Should you migrate off base44?

A worked example. At the calculator’s default of $900 a month on a medium app, the saving is $900 − $120 = $780 a month, so the $12,000 migration pays back in $12,000 ÷ $780 = 15.4 months. The first 12 months finish $2,640 behind ($780 × 12 − $12,000). Payback inside 24 months gets the verdict “worth it if you plan to keep the app”; inside 12 months, “strong case to move”; beyond 24, migrate only if lock-in, compliance or SLA risk dominates.

Not sure what you spend now? The Base44 cost calculator itemises your current bill; use the figure in its range that matches your invoices, with engineering time switched on if your team spends hours on platform-specific work, since this model’s spend input counts that time.

The one-time cost is not zero because the export is not a migration. Base44’s code export and CLI eject hand you the code, but eject creates a new Base44 backend project with its own app ID — “Your original app remains in Base44 unchanged” (docs.base44.com). Leaving the platform still means replacing the @base44/sdk calls and the backend: the 80–200 engineer-hour job the Base44 export guide sizes, and the scope behind each price on the Base44 migration service page.