Bolt no-code review | Tech Radar

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You can generate your web app with a single prompt with Bolt... eventually.

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Bolt offers some good plans and its presentation is excellent, but in our comparison with other tools it seemed slower and went off-script, adding content that wasn’t specified in the prompt.

-Goes “off-script”, delivering features that are not specified

Goes “off-script”, delivering features that are not specified

-Far fewer AI tokens in free version than competing tools

Far fewer AI tokens in free version than competing tools

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No-code AI tools take a prompt in plain English (and other languages) and create a web app or other tool. Bolt is one such AI powered development platform, which launched in late 2024 and can create a web app based on your instructions without any need for coding tools or environment.

Various no-code development tools are currently available, but is Bolt able to compete with names like Replit and Base 44? To find out, we tested its no-code capabilities with a straightforward prompt, assessed its features and pricing, and compared it with the competition.

For more options, you can also take a look at our list of the best no-code platforms.

Bolt will generate a web app based on a prompt you enter. This can be an outline you have finessed elsewhere, or something developed within a threaded, iterative conversation with the AI.

Several plans are offered by Bolt, each with an expanding raft of features. The free plan gives you the facility to commence both public and private projects, with 300K tokens each day. These are used with each AI interaction, depending on the scale of the request. 1 million tokens are awarded at the start of each month, and this doesn’t roll over.

Bolt's free plan gives you website hosting (with Bolt branding) for a project and a 10MB file upload limit – useful for sharing UI designs, for example. Also on the free plan, you'll get unlimited databases and support for 333,000 web requests (visitors).

The Pro plan gives you 10 million tokens by default and removes the Bolt branding. You also get custom domain support. Additionally, unused tokens will rollover to the next month.

A Teams plan adds team-level access management, granular administration controls, centralized billing, internal sharing, and support for private NPM registries. The Custom plan for enterprise scale projects adds further features such as SSO, audit logs, compliance, custom workflows, data governance policies and a dedicated account manager for 24/7 support.

A cursory look at several no-code tools will reveal a pretty standardized user interface not dissimilar to Chat GPT, Gemini, or Claude, with a prompt box awaiting text input. Bolt does boast a far slicker UI than some of its competitors, making it immediately enticing.

Entering a prompt is simple, and the generation of a project is logged in the left-hand pane. It’s all very straightforward and intuitive, and consequently extremely easy to use. However, there is a potential barrier to getting the most out of Bolt.

This no-code platform requires a specific browser, either Google Chrome (or Chromium) Microsoft Edge, or Brave. It doesn’t work with Firefox, with any attempt greeted by the message “Your current browser doesn’t support key technologies that Bolt relies on.”

You might also wish to ensure the project is effectively managed by integrating a suitable tool.

Bolt has a number of options in this area, from database support with Supabase to error tracking with Sentry and AI meeting notes with Granola. Bolt’s creators have aimed to provide a tool for many eventualities, although it should be noted that Bolt doesn’t offer Stripe or Google authorization as connectors or integrations. Instead, these are available at the prompt level, by adding a phrase such as “Add Sign-In with Google to my application.”

In addition to the integrations, Bolt can be synced with Git Hub. This adds an important aspect to your project’s reliability, allowing the invitation of collaborators and for the code to be reviewed. Remember, this is a no-code platform, and while the projects it creates should work well, it doesn’t mean that the code is perfect. Having the option for Git Hub is useful, as it means you can take what is essentially a bootstrapped web app and polish it with the help of others.

Completed projects can be published via Bolt with two clicks. A subdomain is assigned for the project to run in. The option to host your project on a custom domain can also be configured at this stage.

To gain some understanding about how effective Bolt is for no code app generation, we conducted a test to see how it handled a clear prompt to create a web app.

The web app was conceived as a cryptocurrency calculator, designed to display live conversion prices for a trio of fiat currencies and whichever cryptocurrencies are provided via the chosen API. Two free API options are presented (Coin Gecko and Exchange Rate-API) which the AI should draw information from.

Build a tool that compares the price of a specific asset (like Bitcoin) against multiple fiat currencies simultaneously.

API Integration: Connect to a free API (like Coin Gecko or Exchange Rate-API).

Input Handling: A field where the user enters a "Budget" (e.g.,

1,000

Dynamic Calculation: A list or table that automatically updates to show how much of the asset that budget buys in USD, EUR, and GBP.

Toggle Switch: A "Dark Mode" or "Refresh" toggle to test UI state management.

Bolt’s results with this web app were good, but not without some caveats. First and foremost, it took a little over 5 minutes to complete the task. Other tools we’ve seen have been able to generate a web app from the prompt in under 90 seconds.

In addition, Bolt went off-script, over delivering on the physical currencies provided in the web app. The prompt specifies just three: USD, EU, GBP.

Deployment is one-click, however, which means you can have a live no-code web app published in just seconds. You can view the generated web app here: https://multi-currency-asset-sipu.bolt.host/

In scenarios where a lot of tokens are required, and multiple users require access to Bolt for no-code development or post-generation revision, there is the Teams plan. This is

30/month (working out at

27/month with annual billing), with a similar pricing structure for additional tokens.

Information about pricing or tiers for tokens isn't available for the Custom plan – this is aimed at enterprise-level businesses with more complex requirements.

Details about the plans and tokens can be found (along with other important information about Bolt) in the documentation. These are well written and seem to cover everything from creating a new project, editing it in your browser or opening it to collaboration on Git Hub to importing from competing platforms like Lovable.

If you searched for a list of AI no-code platforms, you would invariably come across Bolt. It is a strong option that stands out alongside the alternatives thanks to its striking user interface. However, we found faster and better no-code tools, such as Lovable, Hostinger Horizons, and Vercel v 0.

They all deliver faster and/or stay on-script when a single prompt is entered. As that is our benchmark, it is important to highlight that Bolt isn’t hitting it. But Bolt does have strengths compared with the alternatives, not least the swift deployment of a live web and heavy Git Hub integration.

However, we were impressed with the depth of Bolt's plans for large-scale teams.

Bolt is slow, and has fewer AI tokens than competing tools in free mode. These refresh daily, but are restrictive. The 300K tokens daily limit isn’t enough to explore revisions and there is no trial option where you can enjoy the features of the Pro plan.

On the puls side, Bolt offers an excellent set of documentation, which can prove invaluable in helping you to shape the idea for a web app into a working project with all the necessary authentication, payment, database, and other features.

I’ve enjoyed using Bolt’s intuitive collection of tools, but unfortunately it doesn’t deliver a no-code web app as effortlessly and quickly as many of the alternatives.

Christian Cawley has extensive experience as a writer and editor in consumer electronics, IT and entertainment media. He has contributed to Tech Radar since 2017 and has been published in Computer Weekly, Linux Format, Computer Active, and other publications. Formerly the editor responsible for Linux, Security, Programming, and DIY at Make Use Of.com, Christian previously worked as a desktop and software support specialist in the public and private sectors.

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News, deals, reviews, guides and more on the newest computing gadgets
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Unlock and manage exclusive Techradar member rewards
You can generate your web app with a single prompt with Bolt
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission