Appsmith vs Bolt.new

Appsmith is an open-source low-code platform for building internal tools, created by a company with roots in Bangalore and San Francisco. Developers drag widgets such as tables, forms, charts and modals onto a canvas, connect them to databases and APIs, and write JavaScript anywhere for logic and data transformation. The result is admin panels, dashboards and approval apps built in hours instead of weeks.

The Community edition is open source and free to self-host with Docker or Kubernetes, which makes it attractive for teams with data residency or compliance requirements. The cloud Free plan suits small teams, while the per-user Business plan adds granular access control, Git-based version control with branching, workflows, audit logs and environments. Enterprise adds SSO, SCIM and dedicated support. Connectors cover Postgres, MySQL, MongoDB, REST, GraphQL, Google Sheets and many SaaS APIs, and AI features help generate queries and integrate LLMs into apps.

Appsmith is a strong fit for engineering teams that want Retool-style speed without vendor lock-in or per-seat costs that explode across large internal audiences. It has fewer components and a less polished UI than Retool, and self-hosting means you own upgrades and uptime. Budibase and ToolJet are the other open-source options; Retool remains the reference for polish and ecosystem.

Bolt.new is an AI app builder from StackBlitz, the San Francisco company founded in 2017 whose WebContainers technology runs Node.js entirely inside the browser. Bolt launched in October 2024, grew to an estimated $40 million in annual recurring revenue within months, and in January 2025 StackBlitz raised a $105.5 million Series B led by Emergence Capital and GV. Its core job: you describe an app, website or prototype in chat, and Bolt writes the code, runs it live in the browser and deploys it.

Bolt Cloud adds hosting, unlimited databases, authentication, custom domains and analytics, so small apps can ship without leaving the product. You can start from Figma, a GitHub repo or a template, connect Stripe for payments, and build mobile apps through Expo. Pricing is token-based: the free plan gives 1 million tokens a month with a 300,000 daily cap, Pro gives 10 million tokens with rollover and removes Bolt branding, Teams adds admin controls and shared capacity, and Enterprise is billed by consumption.

Bolt fits founders, designers and developers who want a working prototype or MVP in hours with real, exportable code. It is weaker on large, long-lived codebases: token usage grows with project size, and debugging loops can burn through allowances. Lovable and Replit target the same audience, Bubble and FlutterFlow are visual builders with their own runtime, and Softr fits simple internal tools.

Buying tip: start on the free plan to judge how fast your project consumes tokens; heavy users should take Pro annual, where unused tokens roll over.