Builder. Wrapper around a web app	GitHub sync from Builder	$16 yearly billing, $20 monthly billing
Lovable	Yes, on lovable.app	No native apps	Git sync on all plans. Download needs Pro	$25, or $250/year
Bolt	Yes, on bolt.host	Through Expo, outside Bolt	ZIP download	$25
Google AI Studio	Yes, up to 2 apps, eligible accounts only	Android internal test track only	ZIP and GitHub	No monthly fee. Paid use needs at least $5 prepaid
Replit	1 app. Link goes down after 30 days	App Store yes. Google Play no	ZIP and GitHub	$20, or $18 yearly billing
v0	Yes, to Vercel. Vercel Hobby is non-commercial	Not stated	GitHub sync on all plans	$30 per user
MIT App Inventor	Makes app files. Web hosting not stated	Yes, with your own developer accounts	Not stated	Free, no paid plan
FlutterFlow	Yes, on a FlutterFlow subdomain	Yes, from Basic	From Basic	$39
Adalo	Official pages conflict	Yes, from Builder	Code viewing only. Full export unconfirmed	$65
Thunkable	Not stated	Yes, from Builder	Not stated	$18 yearly billing, $19 monthly billing
AppSheet	No. 10 test users only	Yes, needs Core or Publisher Pro	Not stated	$5 per user
Softr	Not ruled out. 5 app users	Not stated. PWA on Business	Not stated on pricing page	$19, billing period unconfirmed
Bubble	No	Yes, on paid mobile plans	No	$32 yearly billing, $39 monthly billing
GlideOS	No, 0 published apps	Not stated	Unclear	$25
Glide Classic	No	No, PWA only	Not stated	$19 yearly billing, $25 monthly billing
Figma Make	Only if also published to Figma Community	Not stated	Full and Dev seats	$16 per Full seat, billing period unconfirmed

NxCode, our own product, is not in this table because it has no free build plan. It has its own section further down.

Terms to Know Before You Choose

Web app: an app that opens in a browser from a link. Nothing to install.
PWA (progressive web app): a web app that can be added to a phone's home screen. It is still not a store listing.
Native app: an app that people install from the App Store or Google Play.
Wrapper: a small native app that shows your web app inside it. This is what Base44 means by a "lightweight native wrapper."
Subdomain: an address under the tool's name, such as myapp.base44.app. A custom domain means your own address, such as myapp.com.
Credits or tokens: the allowance for AI work. Each request uses some, and each tool counts differently.
Export code: taking the app's source code with you, so you are able to run it somewhere else.

AI Builders That Can Publish for Free

You describe the app in plain language and the tool builds it. These are the easiest place to begin if you cannot code.

Base44

Free plan: 25 message credits a month, at most 5 a day, and up to 5 apps. The pricing page says you can ship complete apps on it. Apps get a myapp.base44.app address, and login, a database, and analytics are built in.
Where it stops: custom domains and removing the Base44 badge start on Starter. GitHub export and payments start on Builder ($40/month billed yearly). Base44's own payment option is limited for now to the US, UK, Germany, and the Netherlands. Store publishing also needs Builder, and the result is a wrapper around your web app.
Good for: a first web app that needs accounts and saved data. Wix bought Base44 in June 2025, and it still runs as a separate product.

Lovable

Free plan: 5 build credits a day, capped at 30 a month. If you use all 5 daily, you run out on day 6. Publishing to lovable.app is included, along with a hosted database, login, and file storage. See plans and credits.
Where it stops: you need Pro ($25/month) to download or edit code, connect a custom domain, or remove the "Edit with Lovable" badge. Git sync is available on every plan. Lovable says it builds web applications and does not generate React Native projects, so it makes no native app. You can make a PWA, or wrap the app with outside tools such as Capacitor. Free apps may also be unpublished after 12 months if several conditions are met together, including no visits and no owner login.
Good for: web apps where small, careful changes are enough. The monthly cap is tight for large projects.

Bolt

Free plan: 1M tokens a month, at most 300K a day, with publishing to bolt.host. Bolt says "Free forever, no card required." See Bolt pricing.
Where it stops: custom domains and removing the "Made in Bolt" badge need a paid plan. Free hosting includes 10 GB of bandwidth a month. Go over it and the site goes offline for the rest of the month, and you cannot buy more on the free plan. For the stores, you download the code and use Expo's EAS command line, which is a developer task done outside Bolt.
Good for: people who want a ZIP copy of their code from the start.

Google AI Studio

Free plan: usage is free unless you link a paid API key. The Starter Tier deploys up to 2 full-stack apps to Cloud Run with no billing account. It can also set up Firebase sign-in and a database for you.
Where it stops: not every account qualifies. Workspace accounts, accounts with past paid Cloud billing, and accounts with too little activity do not. Build mode limits are not published. For Android, AI Studio only reaches the Play internal test track, with up to 100 testers. A full release is done by hand in Play Console. iOS is not mentioned.
Good for: a personal Google account holder who wants a free app with ZIP and GitHub export.

Replit

Free plan: daily Agent credits (the numbers are not published), Lite builds only, a built-in database, and 1 published app. See the Starter plan.
Where it stops: the official wording is "This published link will automatically go down after 30 days." You can publish again, but it is not a stable address for real users. The "Made with Replit" badge goes away on Core ($20/month). Replit can publish to the App Store but says Google Play is not yet supported. The plan needed for App Store publishing is not stated.
Good for: learning and short demos.

Tools for Phone Apps

MIT App Inventor

Free plan: everything. The site says it "is free and runs right in your browser," and there is no paid plan. You build with drag-and-drop blocks and export an .apk or .aab file.
Where it stops: you still pay for developer accounts. iOS builds need an Apple Developer account, a certificate, and a provisioning profile. Web output is not stated. This is an education tool, so expect to learn instead of describing your app in a sentence.
Good for: students, teachers, and anyone who wants an Android app without a tool subscription.

FlutterFlow

Free plan: 2 projects, 5 AI generations (lifetime, not monthly), and web publishing to FlutterFlow subdomains. Details are in the plan comparison.
Where it stops: code download, APK download, removing branding, and one-click store deployment all start on Basic ($39/month). Custom domains need a paid plan. Since 2025-09-18, free accounts can edit only 2 chosen projects. The rest are archived, and their published apps stay online but cannot be updated.
Good for: people ready to spend time on a visual builder and who want a store app with code they can take away.

Adalo

Free plan: 5 Ada AI prompts a month, one free app build, unlimited test apps, and 500 records per app. No credit card is needed.
Where it stops: Adalo's pages disagree. Its pricing page lists publishing to the stores and web under Builder ($65/month). Its web app page says you can publish on an Adalo subdomain for free, but that page still uses an old plan name and may be out of date. Treat free web publishing as unconfirmed. Builder includes 2 published apps and creates native IPA and AAB files.
Good for: people who want a drag-and-drop tool that makes native files and accept the $65 monthly plan.

Thunkable

Free plan: 2,000 AI tokens, 3 public projects, and 5 screens per project. There are no private projects, so your work is public on this plan.
Where it stops: free publishing is not stated. Thunkable's blog says generating is free and store publishing starts on Builder, at $37/month billed yearly or $59 billed monthly, with 1 live app. Test downloads expire after 72 hours. If your subscription ends, published apps stop working for your users. See pricing. The blog also says Thunkable is not the right choice if you need to export source code.
Good for: small mobile experiments before paying for one store app.

Tools for Internal Business Apps

AppSheet

Free plan: a prototype with no time limit and up to 10 test users. This Google product builds from Sheets or Excel, and Gemini can generate from a description. See AppSheet pricing.
Where it stops: deploying to your team needs a paid plan, from $5 per user a month. A store release needs AppSheet Core ($10 per user) with at least 10 licenses, or Publisher Pro ($50 per app) if the app needs no sign-in.
Good for: a team that already keeps its work in a spreadsheet.

Softr

Free plan: 5 AI credits a month, unlimited apps and databases, 5 app users, and 5K records. Softr now has its own database and more than 40 data integrations, so you no longer need Airtable.
Where it stops: the 5-user limit is the real wall. Its pricing page does not say free apps are blocked from publishing, but 5 users is too few for a public app. A custom domain starts on Basic ($19), and removing Softr branding on Pro ($99). An installable PWA is on Business ($329). Native store listing is not stated.
Good for: a small client portal or team tool. Before you add real customer records, read our client portal security guide.

Glide: Now Two Separate Products

Glide split in two, and older articles often mix them up. GlideOS is a separate product from Glide Classic, with its own subscription. Data does not move between them, and there is no migration tool yet.

Glide Classic (spreadsheet-based): the free plan has 1 editor, up to 10 personal users, and 25,000 rows. It cannot publish. Free apps run only inside the Glide builder. Glide also does not support App Store or Google Play publishing, as apps are PWAs. Explorer costs $19/month billed yearly, or $25 billed monthly.
GlideOS (AI-generated, mainly for business apps): the free plan has limited credits (the number is not public), 2 members, and 10 projects, but 0 published apps. Publishing starts on Basic ($25/month), and public apps start on Plus ($50/month).
Good for: free planning and testing only. Budget for a paid plan before you promise anyone an app.

Free to Try, but Not for a Free Launch

Bubble

Free plan: 50K workload units a month, 1 app editor, and 0 mobile builds. You can learn and build as much as those limits allow.
Where it stops: the manual says "A paid plan is necessary for deploying a live version of your app." Web plans start at $32/month billed yearly or $39 billed monthly, and mobile plans at $42 or $49. The manual says apps run only on Bubble and cannot be exported as code. User data can be exported as CSV or through the API.
Good for: people who want to invest time in a detailed visual tool and will pay to launch. New apps can try Starter free for 14 days if the trial starts within 10 days of creating the app.

Figma Make

Free plan: on Figma's Starter plan, 150 AI credits a day, up to 500 a month, shared across Figma products.
Where it stops: "Starter plans can only publish to the public web if they also publish to the Figma Community." In other words, your file also goes on Figma's public community. Code export is listed for Full and Dev seats, and what Starter users get is not stated. You can add a backend, but the Supabase option is for Professional or Organization teams.
Good for: designers already working in Figma. A Full seat on Professional is listed at $16/month.

Tools We Removed or Moved

Some tools that appear on older lists, including earlier versions of this article, no longer fit.

Appy Pie (moved out): it has no free plan, only a 7-day trial for personal, non-commercial use. Basic costs $16 per app a month and covers Google Play and PWA only. App Store publishing needs Platinum at $60 per app a month. Removing Appy Pie branding is an add-on at twice your plan's price.
Flipabit (removed): on 2026-11-01 its site returned a server timeout (HTTP 522), so we could not read its current plans. That does not prove it has closed, but we will not list prices or features we could not check.
Firebase Studio (not for new users): it is shutting down. New workspaces and signups ended on June 22, 2026, and the service closes on March 22, 2027.

Three other tools are worth knowing about, but are not first picks for this reader:

v0: 7 messages a day, plus a one-time $5 in credits for new users. Apps deploy to Vercel, but Vercel's Hobby plan is for personal, non-commercial use. A business app needs Vercel Pro at $20/month.
Carrd: 3 single-page sites for free with "Made with Carrd" shown. Pro starts at $9 a year. It makes websites, not apps, but it may be all you need for a simple sign-up page.
Webflow: free publishing to webflow.io with 2 static pages and a "Made in Webflow" badge. Its paid site plans start at $15/month billed yearly. It is a website builder first.

If You're Willing to Pay a Little: NxCode (Our Own Product)

This section is about our own product, so read it with that in mind.

NxCode is not a free app builder. The pricing page lists three plans: Lite at $5/month, Pro at $20/month, and Enterprise.

What a free account gets: 15 conversation rounds a day to plan your app with AI, and possibly a small number of static previews. You will not get a built, deployed app on this account.
What needs a subscription: the actual build and deployment. Lite includes 3 deployments and Pro includes 10.
Check before choosing Lite: project export and "No watermark" are listed under Pro on the pricing page.
App stores: NxCode's Studio page lists web apps and PWAs. It does not mention store publishing, so choose another tool if a store listing is your goal.

It may fit if free credits keep running out and you want a low monthly cost for a web app. If $0 is the requirement, start with the free tools above.

What Publishing to the App Store and Google Play Really Costs

Store fees go to Apple and Google, and no app builder can remove them. You pay them on top of any plan.

Item	Cost	What to know
Apple Developer Program	US$99 per membership year	Prices may vary by region and are shown in local currency when you enroll
Apple fee waiver	Waives the fee for eligible groups	For nonprofits, accredited schools, and government bodies. Individuals, sole proprietors, and one-person companies do not qualify
Free Apple account	$0	Test on your own devices only: 3 devices, and the profile expires in 7 days. You cannot distribute your app
Google Play developer account	US$25, one time	Paid once when you register

Google has one more requirement that surprises many first-time publishers. Personal accounts created after November 13, 2023 must run a closed test with at least 12 testers, for 14 days in a row, before applying for production release. Line up your testers before you plan a launch date.

Here is what each tool asks for on top of those fees:

Tool	Plan needed for stores	Plan price
MIT App Inventor	None	$0
Appy Pie	Basic for Google Play, Platinum for App Store	$16 or $60 per app a month
Thunkable	Builder	$37/month billed yearly, $59 billed monthly
FlutterFlow	Basic	$39/month
Base44	Builder	$40/month billed yearly
Bubble	Mobile Starter	$42/month billed yearly, $49 billed monthly
Adalo	Builder	$65/month
AppSheet	Core with at least 10 licenses, or Publisher Pro	$10 per user a month, or $50 per app a month
Replit	Not stated. App Store only	Not stated

Using MIT App Inventor, the lowest store cost is $25 for Google Play alone. For both stores, the first year costs $124 by our addition ($25 + $99), and Apple's fee repeats each membership year.

How to Build Your First App in 5 Steps

You can follow these steps with any AI builder above.

Step 1: Write the app in one sentence. Say who uses it and the one job it does. Then list no more than three screens. Here is an example prompt:

Build a simple order tracker for a small shop. Staff can add an order with customer name, item, and price, mark it as paid or delivered, and see today's orders on one screen. It must work well on a phone.

Step 2: Decide between a link and a store. A link means a web app, and you can start for $0. A store means account fees and, in most cases, a paid plan. Use the Quick Pick table at the top to choose one tool, then stay with it for your first project.

Step 3: Build the smallest working version. Skip login, payments, and design polish on day one. Ask for one change at a time, such as "add a search box that finds orders by customer name." Small requests are easier to check and undo, which matters on plans like Lovable's 5 credits a day.

Step 4: Test it with fake data. Open it on your own phone. Then watch three real users try it without help, and note where they get stuck. Only use made-up names and orders at this stage. If the app will hold real personal data, go through our security checklist first.

Step 5: Publish and keep a copy. Publish on the free address and share it with your first users. Export your code or data if your plan allows it. Pay for a custom domain or a higher plan only after people are coming back.

Example Scenarios: Three Common Starting Points

Example 1: A sign-up app for a community event. You need a link, a form, and a guest list. Base44 or Lovable can publish this for free. If you only need a single page with basic details, Carrd may be enough. Cost: $0, with the tool's badge showing.

Example 2: An order tracker for a six-person shop. AppSheet lets all six people test it, since the free limit is 10 test users. If you then deploy it, you pay per user from $5 a month. Softr's free plan would not work here, because it stops at 5 app users.

Example 3: A school project Android app. MIT App Inventor costs nothing, and you can share the .apk file with classmates directly. Google Play is optional. It adds the $25 fee and, for a new personal account, the test with 12 people over 14 days.

Common Pitfalls of Free App Builders

Your data and code may not leave with you. Before you build anything serious, check the export column in the table. Bubble apps cannot be exported as code. GlideOS and Glide Classic do not share data. If leaving would mean rebuilding, that is a real cost even if the plan is free.

Badges and branding stay on. Lovable, Bolt, Replit, Base44, and FlutterFlow all show branding on free apps. That is fine for a test, but you may want to remove it for a business. Check the price of removing it before you commit. Softr removes branding only from Pro ($99), and Appy Pie charges twice your plan's price.

Credits can run out mid-project. Lovable's 30 monthly credits can end on day 6. Base44 allows 5 messages a day. FlutterFlow's 5 AI generations never renew. v0's $5 for new users is a one-time grant. If you run out, your app may stay half-finished until the next reset or until you pay.

Free can mean public. Thunkable's free projects are public. Figma Make requires a Figma Community post for public web publishing. Do not put private business ideas or client details in these projects.

Free can mean non-commercial. Vercel Hobby is for personal, non-commercial use. Appy Pie's trial is too. Read the terms before you charge customers.

Your app can go offline. Replit's free link ends after 30 days. Bolt's free site goes offline for the month if it passes 10 GB. Thunkable apps stop working for users when a subscription ends.

Platforms can close. Firebase Studio is the clearest example. New signups ended on June 22, 2026, and the service closes on March 22, 2027, after which its data is permanently deleted. Existing workspaces can move to Google AI Studio or Google Antigravity, and apps already deployed to Firebase keep running. If you ignore the dates, you lose your work. The risk is lowest when your code is in your own GitHub account and your data is exported regularly.

Before you publish, use this short checklist:

Can I export my data today?
Can I export my code on this plan?
Which limit will I hit first: credits, users, records, or bandwidth?
Does the free plan allow commercial use?
Does the app stay online if I stop paying?
Is my project public?

FAQ

Can I really build an app online for free?

Yes, but building and publishing are two different things. Most tools let you build for free. Base44, Lovable, Bolt, and Google AI Studio can also put a web app online for free at an address they own. Bubble and Glide cannot: their free plans stop before going live. An app in the App Store or Google Play is never fully free, because Apple and Google charge their own account fees.

Which free app builder lets me publish without paying?

For a web app, Base44 publishes to base44.app, Lovable to lovable.app, Bolt to bolt.host, and Google AI Studio to Cloud Run for up to 2 apps if your account qualifies. Replit also publishes one app, but the free link goes down after 30 days and you must publish it again. All of these use the tool's own address, and most show a badge.

Can I put a free app on the App Store or Google Play?

Only if you pay the store account fees, and with most tools a paid plan as well. MIT App Inventor is free and can produce files for Google Play and an App Store upload, but you need your own developer accounts. FlutterFlow, Thunkable, Adalo, Base44, and Bubble all need a paid plan for store publishing.

How much does it cost to publish on the App Store and Google Play?

The Apple Developer Program is US$99 per membership year, and the price can vary by region. A Google Play developer account is a one-time US$25. New personal Google Play accounts must also run a closed test with at least 12 testers for 14 days in a row before applying for production release.

Will my free app have a watermark?

Usually, yes. Lovable, Bolt, Replit, and Base44 show their own badge on free apps, and FlutterFlow keeps its branding on the free plan. Removing it needs a paid plan on each of these tools.

Can I take my app and data with me if I leave?

It depends on the tool. Replit and Bolt offer a ZIP download. Lovable offers Git sync on all plans, but downloading code needs Pro. FlutterFlow code download starts on Basic, and Base44 GitHub sync starts on Builder. Bubble's manual says apps run only on Bubble and cannot be exported as code, though user data can be exported as CSV.

Do I need a credit card to start?

Not always. Adalo and Bolt state that their free plans need no card. Google AI Studio's Starter Tier needs no billing account. Softr says its trial needs no card. The other tools did not state this on the pages we read.

Is NxCode free?

No. NxCode is our own product. Its pricing page lists Lite at $5/month, Pro at $20/month, and Enterprise, with no free build plan. A free account gets 15 conversation rounds a day for planning with AI and may get a small number of static previews. Building and deploying need a subscription.

Sources

Checked on 2026-11-01. Plans change often, so treat these official pages as the authority for current limits.

Base44 pricing and app store upload guide
Wix press release on acquiring Base44
Lovable plans and credits, publish docs, and FAQ
Bolt pricing, Bolt FAQ, and Bolt Expo guide
Google AI Studio billing, deployment, and Android guide
Replit Starter plan, Replit Core plan, and mobile app docs
v0 pricing and Vercel fair use guidelines
MIT App Inventor, saving your app, and iOS builds
FlutterFlow plan comparison and pricing
Adalo pricing, web publishing page, and app store publishing page
Thunkable pricing and Thunkable blog on AI mobile app builders
AppSheet pricing and What is a branded app?
Softr pricing
Glide pricing (GlideOS), Glide Classic pricing, plan details, free plan publishing limits, and app store support
Bubble pricing, plans manual, and data ownership manual
Figma pricing, Figma Make FAQs, publishing a Make file, adding a backend, and Starter plan overview
Appy Pie pricing and iPhone app builder page
Firebase Studio docs and migration guide
Carrd Pro and Webflow pricing
NxCode pricing and NxCode Studio
Apple Developer Program enrollment, fee waiver, and membership comparison
Google Play registration fee and testing requirements for new personal accounts