Rating certificate · AW/26-09/23726 Sept 2026
64of 100
The Register / Coding agents / Bolt.new
Register entry · Coding agents · updated 26 Sept 2026
Bolt.new
Bolt.new generates full-stack web apps, and Expo mobile apps, from chat prompts and runs them in the browser using StackBlitz WebContainers. It includes Bolt Cloud hosting (bolt.host), a built-in database, GitHub sync, MCP connections and a security audit. In September 2026 it added Bolt Forge, a cheaper agent on open-source models whose use requires consent to training on project data. The original 2024 open-source code remains on GitHub, but the product itself is closed source.
What reviewers and users praise
- Fast prompt-to-live-URL for prototypes and mockups (Preuve review; HN users)
- Complete hosted stack: hosting, auth and database in one place (scored.tools review)
- Weekly release notes throughout mid-2026
What they criticise
- Token costs escalate with project complexity (Preuve review)
- Reports of runaway token use and slow, bot-only support (HN Ask HN posts, Dec 2025 and Feb 2026)
- In-browser runtime can freeze on large projects (Reddit r/boltnewbuilders snippet)
- By default (outside EEA/UK/CH) project content may be used for model training and licensed as de-identified datasets unless the user opts out
Experts vs the crowdcrowd cooler by 19
Experts65
Crowd46
| Price | Free, paid from $25 |
|---|---|
| Use it via | Web app |
| Runs on | web |
| Licence | proprietary |
| Updated | Evidence collected 26 Sept 2026 |
How the rating was worked out
Weights for Coding agents: adoption 35%, experts 40%, crowd 25%. Pillars without enough evidence are left out and the others re-weighted. The method.
| Adoption & momentumweight 35% | 76 | GitHub stars 17k → 67 · Reported users 10M → 81 · 11 releases in 90 days → 80reach × 0.7 + momentum × 0.3 |
|---|---|---|
| Expertsindependent reviews · weight 40% | 65 | 7 independent reviews (3 positive · 4 mixed · 0 negative), averaged toward 50 for small samples. |
| Crowdcommunity sample · weight 25% | 46 | 19 dated posts from hackernews, reddit, youtube, forum: 6 positive · 5 mixed · 8 negative (positive + ½ mixed) ÷ n, averaged toward 50 for small samples |
| Rating | 64 | high confidence (3 of 3 pillars, 19 community posts). |
Evidence checks. 3 items removed: search-engine results page (2); date does not match the source (1). 2 reviews from tool directories, AI-written pages or unnamed authors not counted. 4 items could not be checked at the source (the page could not be fetched, or the quote is from a comment under the linked post); kept and marked “unverified”. How evidence is checked.
Trust & safety
Seven dimensions graded A–D from documented facts. Overall: B.
B
Permission model
Generated code runs in an in-browser WebContainer sandbox, not on the host OS; the agent applies edits automatically, with plan/discuss modes and explicit publish actions. Team admins control publishing and integrations. Rubric fit is approximate for a cloud builder. source
A
Data access scope
Project-scoped; team admins control member roles, publishing, integrations and data exports; GitHub org admins can restrict which repositories Bolt users can access. source
C
Data storage
Projects, hosting (bolt.host) and Bolt database are vendor cloud; no documented region selection found. Code can be exported via GitHub. source
C
Data retention & training
Privacy policy: outside the EEA/UK/Switzerland, Bolt content may be used to train models and to prepare de-identified datasets licensed to third parties unless the user opts out; Bolt Forge requires consent to training. Third-party model providers are contractually barred from training. source
A
Incident history (24 months)
No platform-level security incident or CVE found in searches covering the last 24 months; published articles concern insecure apps generated with Bolt, not the platform itself. source
A
Compliance
SOC 2 Type 2 listed on the Bolt trust center; enterprise page cites SOC 2 certification. source
B
Transparency
Product is closed source (the 2024 open-source snapshot is not maintained); detailed weekly public release notes and documentation. source
The experts
7 named independent reviews found; dated reviews from the last 12 months are scored.
- mixed
3 out of 5. The WebContainer architecture that runs full-stack apps in the browser with zero setup is a real technical achievement
Vincent, founder of Preuve AI (idea-validation tool; not an app builder) · 2 Sept 2026 · preuve.ai - positive
The combination of prompt-based generation, Supabase integration, and instant deployment creates a workflow that genuinely compresses the build cycle from days to hours.
Zane, vibecoding.app (discloses affiliate links) · 18 Mar 2026 · vibecoding.app - positive
The fastest zero-setup way to build in the browser, best when you're comfortable deploying.
Matt Graham, founder of RapidDev (development agency that builds on these platforms) · 1 Sept 2026 · rapidevelopers.com - positive
Overall, I enjoyed testing it, and I think if you have some patience, you can build genuine working apps with it.
Martin Dubovic, All About Cookies · 31 Mar 2026 · unverified · allaboutcookies.org - mixed
I’ve enjoyed using Bolt’s intuitive collection of tools, but unfortunately it doesn’t deliver a no-code web app as effortlessly and quickly as many of the alternatives.
Christian Cawley, TechRadar Pro · 1 Jul 2026 · techradar.com - mixed
The Good: The Supabase integration is unbelievably fast and saved me a ton of time. The Bad: It's tough for non-coders, and the AI generated code it knew was faulty.
Aaron K Saunders (dev.to) · 3 Oct 2025 · dev.to - mixed
I also explain where Bolt shines, where it breaks, and why you eventually need to move into tools like Cursor to finish serious software projects.
Pete Drake (YouTube) · 2 Jan 2026 · youtube.com
The crowd
19 coded posts from hackernews, reddit, youtube, forum.
6 positive5 mixed8 negative
- negative
TL;DR: Bolt.new's AI burned 10M tokens on unauthorized changes.
Ask HN: Startup launch destroyed by Bolt.new's AI · 19 Dec 2025 · news.ycombinator.com - negative
Submitted 6 support tickets over 7 days - ZERO human responses - only automated "Sam" bot replies
Ask HN: 7 days down, zero human support from Netlify/Bolt.new (paid account) · 6 Feb 2026 · news.ycombinator.com - positive
A few weeks back, I showed Bolt.new to the CEO and ever since then, our workflow has sped up tremendously.
HN thread 'The five orders of ignorance (2000)' · 17 Jan 2026 · news.ycombinator.com - positive
a CEO who got a Bolt.new subscription to be able to generate some high-level mocks ups for me to utilize that just saved us months of back and forth.
HN thread 'Codex, Opus, Gemini try to build Counter Strike' · 2 Dec 2025 · news.ycombinator.com - positive
I've built for fun with Bolt.new: https://tendayweekcalendar.com/ I did no manual coding except small bug fixing.
Ask HN: Can you share what you built using Cursor/Agentic IDEs? · 23 Nov 2025 · news.ycombinator.com - positive
it was amazing to see the code generation using my 'proprietary method' and managing to do it with just ONE prompt.
HN thread 'Beddel Protocol' · 7 Jan 2026 · news.ycombinator.com - mixed
Launched as part of the Bolt.new hackathon in August and growing steadily. Going from a 100% vibe coded web app to a full production system has been quite a ride!
Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2025 · 18 Dec 2025 · news.ycombinator.com - positive
In my experience, Replit and Bolt (and other similar tools) are quite good at this kind of 0->1 kind of thing.
news.ycombinator.com (LLMs reward expertise) · 4 Aug 2026 · news.ycombinator.com
Pricing
As published, checked 26 Sept 2026.
| Plan | Price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Free | Free | 1M tokens/month, 300K daily limit |
| Pro | $25 / monthly | From 10M tokens/month, no daily limit |
| Teams | $30 / monthly per member | Pro features per member; tokens not shared |
| Enterprise | Custom | SSO, SOC 2 documentation, custom token allocation |
Recent changes
- 20 Sept 2026
Bolt Forge: agent on open-source models with higher usage limits; requires consent to data use for training source
- 6 Sept 2026
Visual edits directly in the preview source
- 2 Aug 2026
Project security audit source
- 26 Jul 2026
Skills (reusable instructions) source
- 19 Jul 2026
Bolt Slides presentation builder source
Ranked alongside
Other ranked entries in Coding agents.
OpenCodeAnomaly75
Claude CodeAnthropic73
Zed (Agent Panel)Zed Industries73
GitHub CopilotGitHub (Microsoft)72
Codex (CLI and app)OpenAI71
Sources
Every figure above traces to one of these, observed up to 26 Sept 2026.
- Bolt Forge: build with open-source AI models in Bolt
- Bolt Enterprise
- bolt.diy (community open-source fork, 19,909 stars, last push 2026-02-07, no releases since May 2025)
- bolt.new Reviews (2026) | Product Hunt — source page for the three Product Hunt items
- HN Algolia comment search, query "bolt.new", since 2025-10-01