Lovable vs Manus: pricing, features and which to choose

Lovable is a Stockholm-based AI software development company that launched in 2024. The service turns natural-language descriptions into web applications, with project files, hosted previews, publishing, backend services, and integrations in one workspace. Lovable says its plans support personal projects through enterprise deployments. Reuters reported a $330 million Series B at a $6.6 billion valuation on December 18, 2025, while TechCrunch reported a $200 million Series A in July 2025. Those figures describe company financing, not product quality. Lovable remains aimed at rapid web delivery rather than general-purpose software development across every platform. For teams, this means a prompt can establish an initial application structure, but production work still depends on review, testing, and operational decisions.

A typical Lovable project starts with a prompt describing an interface, workflow, or application requirement. The service generates a web project that users can refine through chat, preview in the browser, publish, and connect to GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, Supabase, and other supported connectors. Pro and higher plans add code editing, code downloads, custom domains, and removal of the Lovable badge. The built-in backend can provide authentication, databases, storage, email, scheduled jobs, and server-side functions. Quick and Deep security scans check dependencies, database access, and MCP servers. These checks can help locate common problems, but Lovable says they do not replace professional security review. Teams should therefore treat generated output as a starting point requiring ownership and testing.

Lovable is less suitable for native mobile applications, teams requiring deterministic output, or organizations demanding a fully self-hosted Lovable control plane. Bubble offers a more visual no-code application model, while Bolt focuses on prompt-driven browser development and Replit combines AI coding with a broader hosted development environment. Lovable distinguishes itself through integrated publishing, backend services, Git synchronization, connectors, and workspace governance, although generated applications still require code review and security work. Free and Pro customer content may be used to train Lovable models unless users opt out, while Business and Enterprise workspace data is excluded by default. Choose Lovable for rapid web applications when conversational building and integrated deployment matter more than full infrastructure control.

Manus is a general AI agent made by Butterfly Effect Pte. Ltd., the Singapore company behind the service. Butterfly Effect was founded in Beijing in 2022 by Xiao Hong, Yichao Ji, and Tao Zhang, then moved its headquarters and core team to Singapore in mid-2025. Manus reportedly had millions of users and more than $100 million in annual recurring revenue by December 2025. Meta announced an approximately $2 billion acquisition that month, but China ordered the transaction unwound on April 27, 2026. Manus formally resumed independent operations on September 1, 2026, with its founding team continuing to lead the company. A September 2026 report said Manus was discussing a $500 million fundraise at a $4 billion valuation, although that financing was not presented as completed.

Manus turns a natural-language goal into a multi-step task that runs in a cloud computer. A typical project can include web research, browser actions, file uploads, document creation, spreadsheet work, slide generation, website building, code, or deployment. Projects group related work, while connectors bring outside services into tasks. Scheduled Automations can run on a schedule, and the 2.0 release adds triggers for events such as new email, advertising changes, calendar events, Slack messages, or Notion updates. Manus Studio organizes documents, spreadsheets, PDFs, slides, websites, code, games, and video work. Its API creates and manages tasks, sends follow-up messages, uploads files, receives webhooks, and supports built-in or custom skills.

Manus has a broad task surface, but its credit pricing makes the cost of a finished task difficult to predict. Credits do not roll over, and different projects consume different amounts. ChatGPT is closer to a conversational assistant and model-access product, while Manus centers on delegated tasks that return files, sites, or reports. Claude emphasizes chat, writing, and coding workflows. Replit focuses more narrowly on software projects and repository-style development, while Manus covers research, documents, slides, media, and applications. The privacy policy permits processing user content to deliver and improve services, and Team includes a training opt-out. Pick Manus if you want one workspace for varied, multi-step deliverables and accept credit-based billing.