been testing AI app builders on and off for a few months now. figured i'd share some notes since half the internet is just affiliate blog posts and nobody's being straight about this.

tools i tried: Lovable (lovable.dev), Bolt, and v0 by Vercel.

lovable ai

the UI generation is genuinely impressive. you describe what you want, it spits out a full working app with a frontend. it's the closest thing to "describe an app, get an app" that actually works. the issue is what happens after the first generation. the moment you want to customize anything non-trivial or hook it up to a real backend, you start fighting the tool. pricing starts at $20/mo i think, goes up fast if you need more generations.

bolt

similar concept. felt slightly more flexible on the code export side. but the generation quality was hit or miss for me. sometimes it nails the layout, sometimes it gives you something that looks like a bootstrap template from 2019. pricing is in the same ballpark.

v0

more focused on components than full apps. if you need a specific UI piece it's solid. less useful if you're trying to go from zero to deployed MVP. feels more like a design tool than an app builder.

my take: if you're a non-technical founder trying to get a prototype in front of investors, Lovable is probably your best bet right now. if you actually know how to code, the value drops off fast. you'll spend more time working around the tool's opinions than just building the thing yourself.

honest question for anyone using these: has anyone stuck with one past the initial prototype phase? or does everyone end up rewriting from scratch once the app gets real?