Plenty of tools will build your app. Pikku Studio also lets you keep it.

Lovable, Base44 and Bubble build, host and back your app in one product, and real businesses run on them. Our bet is a different one: the whole app is ordinary code in your own repository, it can run on your own servers, and every release is clicked through as real users before your customers see it.

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make me an appan AI builderhosting includeddatabase includedall in oneone appscreenssign-indatabasechecked

Where they are better than us

A comparison worth trusting starts with what the other tools do well, and what we haven’t earned yet.

  • Lovable

    They design better, and real businesses run on them.

    Point them at an idea and the screens that come back are polished in a way ours aren’t yet. And “only good for prototypes” is simply wrong: plenty of live products with paying customers are built and hosted on Lovable.

  • Base44

    Everything arrives in one place, fast.

    Base44 puts the app, database, sign-in and hosting behind one prompt, with a testing agent and a security check in the same product. For someone who wants a working tool today, that is hard to beat.

  • Bubble

    Years of building without code.

    Bubble has been building real products visually for far longer than the AI tools, with a plugin marketplace and a big community. If you want to see and steer every screen and workflow yourself, it is mature in a way newer tools are not.

and who’s writing this

We are newer. You are never locked in.

Pikku Studio is a free app that runs on your own computer, with no account and without our cloud. Its source is open to read, and what it builds is standard code on the MIT-licensed Pikku framework. Put the finished app on your own servers or on Pikku Studio Cloud, and move between them whenever you like. The code your app is made of is ordinary code in your own repository, so there is no export step.

There is no category to squeeze into either. Accounts, payments, permissions, workflows and background jobs come with every app, so people build customer portals, internal tools and whole businesses on it.

What the others have that we don’t is time: more users, longer track records, bigger support desks and compliance paperwork already signed. Weigh that if something with customers on it is moving.

Five questions to ask before you build

The questions that decide whether an app is really yours. Each note under the table links to the page we read it on. Where their docs say nothing, we write “not documented” rather than guess.

  • Does it, out of the box
  • Partly, or you build it yourself
  • Not offered, or not documented
Five questions: Lovable, Base44, Bubble and Pikku Studio.
What a working business app needsLovableBase44BubblePikku Studio
Owning it
Take the whole app with youscreens, back end and database, as code you ownPartly1Partly2No3Docs
Run it on your own serverswithout the vendor in the wayPartly4No5No6Docs
Build and run it on your own computerno account needed, even offlineNo7No8No9Docs10
Your data in a standard databasethat you can open and export in fullPartly11Partly12Partly13Docs
Checked before it ships
Clicked through as real usersevery journey checked before customers see a releasePartly14Partly15No16Docs

The fine print, with the page each note came from

  1. 1Code syncs both ways to your own GitHub repository on every plan. Data and storage files are exported separately, and function code and secrets are moved by hand. docs.lovable.dev
  2. 2Code and backend definitions sync to GitHub on the Builder plan and up. Data does not come with them: ejecting copies the entity schemas to a new backend with an empty database. docs.base44.com
  3. 3Its manual says apps can only run on Bubble and cannot be exported as code. Only your data can leave, as files. manual.bubble.io
  4. 4The front end can be hosted anywhere. The back end moves to your own Supabase by hand, moving to plain Postgres is not supported, and the editor stays theirs. docs.lovable.dev
  5. 5Not documented: their docs do not describe running the app, front end and back end, outside Base44. docs.base44.com
  6. 6Enterprise gets a dedicated instance, but Bubble manages it on its own AWS servers. manual.bubble.io
  7. 7The editor and the AI agent cannot be self-hosted: building happens in Lovable’s cloud. docs.lovable.dev
  8. 8Not documented as standalone. Local development asks you to log in to a Base44 account, and some features are forwarded to their servers. docs.base44.com
  9. 9Its manual says apps can only run on the Bubble platform. manual.bubble.io
  10. 10No account and no cloud. Fully offline needs a model running on your own hardware.
  11. 11A full export is available, up to 15 GB and once a day. Direct connection details are not documented. docs.lovable.dev
  12. 12Export is CSV, one table at a time. Their docs do not name the database or describe connecting to it. docs.base44.com
  13. 13Export as CSV, JSON or NDJSON. There is no documented SQL access to its own database; a connector reaches databases you run yourself. manual.bubble.io
  14. 14Browser testing runs when you ask for it. A quick security scan runs at publish. Automated tests at publish are not documented. docs.lovable.dev
  15. 15A testing agent runs when you ask for it, and its security check warns without blocking a publish. base44.com
  16. 16Not documented. Bubble has a manual development and live split and an issue checker that blocks a deploy; no automated user-journey tests. manual.bubble.io

Every claim comes with a way to check it

A comparison page is marketing, this one included. So here is how to check ours.

  • Watch the checks run on your own app.

    Every release shows its log: the code checks, the tests, and every journey clicked through as each kind of user. It is a log you can read, not a badge we award ourselves.

    How the checks work

  • Every tick in our column opens its docs page.

    Tap any mark in the Pikku Studio column and you land on the page that explains what ships, how it works and where its edges are.

    Browse the docs

  • There is no export step.

    Your app is ordinary code in your own repository from the first day: screens, a back end and a database layout. Read it before you have anything to lose.

    What a project contains

  • Read the source.

    The Pikku framework every app runs on is MIT licensed on GitHub, and all of Pikku Studio’s code is open to read. The one part that isn’t is the cloud hosting we run for you, and you never need it.

    Open the repository

The hard question: can you leave?

Credit first: Lovable and Base44 both sync your code with a GitHub repository you own, and Lovable does it on every plan. Base44 asks for its Builder plan or higher.

But code is not the whole app. Lovable’s back end and Base44’s backend run in their accounts, and the data leaves separately and by hand: Base44’s own guide says data is not copied when you move to a new backend. Bubble does not export the app at all. Its manual says apps run only on Bubble, and only your data can leave, as files.

Our answer is that there is nothing to take back. The screens, the back end and the database are standard code in your own repository from the first day, and they run on your own servers or on Pikku Studio Cloud. We would rather you could leave and chose not to. Test this claim first.

Build it once. Keep all of it.

Pikku Studio is free and runs on your own computer, with your own AI. Deploy to your own servers, or to Pikku Studio Cloud when you want us to run it.

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