Comparison
Enterprise control, without the enterprise.
The tools for building apps with AI fall into two camps. On one side, the consumer app builders - Lovable, Base44, Replit - brilliant for launching a public MVP, but built for strangers signing up, not for your business. On the other, the enterprise platforms - Retool, Superblocks, and a wave of new "governed vibe coding" tools - powerful and controlled, but they expect your own cloud, a platform team to run them, and a sales call to start. Croft is the alternative in the middle: the control and security of the enterprise platforms, at the simplicity and flat price a small or medium business can just switch on - for your developers and non-developers alike. Below, how Croft compares with the launch-focused builders; the enterprise platforms are in the specific comparisons underneath.
| The app builders | Croft | |
|---|---|---|
| Built for | Launching a startup | Running your actual life and work |
| Your apps are | Public URLs by default | Private by default, behind your login |
| Users are | Strangers who sign up | People you invite by name |
| Login & security | Generated per app by the AI | Built into the platform - apps can't get it wrong |
| Pricing | Credits and usage meters | One flat price, your own Claude does the AI |
| When you leave | Export code, find hosting, good luck | Take it all with you. It was yours all along |
| The endgame | Scale or die | Still working in five years |
If you want a public app anyone on the internet can sign up for, a mobile app in an app store, or something that might need to serve ten thousand people - use them, not us. Croft has a ceiling and we built it on purpose. The ceiling is why everything else on this page is true.
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