Framer vs Lovable: website or app?

The short answer

They solve different problems. Lovable builds apps from a prompt: logins, databases, dashboards, the product itself. Framer builds websites you design by hand: the marketing site, the landing page, the portfolio.

If you’re building software, use Lovable, or something like it, for the app. If you need a site that explains it and gets people to sign up, use Framer. Plenty of startups use both.

I build websites in Framer, so that’s my side of it. I’ve tried to be fair to Lovable, because it’s very good at its job.

At a glance

• What you make: Lovable makes web apps. Framer makes websites.

• How you make it: Lovable is mostly prompts and chat. Framer is a visual canvas, with AI features to help.

• Code: Lovable writes real React code you can sync to GitHub and take with you. Framer hosts the site for you and you never touch the code unless you want to.

• Data and logins: Lovable, with a database and user accounts built into the app. Framer’s CMS is for content you publish.

• Design control: Framer. You place every element and set every breakpoint yourself.

• Editing after launch: Framer. A non-technical person can change copy and CMS content safely.

How they feel to use

In Lovable, you describe what you want and it writes the app. You keep chatting to change it. It’s fast to a working prototype, and the result is an app with real logic behind it.

In Framer, you design the page. You choose the layout, the type and the motion, and you see exactly what will go live. It takes more decisions, and the site comes out looking the way you meant it to.

A marketing site for a developer product is a typical Framer job. Kernal, a free template of mine, has live ASCII art, a terminal hero and product mockups. The product itself would live somewhere else.

Where Lovable is the better choice

• You need user accounts, a database or payments inside an app.

• You want to test a product idea this week, without a developer.

• You want code you own and can hand to an engineer later.

Where Framer is the better choice

• The site is there to explain, persuade and convert: a homepage, pricing, a blog, case studies.

• The design is part of the pitch, and generic layouts would hurt it.

• Marketing or the founder needs to edit it every week without breaking anything.

• You want hosting and SEO settings handled without thinking about them.

Build the product in Lovable. Sell it with a site you designed.

Using both together

The common setup is a Framer site on your main domain and the app on a subdomain. The site’s Sign up and Log in buttons point to the app. Marketing edits the site, and the product team works on the app, without either getting in the other’s way.

Kestrel Suite is built for exactly this. Its product screens are real Framer layers, so you can match them to the app you built and edit them row by row. A sign-in page comes with it.

What they cost

Framer: free on a framer.website address. Basic is $10 a month with your own domain, Pro is $30 a month. The Framer pricing guide has the detail.

Lovable: a free plan with daily build credits, then paid plans priced by credits. Guides put Pro at around $25 a month. The database and hosting behind the app can cost extra as it grows, so check Lovable’s own pricing page for your case.

Can Lovable build a marketing website?

Yes, it can generate one. The layout will be good enough for a prototype. For a site where the design has to stand out and marketing edits it often, Framer is the better tool.

Can Framer build an app?

Not a full app with user accounts and a database. Framer is for websites. Code components can add interactive pieces, like a calculator or a demo, inside a page.

Should a startup use Lovable or Framer?

Often both. Lovable for the product, Framer for the site that sells it. I wrote about what that site needs in what a startup website needs at launch.

Is Framer AI the same as Lovable?

No. Framer’s AI features help you build and edit a website inside the design tool. Lovable writes the code for a whole app.

If you’ve built your product and need the site to sell it, start a project, or begin with one of my templates.

Some links to Framer on this page are referral links. If you sign up through one, I may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you.