Which tool for which job

Three questions, one starting point

A starting point, not a ranking. Any of these tools can build most apps. The question is how much control you want and when you will need more.

Choose one answer in each group. The recommendation updates as you go.

1. What are you building?
2. How much do you code?
3. What's your budget?

Every job at a glance

Decision tree: what you are building leads to a first pick of tools for each of six jobs.Decision tree: what you are building leads to a first pick of tools for each of six jobs.
Generated from data/jobs.yml, the same file that builds the README table.

A landing page or marketing site

First pick: Framer, v0

Also: Lovable, Relume for the wireframe

Outgrow it: Rarely. Move on only if you need custom app logic behind the site.

A SaaS MVP with login and payments

First pick: Lovable or Bolt, with Supabase and Stripe

Also: Replit, v0, Base44

Outgrow it: Complex business rules, background jobs, many user roles. Sync to GitHub and continue in an AI IDE.

An internal tool or dashboard

First pick: Base44, Replit

Also: Lovable, Convex for live data

Outgrow it: Large data sets and strict permissions.

A mobile app

First pick: Bolt, Replit

Also: Emergent, Rocket

Outgrow it: App store releases and native device features. Move to Expo with an AI IDE.

An AI agent or chatbot

First pick: Replit, v0

Also: Lovable, Claude Code or Codex CLI for custom logic

Outgrow it: Cost control and answer quality at scale. You will need logging and tests.

Changes to an existing codebase

First pick: Cursor, Kiro, GitHub Copilot

Also: Claude Code, Codex CLI, Aider, Cline

Outgrow it: These are the tools people grow into.