Bolt.new vs BrainGrid

Two fact sheets from our own research, side by side — pricing, platforms, API access and status re-checked by us rather than quoted from the vendors.

The short answer

Cheaper paid plan: BrainGrid — $24/mo vs $25/mo for Bolt.new
Free plan: Only Bolt.new (BrainGrid has paid plans only)
Higher Trust score: BrainGrid — 94 vs 85 for Bolt.new
Best fit: Bolt.new: Founders and designers who want a clickable prototype or landing page the same afternoon · BrainGrid: Teams already using Claude Code, Cursor, or Codex who want structured specs first
Status: Both up at our last check — Bolt.new Sep 6, 2026, BrainGrid Sep 1, 2026

From our own records as of each tool's last check. Anything we have not confirmed is left out rather than guessed. How we verify

Bolt.newIn-browser agent that builds and runs web apps

BrainGridPlans a software feature into specs and acceptance criteria first, then hands the build off to Claude Code or Cursor.

Side by side

Fact	Bolt.new	BrainGrid
Category	Vibe Coding & App Generators	Vibe Coding & App Generators
Pricing model	Freemium	Paid
Starts at	$25/mo	$24/mo
Trust score	85 / 100	94 / 100
Platforms	Web	Web
Company	StackBlitz, Inc.	BrainGrid AI, Inc.
Launched	—	2025
Last verified	Sep 6, 2026	Sep 1, 2026

What our research says

Bolt.new

Bolt is the quickest way to get from a sentence to a running web app you can click, and Bolt Cloud now removes the usual 'where does this deploy' problem for small projects. Treat the token meter as the real price: a complex app burns through the entry allowance fast, and the free tier is for trying the product, not shipping from it.

Pros

Whole toolchain runs in the browser, so there is no environment to set up or keep alive
Starts from a prompt, Figma design, GitHub repo or template, and exports back to GitHub
Bolt Cloud bundles hosting, databases and auth, which most prompt-to-app tools leave to you
Unused Pro tokens roll over, unlike most rivals' monthly allowances

Cons

Token-based pricing is hard to forecast; one long debugging session can eat days of allowance
Free tier is throttled daily (300K tokens) and carries Bolt branding
Yearly discount is advertised without the actual yearly prices on the page
No public API found, so Bolt cannot be driven from a script or CI

BrainGrid

BrainGrid's pitch is that most AI-coding-agent failures come from vague requirements, not weak code generation, so it front-loads a planning and acceptance-criteria step before any agent touches code. That's a real, specific bet worth trying if you already use Claude Code or Cursor and find yourself re-prompting constantly, but there's no free tier to test it without paying.

Pros

Structured four-step flow: plan, build, verify, deploy
Works with several coding agents rather than being locked to one
Verifies acceptance criteria with attached evidence rather than just trusting the agent
Deployment includes hosting, auth, and email out of the box

Cons

No free tier -- cheapest plan is $24-29/month
Credit-based usage on the base plan can run out on larger projects
Team collaboration and unlimited users require the $83/month Pro tier or above

Which one fits

Choose Bolt.new if you need

Founders and designers who want a clickable prototype or landing page the same afternoon
Developers scaffolding a front end or internal tool before taking it into their own editor
Teams turning a Figma mock into a working front end without hand-coding the first pass

Choose BrainGrid if you need

Teams already using Claude Code, Cursor, or Codex who want structured specs first
Builders who want acceptance criteria checked with evidence, not just a working demo
Adding planned features to an existing repository rather than starting fresh