Taking over a stalled Base44 app

Base44 is a prompt-first app builder that hosts what it builds. You describe the app, it generates the screens, a database, login and the logic, and it runs the result on its own infrastructure. That's why it's so quick to get something working, and it's why the question when it stalls is different from the other tools.

Base44 was acquired by Wix in 2025. That's not a reason to leave, but it's a reason to know exactly what you own. As of September 2026: the front-end code can be synced to a GitHub repository on paid plans, and that feature was still in beta on most plans this year. The back end isn't yours to export; the front end calls Base44's servers through Base44's SDK. Your data lives in Base44's managed database. There's no way to run the app anywhere but Base44.

• The screens, as React code, if you're on a plan with GitHub sync. They're a specification for the rebuild even where the code itself isn't reused, because they call a back end that won't exist outside Base44.
• The data, through Base44's export and API. Every entity, every record, every file, pulled out and checked against what the app shows.
• The logic, as a description. The rules the app enforces are visible in how it behaves and in the prompts that built it. They can be written down. They can't be exported as code that runs elsewhere.
• The users, as records. Passwords don't travel; a rebuild means a reset or a fresh login.

The back end, in full. Every server-side operation the app performs runs on Base44, so leaving means building it: the database, the rules, the authentication, the file storage, the integrations, and the hosting. The screens can often be adapted rather than rewritten, with their calls to the Base44 SDK replaced by calls to the new back end.

That's more work than finishing a Lovable app and less than starting from nothing, because the screens and the data give the rebuild its specification.

Stay if the app is internal, the stakes are modest, and the platform's limits aren't what stalled it. In that case the fix might be finishing it inside Base44 with better prompts and a clearer specification, and we can help with that.

Leave if the business depends on it, if you need to own the data and the code, if the platform can't do something you need, or if a platform decision you don't control would hurt you. The general keep, finish or replace reasoning applies, with one difference: for Base44, "replace" is more often the answer, because so little of the running system can come with you.

The assessment sets both options out with a fixed price on each.

1. Write down what it does. The assessment maps every screen, every entity, every rule the app enforces and every outside service it touches. For a Base44 app this is done from the running app, the exported front end where available, and the data.
2. Get the data out and check it. Every record and file, reconciled against what the app shows.
3. Design the new back end from the map: a database you own, the rules, login, storage, integrations, hosting in your accounts.
4. Adapt or rebuild the screens, replacing their Base44 calls with calls to the new back end.
5. Run both side by side. The new system in staging with the migrated data, checked by the people who use it, reconciled, then switched, with Base44 kept available until you're confident.
6. Finish the features that never got finished, one at a time, each priced before you commit.

Extracted once, checked, and never touched by a change until the change has proven itself somewhere else. The migration is tested against a copy in a test environment, then run in staging with every record and file reconciled against Base44. Only when the tests have shown it's safe does anything connect to live, and the Base44 app stays running as a fallback until you're confident.

The assessment is from £395 + VAT, sized on a free one-hour consultation, with an exact price before you commit. For a Base44 app it maps the running system, extracts a sample of the data to see how it comes out, and prices both staying and leaving as fixed numbers. What drives the price and the payment terms each have a page.

Know what you own before deciding anything. Marc Allington builds with AI tooling daily and has taken over enough systems to know that the data and the rules are the valuable part, whichever platform they're on. Everything we build runs on open technology in your own accounts, with full source code and ownership transferring to you on final payment.