Base44 vs Cursor
Pricing
Base44: Free tier (5 messages/day), Pro from $25/mo
Cursor: Free tier, Plus $8/mo (Grok models only), Premium $30/mo, all excl. VAT
| Plan | Price | Includes |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | Limited agent and chat requests |
| Plus | $8/mo excl. VAT | Introductory plan, Grok models only, shared usage pool with Grok |
| Premium | $30/mo excl. VAT | 4x Plus usage, cloud agents, AI code reviews, third-party models at API price |
| Super | $100/mo excl. VAT | 15x Plus usage, priority model access at peak times |
| Ultra | $200/mo excl. VAT | 50x Plus usage, earliest access to new products and models |
Prices checked on the vendor's page
Description
Base44: Chat-based AI app builder that generates business apps with databases and auth (now owned by Wix)
Cursor: AI code editor (VS Code fork) that lets you talk to your codebase, autocomplete across files, and refactor with a prompt
Pros
- Generates complete working apps from natural language descriptions
- Built-in database, auth, hosting, and 20+ integrations (Stripe, Google APIs, etc.)
- No deployment step: apps are live immediately
- Feels like VS Code: your extensions and shortcuts just work
- Tab completions predict multi-line changes, not just single words
- Can reference your entire codebase when answering questions
Cons
- Free tier is extremely limited (5 messages/day, 25/month)
- Acquired by Wix in 2025. Product direction may shift toward Wix's ecosystem
- Less control over code and architecture than hand-built solutions
- Free tier runs out fast: expect to hit the paywall within a week of real use
- Sometimes confidently suggests wrong code, especially for less popular libraries
- Plans are bundled with Grok and X Premium since 2026: the $8 Plus plan allows Grok models only, and third-party models are billed separately by usage
Details
Base44 takes a different approach from most AI app builders: instead of writing code you can see, it generates complete applications through a chat interface. Describe what you need (“build me a task management app with user auth and Stripe billing”), and it creates the database, UI, backend logic, and authentication. Apps are live immediately with built-in hosting.
Wix acquired Base44 in 2025 for around $80 million, so expect the product to evolve toward the Wix ecosystem over time. The free tier is tight (5 messages per day), but enough to test whether the approach works for your use case. Best for internal tools, simple SaaS MVPs, and founders who want something working today rather than something architecturally perfect.
If you already use VS Code, Cursor is the shortest path to having AI actually understand your project. It does more than autocomplete: you can highlight code and ask “why is this breaking?” or tell it “add error handling to all API routes” and watch it edit multiple files.
The tab completions are the killer feature. They predict what you are about to type based on what you just did, and they are eerily good at continuing patterns. The free tier gives you a taste, but its agent and chat requests are limited and run out quickly. Since 2026 the paid plans are shared with Grok and X Premium: Plus at $8 a month allows Grok models only, Premium at $30 is the first plan with cloud agents and third-party models (billed separately by usage), and Super and Ultra at $100 and $200 add more usage. Keep an eye on your usage if you are doing heavy agent work. Anysphere, the company that makes Cursor, became part of SpaceX when SpaceX completed its acquisition on 14 August 2026.
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