00 /SERVICE · MIGRATE
From the platform to a stack you control. Default target: Next.js + Supabase on Vercel. Zero data loss, full code ownership, written cutover plan with a rollback path. Typical downtime under five minutes.
Short answer
Last reviewed · 2026-09-13
Migrating off base44 with Base44Devs involves three deliverables: a data export and schema map, a code rewrite on the target stack, and a DNS-cutover plan with a tested rollback path. The default target is Next.js + Supabase on Vercel. Fixed-price migrations start at $6,000for apps with up to 5 tables and 10 routes (Small), $12,000 for up to 20 tables with multi-role auth and Stripe (Medium), and $25,000+ for multi-tenant or SOC 2 / HIPAA-compatible builds (Enterprise). Typical production downtime at cutover is under five minutes; the base44 workspace stays live as rollback for a 14-day stability window after switch. A hired rewrite is only one of three routes off the platform — an automated migrator replicates the app onto your own infrastructure without converting the stack, and base44’s own export supports a do-it-yourself rebuild. Pick the route before the destination.
01 /WHEN TO MIGRATE
Migration is not the right call for every base44 app. If none of the triggers below applies, staying on the platform is usually the cheaper move. We will tell you that on the scoping call — and the same test written out in full is when it is actually time to leave Base44.
TRIGGER 01
Run the numbers in the migration ROI calculator. The break-even is roughly when base44 credits exceed the cost of an equivalent Next.js + Supabase deployment plus a part-time engineer. Read more →
TRIGGER 02
base44 renders client-side by default and is single-region. SOC 2, HIPAA, GDPR data-residency, and similar audits often require SSR + regional control that the platform does not expose.
TRIGGER 03
base44 has no published customer SLA as of May 2026. Enterprise customers requiring 99.9%+ uptime guarantees have to either accept platform risk or migrate.
TRIGGER 04
The AI agent's context resets across sessions and rewrites components on long runs. Past a certain product complexity the agent costs more time than it saves.
TRIGGER 05
The Wix acquisition (announced 2025) introduced platform-strategy uncertainty. If your business cannot tolerate roadmap or pricing changes outside your control, migration de-risks the dependency. Read more →
02 /HOW YOU LEAVE
Before you pick a destination, pick a route. The route decides what the move costs, how long it takes, and — the part most people find out too late — whether you actually leave base44’s architecture or just move a copy of it onto your own bill.
| Route | What actually happens | Where you land | When it is the right call |
|---|---|---|---|
| Automated replica | A migrator logs into your base44 account and pulls the whole app — including the backend the code export leaves behind — then redeploys it onto accounts you own. Nothing is rewritten. | Your original React frontend on a base44-shaped backend. The one we checked publishes its target stack as Python/FastAPI plus MongoDB, on your own hosting and MongoDB Atlas, with the code in your GitHub. | You want the same app off the platform quickly, and a base44-shaped runtime is fine. The migrator we checked runs on any base44 plan, free tier included. |
| DIY rewrite | You take base44's own ZIP or GitHub export — gated to the Builder plan or higher — and replace every SDK call, backend function and auth path yourself. | Whatever you build. The export installs and renders, then fails on the first data call, because the SDK only authenticates against the platform. | You have an engineer with the calendar for it. Our export guide puts the rebuild at 80-200 focused hours. |
| Hired rewrite | Schema export and integrity map, a parallel build on the target stack, an acceptance pack, then a DNS cutover with a tested rollback path. The four phases below. | Any of the eight destinations in the matrix below, chosen on fit rather than on what a tool supports. | The architecture is the reason you are leaving — server-side rendering, SQL and relational integrity, or a permission model an auditor will sign off. |
A one-click migrator will beat us on price and on calendar, and for a large share of base44 apps that is the correct answer. If what you want is your app, working exactly as it does now, on infrastructure billed to you instead of rented from a platform, an automated replica gets you there in an afternoon and we will say so on the call. We would rather lose that engagement than sell a twelve-thousand-dollar rewrite to someone who needed a copy-and-redeploy.
Know what the replica is, though. It is faithful by design — it does not convert your stack, and the vendors say so plainly: base44 stores data in MongoDB and runs Python on the backend, so a replica lands on MongoDB and Python too. You finish owning a base44-shaped application: no server-side rendering, no SQL, no relational constraints, and a backend that reimplements the platform’s own. If your reason for leaving was cost, vendor risk, or wanting the code in your GitHub, none of that matters and the replica is a good trade. If your reason for leaving was the architecture itself — search engines cannot read a client-rendered page, an auditor cannot sign off a permission model you cannot query, your team writes SQL — then a faithful copy preserves the exact thing you were trying to get away from.
Two practical notes on the automated route, both taken from the one migrator we read end to end rather than from the category as a whole. First, it runs on any base44 plan, free tier included, because it reads through your normal login rather than through the export — base44’s own ZIP and GitHub export is gated to the Builder plan or higher, which is what the code-export guide covers. Second, passwords do not leave base44. A replica forwards each user’s first login back through the platform once to capture it, which means you cannot delete the base44 app on cutover day — you keep it alive until your users have each signed in. Budget for that overlap month.
A rewrite is worth its cost in one situation: the platform’s architecture, not the platform’s bill, is what is stopping you. That is a smaller set of teams than the internet implies, and it is the only set we quote. The test is written out in full in the when-to-leave-base44 decision framework, and if you are not sure which side of it you are on, the $497 audit answers it in writing before you commit to anything — including the answer “use a migrator, you do not need us.” Teams whose problem turns out to be a handful of specific defects rather than the platform are better served by a fix sprint than by any migration at all.
03 /PRICING
Three sizing tiers based on table count and complexity. Anything past Enterprise is quoted custom after a scoping call.
TIER
$6,000
USD · Fixed-price · One engagement
Single-app migration with up to 5 tables and 10 routes. 2-3 week delivery.
Scope
Out of scope
TIER · RECOMMENDED
$12,000
USD · Fixed-price · One engagement
Up to 20 tables, payments, multi-role auth. 4-5 week delivery.
Scope
Out of scope
TIER
$25,000+
USD · Fixed-price · One engagement
Complex multi-tenant migration with custom integrations and compliance work.
Scope
Out of scope
04 /SCOPE
The honest scope of what comes across with you to the new stack — and what is base44-internal and gets replaced rather than ported.
MIGRATES — IN SCOPE
NOT MIGRATED — REPLACED
Replacement choices documented in the cutover plan
05 /TARGET STACK
The default target is not arbitrary. It solves the two biggest base44 limitations directly while introducing no new vendor lock-in.
We default to Next.js + Supabase because it solves the two biggest base44 limitations directly: Next.jsprovides server-side rendering that base44’s CSR-only architecture cannot, which fixes SEO, Time-to-First-Byte, and Largest Contentful Paint in one deployment. Supabaseprovides Postgres-backed Row-Level Security that mirrors base44’s permission model with full portability — including the ability to self-host the database later. The combination is deployable to Vercel in one command, open-source at every layer, and introduces no new vendor-specific lock-in beyond standard Postgres + Node.
Alternative targets we ship to: self-hosted Postgres + Node (when SOC 2 demands self-hosting), Firebase (when teams want a managed BaaS without Postgres), and other no-code platforms like Bubble, Lovable, Bolt, or Replit if a no-code-to-no-code move makes sense for your team.
Every destination has its own written playbook, because the work is genuinely different depending on where you land. The default path is documented step by step in migrate Base44 to Next.js and Supabase, and it starts the same way every other path does — you export your Base44 codebase first, then decide what it gets rebuilt on. If the driver is compliance rather than cost, the guide to self-host a Base44 app on Docker and Postgres covers the version where you own the machines; if the driver is only hosting, you can deploy a Base44 export to Vercel without changing the data layer at all, or move Base44 data to Firebase when the team wants a managed BaaS and no Postgres.
Teams that do not want to own code at all usually stay in no-code and pick a different builder. The three we ship to most often are documented the same way: move a Base44 app to Lovable when the app is UI-heavy and the AI workflow is the reason you came, rebuild a Base44 app in Bubble when the logic is workflow-shaped rather than code-shaped, and take a Base44 app to Replit when you want a real dev environment without standing up your own infrastructure. If you want code ownership from the first commit instead, the path to move from Base44 to Bolt.new keeps the AI-native workflow while handing you a normal project you can deploy anywhere.
Two things come before the destination choice, and both have their own written page:
| Destination | Best for | What you rebuild | Timeline | Rebuild effort |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Next.js + Supabase | The default. Teams that want code ownership, server-side rendering, and a Postgres permission model that mirrors base44's. | Every SDK call behind an abstraction layer, base44 RLS rules translated to Supabase policies, backend functions ported to API routes or Edge Functions. | 4-14 weeks (median 6.5) | Hard · ~360 h |
| Vercel (Next.js + chosen backend) | Teams whose blocker is hosting, SSR, edge, and CI — and who will pick the database separately. | The exported React code ported into a Next.js project, SDK calls replaced against whichever backend you choose. Vercel does not choose the database for you. | 4-10 weeks | Moderate · ~240 h |
| Self-hosted (Docker + Postgres) | Regulated industries, data-residency requirements, and teams already operating infrastructure. | Your own Postgres, Node or Deno API, object storage, and auth — plus the operational surface: backups, monitoring, on-call. | 10-16 weeks | Hard · ~480 h |
| Firebase | Teams that want Google's managed serverless stack and do not need Postgres. | The relational schema converted into Firestore documents — the significant piece — plus Cloud Functions for backend logic. Auth migration is smoother than most platforms. | 6-10 weeks | Hard · ~280 h |
| Lovable | UI-heavy apps whose owners came for the AI workflow and want to keep it, with real GitHub sync and a usable code export. | The app rebuilt inside Lovable's editor, pointed at Supabase as the backend. Mostly mechanical. | 3-5 weeks | Moderate · ~140 h |
| Bolt.new | Keeping a fast prompt-to-deploy loop while ending up with a normal project you can host anywhere. | The app rebuilt in bolt's WebContainers, then deployed on Netlify, Vercel, or Supabase — bolt is a development tool, not a production host. | 3-5 weeks | Moderate · ~140 h |
| Replit | Teams that want a real development environment — shell access, real servers, real logs — without standing up infrastructure. | Frontend ports easily. Database, auth, and every base44 SDK call need replacing with Replit Database, Replit Auth, or external services. | 3-6 weeks | Moderate · ~160 h |
| Bubble | Teams leaving code behind entirely, or handing the app to a non-technical operator. | Every page in the visual editor. The data-model concepts map closely; there is no AI agent, so nothing generates the pages for you. | 6-10 weeks | Moderate · ~280 h |
The destination does not set the price. Our fixed-price tiers are sized by table count and complexity — Small $6,000 (≤5 tables, ≤10 routes), Medium $12,000 (≤20 tables, multi-role auth, Stripe), Enterprise $25,000+ (multi-tenant, SOC 2 / HIPAA-compatible) — so a twenty-table app costs the same to move to Firebase as to Supabase. What the destination changes is the calendar and the engineer-hours in the table above, and what you own once the cutover is done. If you want the payback arithmetic before you pick, the migration payback calculator models staying against leaving over 36 months.
06 /CUTOVER
Four phases. The base44 app stays live until the new stack passes acceptance, so production users feel nothing during the build.
01/PHASE
All base44 tables are exported to portable SQL. Referential integrity is verified before any rebuild work starts. Foreign-key constraints, enums, and default values are preserved.
02/PHASE
The replacement stack is built alongside the live base44 app with no disruption to production users. Auth, RLS, payment integrations, and routes are reimplemented against the original spec.
03/PHASE
A test pack covering all critical workflows is run against the new stack before cutover. Pass criteria: 100% functional parity on the canonical user journey, no data divergence on the seeded record set, p95 latency at or below the base44 baseline.
04/PHASE
DNS is switched with the base44 app kept live as rollback. Typical production downtime is under 5 minutes. The base44 workspace is not deleted until a 14-day stability window passes.
Method ref · base44devs/migrate-rev-2026-05 · applies to every tier
07 /RELATED READING
Long-form analysis on the questions a migration scoping call tends to surface. Written by the same engineers who run the migrations.
08 /FAQ
When monthly credit cost exceeds the amortised cost of a custom stack, when you need an SLA base44 does not offer, when SEO or compliance constraints make CSR-only rendering a blocker, when the AI agent's context-window limits are slowing feature development, or when vendor-risk concerns following the Wix acquisition put the business at risk. The /audit engagement includes a migration cost projection if you want a quantitative answer before committing.
We design every cutover with a tested rollback path. The default plan keeps the base44 app live until DNS is switched and the new stack passes acceptance — typical production downtime is under 5 minutes. The base44 workspace is not deleted until the new stack passes a 14-day stability window, so rollback remains possible even after cutover.
Both. Data migration is a first-class deliverable: we export, transform, and load with referential integrity preserved. Auth user records, Stripe customer + subscription records, all application records, and webhook integrations are migrated. We never ask you to rebuild data manually.
Default target is Next.js + Supabase on Vercel. We also migrate to self-hosted (Postgres + Node), to Firebase, or to other no-code platforms (Bubble, Lovable, Bolt, Replit) — see the comparison pages for trade-offs. We pick the target stack that matches your team's skills, compliance requirements, and budget envelope.
Visually yes by default — we match the existing UX 1:1 unless you ask for a redesign. We do clean up obvious base44 quirks (CSR-only rendering, default styles, AI-generated layout drift) so the new app loads faster and ranks better in search. SSR support alone typically improves Largest Contentful Paint by 1-2 seconds.
Base44's data export covers all tables, records, auth users, and your application code. What does not auto-export: AI-agent prompt history (not portable), the platform's internal credit ledger (not customer-accessible), and base44's native analytics (we replace with standard analytics — Plausible, PostHog, or GA4 — in the new stack).
Often, yes — and if that is the right answer for your app we will say so on the call. Automated migrators log in to your base44 account, pull the app including the backend the code export leaves behind, and redeploy it onto hosting and a database you own; the one we read in full runs on any base44 plan, free tier included. What they do not do is convert your stack. They replicate base44 faithfully, so you land on the same MongoDB-and-Python backend shape you started from, still without server-side rendering and still without SQL. Take the automated route when your reason for leaving is cost, vendor risk, or wanting the code in your own GitHub. Pay for a rewrite only when the architecture itself is the blocker — SSR for search, relational integrity, or a permission model an auditor will sign off. One caveat on either route: passwords cannot leave base44, so a replica forwards each user's first login back through the platform once, which means you keep the base44 app alive until your users have each signed in.
Fixed-price tiers based on table count and complexity: Small ($6,000, up to 5 tables and 10 routes, 2-3 weeks), Medium ($12,000, up to 20 tables, multi-role auth, Stripe, 4-5 weeks), Enterprise ($25,000+, multi-tenant architecture, SOC 2 / HIPAA-compatible, custom integrations). We quote custom for anything beyond Enterprise after a scoping call.
It stays active until cutover. We bill for the new stack to come online in parallel, then switch DNS once acceptance passes. After the 14-day stability window post-cutover, you cancel your base44 subscription and the workspace is archived. We do not require base44 to be deleted as a condition of any rollback.
09 /NEXT STEP
Free 30-minute call. Fixed-price scope after. Zero data loss, full code ownership.