Can I self-host an alternative to Lovable?

Yes — Bolt.diy, Cline, OpenHands all support self-hosting. Most ship as Docker containers and run on any VPS.

Bolt.new is open-source under MIT. You can self-host for free. Many also offer a hosted cloud option with a free tier and paid plans.

All alternatives

AI builders

Best Open-Source Alternatives to Lovable

Q: What is the best open-source alternative to Lovable?

The top open-source alternative to Lovable is Bolt.new: Bolt.new is the closest hosted Lovable competitor that's also generous with the free tier. Live in-browser preview powered by Stackblitz WebContainers, ships full Next.js / Vite / Remix / SvelteKit ap

Lovable is the AI full-stack builder that ships an entire app — frontend, auth, database, deploy — from a single prompt. People want open-source alternatives that run locally, BYO their own LLM keys, and let them fully own the generated code.

TL;DR — top pick

Bolt.new

github.com/stackblitz/bolt.new

All 4 alternatives ranked

Bolt.new

MIT★ ~14k

github.com/stackblitz/bolt.new

Bolt.new is the closest hosted Lovable competitor that's also generous with the free tier. Live in-browser preview powered by Stackblitz WebContainers, ships full Next.js / Vite / Remix / SvelteKit apps end-to-end. Less polished than Lovable on auth/DB scaffolding, but the free tier is wider and the open-source CLI version (bolt.diy) gives you full self-host control.

Pick Bolt.new if

You want Lovable-style "describe an app, get a full repo" but with a real free tier and an OSS escape hatch.

Skip if

You depend on Lovable's one-click Supabase + Stripe wiring — Bolt asks you to plug those in yourself.

Bolt.diy

MITSelf-hostable★ ~14k

github.com/stackblitz/bolt.diy

The fully open-source version of Bolt.new — run locally, BYO API key (Claude, GPT, DeepSeek, Ollama, Gemini, Mistral). No subscription, no usage caps. The most flexible alternative if you want full control over the model + generation pipeline. Slower than the hosted version because preview runs on your machine, but you own everything.

Pick Bolt.diy if

You want zero recurring cost, model choice freedom, or you're building inside an environment where data can't leave your network.

Skip if

You want one-click deploy / share — hosted Bolt or Lovable is much faster to ship.

Cline

Apache-2.0Self-hostable★ ~28k

github.com/cline/cline

Cline runs as a VSCode extension and can plan + execute multi-file app changes against any model (Claude Sonnet, GPT-5, local). Not a Lovable clone exactly — it doesn't do live-preview hosting — but for the "describe a full app, watch it build" workflow inside your real editor, it is the strongest free alternative.

Pick Cline if

You live in VSCode and want Lovable-like agentic generation without leaving your editor.

Skip if

You want the chat + live web preview UX Lovable offers — Cline is purely editor-side.

OpenHands

MITSelf-hostable★ ~40k

github.com/All-Hands-AI/OpenHands

OpenHands (formerly OpenDevin) gives you an autonomous coding agent in a sandboxed container — it can clone repos, edit files, run tests, deploy. Closest open-source spirit to what Lovable does behind the scenes. Heavier to set up than a SaaS, but the agent loop is genuinely impressive once running.

Pick OpenHands if

You want an autonomous agent that owns the whole build loop end-to-end and you're OK running Docker locally.

Skip if

You want a polished UI for non-engineers — OpenHands is built for developers comfortable with logs and Docker.