# Base44 Aiolum story: https://aiolum.com/story/base44/ · added 2026-10-05 · updated 2026-10-05 **In short.** Base44 (AI app builder, Israel): US$80M cash exit, 18 June 2025. Evidence grade A: disclosed by a company or a filing, or verified by a payment processor. Team: 1 founder, then 6 to 8 staff at the sale. Launched January 2025; sold 5 months after launch. AI app builder · Israel · AI-native · solo founder · sold · group: Build software with AI - Outcome: US$80M cash exit, 18 June 2025 (evidence grade of the headline number: A; headline in US dollars: 80000000) - Launch: January 2025; months from launch to the outcome: 5 - Team: 1 founder, then 6 to 8 staff at the sale - Outside funding: None - Main factor: Timing - Meters, 1 to 4: evidence strength 4, copyable pattern 2, capital needed 1 - Tags: AI-native, Solo founder, Bootstrapped, Exit, Vibe coding Links: - Visit base44.com: https://base44.com/ **The product.** You describe an app in plain language. Base44 generates a working web app with its own database, user login and hosting, so you never touch a server. **Why it worked.** It launched in the month that AI models became good enough to write a whole app. It sold to people who cannot program, it charged from day one, and it was sold to a company that already had millions of customers. Evidence grades: A = disclosed by a public company, a filing or a payment processor, or verified by one; B = two or more independent reports agree, or a journalist confirmed it; C = a founder claim that no one else verified; D = reported, not verified: one founder claim or a third-party estimate with no second source; calc = computed on this page from graded facts. ## Summary Base44 is a vibe coding platform. Vibe coding means that you describe software in plain language and an AI model writes the code. Base44 goes one step further than most tools. The generated app comes with its own database, user login, file storage and hosting. So a person who cannot program never touches a server. Maor Shlomo built it alone as a side project from the end of 2024. He launched it in January 2025 and sold it to Wix for about US$80 million in cash on 18 June 2025. Base44 took no outside investment. Under Wix it reached US$150 million in annual recurring revenue by May 2026. Annual recurring revenue (ARR) is the current monthly subscription revenue multiplied by twelve. This page grades every number by its evidence. It also shows the failed startups that promised the same thing before AI models made it work. ## Pricing Base44 plans in 2026, reported by reviewers (grade C) | Plan | Per month, billed yearly (US$) | Per month, billed monthly (US$) | Limit | |---|---|---|---| | Free | 0 | 0 | 25 credits, at most 5 a day | | Starter | 16 | 20 | | | Builder | 40 | 50 | | | Pro | 80 | 100 | | | Highest tier | about 160 | about 200 | | A credit is one request to the AI. A complex change can use several credits. Reviewers report users who pay about US$300 a month after they spend all the credits of their plan. Yearly billing is about 20% cheaper than monthly billing. ## How much did Base44 make, and what was it sold for? The numbers, graded Payments disclosed by Wix total US$159 million by August 2026, for a company that was about six months old at the sale | Fact | Value | Grade | Note | Sources | |---|---|---|---|---| | Initial payment from Wix, 18 June 2025 | about US$80 million, in cash | A | Wix press release. TechCrunch confirmed the cash form with Wix. | [1, 2] | | Retention bonuses for employees, inside that US$80 million | about US$25 million | A | The press release says the bonuses are part of the initial payment, not an addition to it. | [1, 2] | | Founder's share of the initial payment | about US$55 million | calc | Calculated: 80 minus 25 equals 55. Shlomo was the sole shareholder. | [1, 2, 3] | | Earn-out period | 2025 through 2029 | A | An earn-out is a later payment that is paid only if the business reaches agreed targets. | [1] | | Earn-out payment disclosed in May 2026 | US$38 million | A | Disclosed by Wix with its results, reported by Calcalist. | [4] | | Earn-out payment disclosed in August 2026 | US$41 million | A | Disclosed in Wix's second-quarter 2026 earnings, reported by Calcalist. | [5] | | Total disclosed payments by August 2026 | US$159 million | calc | Calculated: 80 plus 38 plus 41 equals 159. Calcalist writes "above 150 million". One report mentions a further 90 million payment, but the reports do not reconcile, so it is not counted here. | [4, 5] | | Users at the sale | 250,000 | C | Founder posts, reported by TechCrunch. | [2] | | Users in the first three weeks | 10,000 | C | Founder posts, reported by TechCrunch. | [2] | | Profit in May 2025, the month before the sale | US$189,000 | C | Founder posts. Stated as profit after model costs. | [2] | | Annual recurring revenue at the sale | about US$3.5 million | C | Unofficial estimate compiled by Latka. Wix did not disclose it. | [6] | | Price paid divided by revenue at the sale | about 23 times ARR | calc | Calculated: 80 divided by 3.5 equals 22.9, using the unofficial estimate above. | [6] | | Annual recurring revenue, August 2025 | US$15 million | C | Founder on LinkedIn, recorded by Latka. | [6] | | Annual recurring revenue, March 2026 | US$100 million | A | Disclosed with Wix's fourth-quarter 2025 results. | [4, 6] | | Annual recurring revenue, May 2026 | US$150 million | A | Reported by Calcalist from Wix's disclosures. | [4, 6] | | Revenue growth in the eleven months after the sale | about 43 times | calc | Calculated: 150 divided by 3.5 equals 42.9. The starting value is the unofficial estimate, so this is an approximation. | [4, 6] | | Employees at the sale | 6 to 8 | B | Calcalist reports six. TechCrunch reports that Wix confirmed eight. | [2, 3] | | Founder's age at the sale | 31 | B | | [2, 3] | | Outside funding | none | B | | [2, 3] | How to read this table: a grade A value was disclosed by Wix, a public company. A grade C value is a founder claim. A "calc" value was computed on this page from the rows above it. ## When did Base44 launch, and how did it grow? Timeline From a side project to US$150 million in annual recurring revenue in about 18 months. Each entry carries its grade. - **2017** (grade B [3]): Shlomo co-founds Explorium, a data company, at age 24 and becomes its chief executive (CEO). Explorium later raises about US$125 million. - **End of 2024** (grade B [3]): After army reserve duty, he does not return to Explorium. He starts Base44 as a side project. - **January 2025** (grade B [6]): Public launch. - **First three weeks** (grade C [2, 6]): 10,000 users. The founder reports about US$1 million in annual recurring revenue. - **January to June 2025** (grade B [2, 3]): He posts user numbers, revenue and profit publicly on LinkedIn and X. The product spreads through user recommendations. - **May 2025** (grade C [2]): Profit of US$189,000 for the month, after model costs. - **18 June 2025** (grade A [1, 2]): Wix buys Base44 for about US$80 million in cash plus earn-outs. The company has 6 to 8 employees. - **9 July 2025** (grade B [7]): The security company Wiz reports an authentication bypass. Wix fixes it within 24 hours. - **August 2025** (grade C [6]): US$15 million in annual recurring revenue, founder on LinkedIn. - **March 2026** (grade A [4, 6]): US$100 million in annual recurring revenue, disclosed with Wix's results. - **May 2026** (grade A [4]): US$150 million in annual recurring revenue. Wix discloses a US$38 million milestone payment to the founder. - **29 June 2026** (grade B [8]): Base44 launches Base1, its own AI model, trained on its users' interactions. - **4 August 2026** (grade A [5]): Wix discloses a further US$41 million payment to the founder. ## Why did Base44 work? ### Timing In late 2024, AI models crossed a threshold: a generated full-stack app mostly ran on the first try. Every earlier attempt at this product was built before that threshold existed. Base44 launched within weeks of it. ### The buyer Early 2025 competitors such as Lovable, Bolt and v0 produced code that the user still had to connect to a database and deploy. Base44 hid all of that. Its customer was an operations manager or a small-business owner, not an engineer. ### Cash from day one Users paid for credits before they built anything. Model costs were passed through to users in the price of the credits. So the company was profitable while it was still one person. ### Sold to distribution Wix had millions of website customers and needed an AI app builder. After the sale, annual recurring revenue grew from about US$3.5 million to US$150 million in eleven months. The product did not change that much. The sales channel did. ## How it was built These details come from a newsletter that summarizes the founder's talks and posts. They are grade C. - Plain JavaScript with JSX (a syntax for writing HTML-like markup inside JavaScript) instead of TypeScript, because the models wrote it with fewer errors. - MongoDB as the database, because the data model changed often. MongoDB is a document database, so it does not need a fixed table structure. - Model routing: larger models (Claude, Gemini) for app logic and design, and smaller models for small fixes. Routing means that each request goes to the cheapest model that can do the job. - Growth tactics: a staged onboarding of the first 10 users, then a relaunch on Product Hunt. Later, free credits for users who invited others, and a large hackathon event. - The first employee was hired about six weeks before the sale. Sources: [9] ## Who tried this before Base44, and why did they fail? Five companies in the Loot Drop database promised the same thing: software without programming. The values below are from that database and are not independently verified. The failed startups come from Loot Drop (https://www.loot-drop.io/), a free database of dead startups, retold here in our own words; Loot Drop describes its entries as AI-assisted summaries of public sources, so they carry no evidence grade. ### Builder.ai (2016 to 2025; funding US$445M; cause: Unit economics) - Promise: Custom apps for US$20,000, assembled by AI. - Why it died: The apps cost US$35,000 to build. Offshore developers did the work behind the AI label. It collapsed in May 2025, one month before Base44 was sold. - Record: https://www.loot-drop.io/startup/2170-builderai ### Koji (2016 to 2021; funding US$16M; cause: Competition) - Promise: No-code app builder for creators. - Why it died: Free users did not become paying users. It was squeezed between Webflow and Bubble. - Note: Press reports put Koji's end in December 2023, when Linktree bought it. The dates in the database may be wrong. - Record: https://www.loot-drop.io/startup/284-koji ### Light Table / Eve (2012 to 2015; funding US$3M; cause: Competition) - Promise: Let anyone build apps without code. - Why it died: Users had to learn a new way to program. Developers stayed with the editors they already knew. - Record: https://www.loot-drop.io/startup/1560-light-tableeve ### Appcubator (2013 to 2016; funding US$120K; cause: Product failure) - Promise: Drag-and-drop app creation, no coding degree required. - Why it died: The market was not ready. It lost to the more flexible Bubble. - Record: https://www.loot-drop.io/startup/1160-appcubator ### Sosh (2012 to 2013; funding US$2.3M; cause: No market need) - Promise: Drag-and-drop website builder, before Webflow existed. - Why it died: Too complex for beginners, too rigid for professionals, and the generated code was messy. - Record: https://www.loot-drop.io/startup/565-sosh ## What changed All five companies failed for one shared reason. Before 2024, no-code meant that the user replaced typed code with a visual tool, and the user still had to learn that tool. The database entry for Sosh says it exactly: too complex for beginners, too rigid for professionals. AI models removed the tool. Plain language became the interface, and real code became the output. Builder.ai is the sharpest contrast. It sold the same promise with people hidden behind an AI label, and it collapsed in May 2025. Base44 sold the same promise with a real model, and Wix bought it one month later. ## Can one person copy Base44 now? **Verdict: Not as it is. The pattern, yes.** The general-purpose market closed within about a year. Lovable reported US$500 million in annual recurring revenue in June 2026. Base44 is inside Wix. Replit, Bolt, v0 and the model companies compete with large budgets. A new general-purpose app builder from one person has no opening. 1. Watch for a capability threshold: a model that newly does one thing reliably. 2. Build the all-in-one version for a buyer who cannot program, while competitors serve developers. 3. Charge from the first day, with usage pricing, and publish your numbers. 4. Sell to whoever owns distribution before funded competitors arrive. **What is still open.** The vertical version is still open. That means app generation for one profession where data rules and compliance matter. Examples: clinics, law firms, property managers. ## What could go wrong for Base44? - **Model dependence.** Base44 rents its intelligence from model providers. Base1, its own model trained on tens of millions of user interactions, is the answer. The company says that owning the model will cut inference cost and improve margins. - **Bundling by a giant.** Shlomo has said that the competitor to fear is Google, not Replit or Lovable. A free app builder inside a large software suite would remove Base44's pricing power. - **Credit pricing.** Reviewers report users who pay about US$300 a month after they spend all their plan credits. Price complaints are the most common criticism in reviews. - **Security liability.** The July 2025 flaw let anyone register inside private apps by using a public app identifier, which also bypassed single sign-on. The platform owns security for apps whose builders cannot audit them. - **Cost to the parent.** Calcalist reported that Wix's quarterly loss widened to US$76.4 million in 2026, partly because of the Base44 payouts. ## Sources 1. Wix press release, 18 June 2025: Wix Further Expands into Vibe Coding with Acquisition of Base44 — https://www.wix.com/press-room/home/post/wix-further-expands-into-vibe-coding-with-acquisition-of-base44-a-hyper-growth-startup-that-simplif (grade A). Read in full. Primary source for the deal terms, the retention bonuses and the earn-out period. 2. TechCrunch, 18 June 2025: 6-month-old, solo-owned vibe coder Base44 sells to Wix for $80M cash — https://techcrunch.com/2025/06/18/6-month-old-solo-owned-vibe-coder-base44-sells-to-wix-for-80m-cash/ (grade A). Read in full. Wix confirmed the cash form and the headcount to TechCrunch. The user and profit numbers inside it are founder posts, grade C. 3. Calcalist, 18 June 2025: Vibe coding fever: Solo entrepreneur's Base44 acquired by Wix for $80 million — https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/s1iflnlelx (grade B). Read in full. Source for the founder's background and the six-employee count. 4. Calcalist, May 2026: Base44 milestone unlocks $38 million payout for founder Maor Shlomo — https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/sy8shemymg (grade A). Read in full. Reports numbers that Wix disclosed. 5. Calcalist, 4 August 2026: Maor Shlomo's Base44 payday climbs to $150 million after latest Wix payout — https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/apa3i9eyt (grade A). Read in full. Reports numbers from Wix's second-quarter 2026 earnings. 6. Latka, updated 31 August 2026: Base44 Revenue: $80M Wix Deal, Then $150M ARR — https://getlatka.com/blog/base44-revenue-acquired-wix (grade B). Read in full. A secondary compilation that dates and attributes each revenue figure. 7. The Hacker News, July 2025: Wiz Uncovers Critical Access Bypass Flaw in AI-Powered Vibe Coding Platform Base44 — https://thehackernews.com/2025/07/wiz-uncovers-critical-access-bypass.html (grade B). Read in full. Based on the Wiz research report. 8. TechCrunch, 29 June 2026: Vibe-coding platform Base44 launches own model as AI startups seek defensibility — https://techcrunch.com/2026/06/29/vibe-coding-platform-base44-launches-own-model-as-ai-startups-seek-defensibility/ (grade B). Read in full. Also the source for Lovable's US$500 million ARR claim. 9. AI & No-Code Exits newsletter, 16 January 2026: How Maor Shlomo sold Base44 for $80M — https://nocodeexits.substack.com/p/how-maor-shlomo-sold-base44-for-80m (grade C). Read in full. Summarizes founder talks. Source for the technical and growth details. 10. Base44 reviews with 2026 pricing: flowstep.ai and justinmckelvey.com — https://flowstep.ai/blog/base44-review/ (grade C). Read as summaries. Source for the plan prices and the credit complaints. 11. Loot Drop database export, 1,749 failed startups — https://www.loot-drop.io/ (grade C). Local export. AI-written summaries, not independently verified. Source for the failed predecessors.