Bolt.new vs Devin Desktop
Pricing
Bolt.new: Free tier (1M tokens/mo), Pro $25/mo
| Plan | Price | Includes |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 1M tokens a month, 300K daily limit, Bolt branding on sites |
| Pro | $25/mo | 10M tokens a month with rollover, custom domain, no Bolt branding |
| Teams | $30/member/mo | Pro per member plus centralized billing and admin controls |
Prices checked on the vendor's page
Devin Desktop: Free tier, Pro $20/mo, Max $200/mo
| Plan | Price | Includes |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 1 member, light agent quota, limited models |
| Pro | $20/mo | 1 member, higher quotas, frontier and open-source models |
| Max | $200/mo | 1 member, significantly higher quotas than Pro |
| Teams | $80/mo plus $40 per seat | Up to 200 users, own quota per full seat |
Prices checked on the vendor's page
Description
Bolt.new: Build full-stack web apps in your browser by describing what you want, no local setup needed
Devin Desktop: AI IDE (formerly Windsurf) with an agent mode (Cascade) and a command center for running local and cloud coding agents across your project
Best for
Bolt.new: Non-technical founders who want to build and host a web app or site from a prompt in the browser.
Devin Desktop: Solo developers who want an AI editor that also runs local and cloud coding agents
Pros
- Zero setup: open a browser tab and start building
- Live preview updates as the AI writes code
- Supports React, Next.js, Astro, and more out of the box
- Cascade agent mode handles multi-file changes without hand-holding
- Agent Command Center lets you start, track and review several local and cloud agents from one board
- Free tier with unlimited Tab completions and inline edits, enough to evaluate before paying
Cons
- Free tier token limits mean you hit walls mid-project
- Browser-based means no access to native tools, local databases, or heavy computation
- Generated code can be messy and hard to maintain long-term
- Had a messy 2025: acquisition talks with OpenAI fell through, and talent split between Google and Cognition
- Smaller community means fewer tutorials and troubleshooting resources
- Context window can hit limits on larger projects
Details
Bolt.new runs a full Node.js environment inside your browser using WebContainers. You describe what you want to build, it writes the code, and you see a live preview instantly. No installing Node, no terminal, no VS Code, just a browser tab.
This is genuinely useful for prototyping. You can go from “I need a landing page with a waitlist form” to a working app in minutes. But the limitations show up when you try to build something complex: the free tier token limits are tight, and the generated code sometimes needs cleanup before it is production-ready. Think of it as a rapid prototyping tool, not a replacement for a real development setup.
Devin Desktop is the new name for Windsurf, the AI IDE that started as Codeium’s editor. It is now made by Cognition, the company behind the Devin coding agent. It still combines regular code completion with Cascade, an agent mode that can plan out multi-step tasks and execute them across your project. Tell it “add user authentication to this app” and it will create files, install packages, and wire things up.
The rename put an Agent Command Center at the front: a board where you run and review local and cloud agents, including Cascade, Codex and Claude Agent, while the full IDE stays available. Pro costs $20/mo and adds higher usage quotas, frontier models and Devin Cloud agents. The company had a turbulent 2025, when a $3B acquisition by OpenAI fell apart and talent ended up split between Google and Cognition, but the product now has a clear owner. If you want a capable AI IDE that can also manage several coding agents at once, it is worth trying.
Verified
