Building a website, online shop or app has never been faster to start. Describe what you want to an AI builder and, a few minutes later, something is on screen. For founders watching every pound, that is hard to argue with.
But the monthly bills, the AI credits and the evenings spent prompting and fixing are real costs too. Below we look honestly at what platforms like Lovable and GoDaddy Airo do well, where they fall short, and how to work out whether they are still the cheaper option for your project.
What are Lovable and GoDaddy Airo?
Lovable is an AI app builder. You describe your idea in plain English and it generates a working web app, typically a React front end connected to Supabase for the database, user accounts and file storage. You keep improving it through prompts, and the code can be synced to GitHub.
GoDaddy Airo is GoDaddy's AI assistant, built into its website builder. It creates a site, writes the copy and helps with branding and marketing, alongside GoDaddy's domains, hosting, email and online store features.
They sit at different ends of the market. Airo is aimed at small business websites and simple shops, while Lovable is closer to building a custom app, just without writing the code yourself.
The advantages
- Speed to a first version. You can go from idea to something clickable in hours, not weeks, which is ideal for testing demand or showing investors.
- Low upfront cost. A monthly plan instead of a development budget means you can start with very little cash.
- No technical skills needed. Founders can make changes themselves, without waiting on a developer.
- Everything in one place. Airo bundles the domain, hosting, email and store, so there is little to set up.
- A real codebase with Lovable. Because Lovable produces code you can export, it can become the starting point for a proper build later.
The disadvantages
- The costs add up quietly. A builder plan, a database plan, extra AI credits, a ChatGPT or Claude subscription, a domain, email and plugins. Each looks small; together they rarely are.
- Your time is not free. Hours spent prompting, testing and fixing are hours not spent on customers, sales or fundraising.
- Debugging loops burn credits. When the AI gets stuck on a bug, every attempt to fix it uses more credits, and some problems never fully go away.
- Security is easy to get wrong. AI builders can leave a database readable by anyone if its access rules are not set up correctly, a problem security researchers have found in real apps built this way. If you store customer data or take payments, this matters.
- Limits as you grow. Complex features, integrations, performance at scale and control over SEO get harder the further you move beyond the template.
- Lock-in. Sites built with a hosted builder like Airo generally cannot be moved elsewhere, so leaving means rebuilding.
The costs founders forget to count
Most founders compare a monthly subscription with a quote for custom development and conclude the platform is cheaper. The honest comparison has three parts:
- Platform subscriptions: Lovable, GoDaddy, Bolt, hosting and the like.
- Backend and AI usage: Supabase or Firebase plans, plus credits and tokens for Claude, ChatGPT and extra builder usage.
- Your time: the hours you spend building and fixing each month, valued at what your time is worth to the business. For most founders that is somewhere between £25 and £50 an hour.
Use the calculator below to add up your own numbers and compare them with a typical budget for a custom build.
Is building it yourself still cheaper?
Add your monthly costs and the time you spend on the project. We'll compare your yearly total with a typical custom build budget for that type of project.
These are rough estimates. Benchmarks are typical 2026 UK prices for a first custom version of each type of project, built by a UK agency or freelancer. The real cost of custom development depends on your project's features, integrations and design, and platforms keep charging as long as you use them. For an honest estimate, our Prototype to Production service can review what you've built and tell you what it would take to make it production-ready.
When a platform is the right call
- You are testing an idea and need something live this week.
- It is a simple brochure site or a small shop with standard features.
- You do not store sensitive customer data.
- Your monthly costs and the time you spend are still low.
When custom development makes more sense
- Your platform and AI bills, plus your time, are heading past the cost of a custom build.
- You are taking payments, storing personal data or need to meet security standards.
- You need integrations, custom workflows or performance the platform cannot give you.
- You are spending more time fixing the product than growing the business.
You don't have to start again
If you have already built something on Lovable or a similar tool, it is not wasted. It proves the idea and shows exactly what you need. Our Prototype to Production service takes an AI-built app and makes it secure, reliable and ready for real customers, with a team that stays with you as it grows.
Built something with AI? Let's make it production-ready.
Send us what you have. We'll review it and give you an honest view of what it needs, whether that's a few fixes or a proper build.
Explore Prototype to Production →