The full stack · 2026
What it really costs to run an AI-built app in 2026
An AI builder is only one line on the bill. To run a paid app you also need hosting, a database, auth, email, file storage, analytics, error tracking and payments wired in — about 9 accounts. Forge64 builds the app and includes the stack in one plan.
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What would N apps cost you?
Forge64 Pro is $59 a month. That looks like more than the first plan of any single hosting tool, and for one tiny app it is. A real product needs more than one app, and each app needs a server, a database, sign-in, a domain and analytics. Move the slider (1 to 13 apps) and see what the same setup costs on other platforms, using their public list prices read on October 22, 2026.
Pro is $74.20 a month. The middle of the 6 setups priced below is $55.79, so for this selection the other setups cost about the same or less. The lowest-priced setup is Railway at $31.88.
- Forge64 Pro$74.20/mo
$24.73 per app. Databases, sign-in, analytics and domains are part of the plan.
- Pro plan$59
- 1 extra always-on app (2 included)$15.20
- Railway$31.88/mo
$10.63 per app
How this is priced
- 3 apps and their databases at usage rates (Hobby plan, $5 minimum)$17.88
- Logins, free tier (no MFA, vendor branding stays)$0
- Website analytics for 3 sites (Growth)$14
Usage-billed. Modelled at 256 MB RAM and 0.02 vCPU per app, the same per database plus 1 GB of volume.
Databases are Postgres services you run on the platform, not a managed database.
- Heroku$50/mo
$16.67 per app
- Render$53/mo
$17.67 per app
How this is priced
- 3 always-on web services (512 MB each)$21
- 3 Postgres databases (256 MB each)$18
- Workspace (Hobby)$0
- Logins, free tier (no MFA, vendor branding stays)$0
- Website analytics for 3 sites (Growth)$14
Entry-level paid always-on size is 512 MB; Hobby workspace used.
- Fly.io$58.57/mo
$19.52 per app
How this is priced
- 3 always-on machines (256 MB each)$6.57
- Managed Postgres, one Basic cluster holding every app's database$38
- Logins, free tier (no MFA, vendor branding stays)$0
- Website analytics for 3 sites (Growth)$14
No platform fee. One managed Postgres cluster is shared by all apps; a cluster per app would be far dearer.
Self-run Postgres on a machine is cheaper but unsupported by Fly.io.
- Vercel + Supabase$79/mo
$26.33 per app
How this is priced
- 3 apps on Vercel Pro (1 seat, serverless)$20
- Database: Supabase Pro with 3 projects$45
- Logins (included with the database project)$0
- Website analytics for 3 sites (Growth)$14
Serverless functions, not always-on servers. The free Hobby plan is for non-commercial use only.
Database from the Supabase marketplace integration; its auth is used for logins when a database is chosen.
- Netlify + Supabase$79/mo
$26.33 per app
How this is priced
- 3 sites on Netlify Pro (flat per team)$20
- Database: Supabase Pro with 3 projects$45
- Logins (included with the database project)$0
- Website analytics for 3 sites (Growth)$14
Serverless functions, not always-on servers. Pro includes 3,000 credits a month; heavy traffic buys more.
Database from Supabase; its auth is used for logins when a database is chosen.
1 tiny app: cheaper elsewhere, or free on Forge64 Free
For one small app with a database and nothing else, Railway comes to about $5.96 a month, less than Forge64 Pro at $59. On Forge64 Free it is $0: one app that sleeps when idle. Pay for Pro when you need more than one app, apps that stay on, or your own domains.
Free tiers elsewhere have limits too. Render's free web service spins down after 15 minutes without traffic and its free database expires 30 days after creation. Supabase pauses free projects after 1 week of inactivity.
- An app is one small always-on web service. List prices only, for one builder, before tax, card fees and domain registration, with no traffic beyond what each plan includes.
- Forge64 prices come from the plan catalog: apps beyond the ones a plan includes are billed per app, and the plan is switched to the next one up when that costs less. Every meter has a hard cap, so the bill does not move without you.
- Sign-in is priced at the other side's free tier because Forge64 authenticator-app two-factor is a Pro-plan feature, not part of the free plan. Where a platform bills by usage, we assume a small app and a small database; the exact sizes are in each platform's "How this is priced" box.
- A platform appears only when every price it needs was read on that vendor's own page. The full list is below.
Every price the calculator uses
| Vendor | Item | Price | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Render | Hobby workspaceup to 25 services, 5 GB bandwidth included, 2 custom domains includedLowest-priced workspace; compute is billed per service on top. | $0/month | https://render.com/pricing |
| Render | Pro workspaceunlimited services, 25 GB bandwidth included, 15 custom domains includedRecorded, not used: the Hobby workspace is the cheaper reading. | $25/month | https://render.com/pricing |
| Render | Hobby workspace service limit | 25 | https://render.com/pricing |
| Render | Custom domains included on Hobby | 2 | https://render.com/pricing |
| Render | Extra custom domain | $0.25/domain/month | https://render.com/pricing |
| Render | Web service, Starter512 MB RAM, 0.5 CPU, always on | $7/month | https://render.com/pricing |
| Render | Postgres, 256 MB plan256 MB RAM, 100 connections, 1 GB SSD storage included | $6/month | https://render.com/pricing |
| Render | Free web service spins down after idle minuteswaking it takes about one minute | 15 minutes | https://render.com/docs/free |
| Render | Free Postgres database expires after30 days after creation | 30 days | https://render.com/docs/free |
| Railway | Hobby planincludes $5 of monthly usage; up to 0.5 GB RAM and 1 vCPU per serviceThe bill is the larger of the plan fee and usage. | $5/month | https://railway.com/pricing |
| Railway | Pro planincludes $20 of monthly usageRecorded, not used. | $20/month | https://railway.com/pricing |
| Railway | Memory | $0.00000386 per GB-second | https://railway.com/pricing |
| Railway | CPU | $0.00000772 per vCPU-second | https://railway.com/pricing |
| Railway | Volume storage | $0.00000006 per GB-second | https://railway.com/pricing |
| Railway | Custom domains on HobbyThe page does not say whether the limit is per project or per workspace, so no domain surcharge is added. | 2 | https://railway.com/pricing |
| Fly.io | shared-cpu-1x machine, 256 MBstarted machine, 30 days, Ashburn or SecaucusPrices vary by region. | $2.19/month | https://docs.fly.io/about/pricing/ |
| Fly.io | shared-cpu-1x machine, 512 MBstarted machine, 30 daysRecorded, not used. | $3.69/month | https://docs.fly.io/about/pricing/ |
| Fly.io | Managed Postgres, Basicper cluster; the entry-level managed databaseOne cluster can hold a database for every app, so one cluster is priced for all apps. Storage ($0.28/GB/month) is extra and is not added, which favours Fly.io. | $38/month | https://docs.fly.io/about/pricing/ |
| Fly.io | TLS certificate beyond the first 10 | $0.10/domain/month | https://docs.fly.io/about/pricing/ |
| Fly.io | Single-hostname certificates free per organization | 10 | https://docs.fly.io/about/pricing/ |
| Heroku | Eco dyno0.5 GB RAM, sleeps after 30 minutes of inactivityRecorded, not used: it sleeps, so it is not an always-on app. | $5/month | https://www.heroku.com/pricing |
| Heroku | Basic dyno0.5 GB RAM, always on, custom domains and SSL included | $7/month | https://www.heroku.com/pricing |
| Heroku | Heroku Postgres, Essential-01 GB storage, 20 connections | $5/month | https://www.heroku.com/pricing |
| Vercel | Pro plan1 deploying seat and $20 of usage credit included; custom domains includedServerless, not always-on servers. The free Hobby plan is for non-commercial use only (vercel.com/pricing). | $20/month | https://vercel.com/docs/plans/pro-plan |
| Vercel | Additional deploying seatRecorded, not used: the comparison assumes one builder. | $20/month | https://vercel.com/docs/plans/pro-plan |
| Netlify | Pro planunlimited members, 3,000 credits a month, custom domains with SSLFlat per team since the credit-based plans; there is no per-member price any more. | $20/month | https://www.netlify.com/pricing/ |
| Supabase | Pro planper organization; 100,000 monthly active users, 8 GB disk per project, $10 of compute credit | $25/month | https://supabase.com/pricing |
| Supabase | Each additional project (Micro compute)the first project's Micro instance is covered by the $10 credit | $10/month | https://supabase.com/pricing |
| Supabase | Free projects pause after inactivityafter 1 week of inactivity; 2 active projects | 7 days | https://supabase.com/pricing |
| Clerk | Hobby plan50,000 retained users per app, unlimited applications; no MFA, vendor branding stays | $0/month | https://clerk.com/pricing |
| Clerk | Pro planmonthly billing; 50,000 retained users per app, MFA, no vendor branding, unlimited applications$20 a month billed annually. | $25/month | https://clerk.com/pricing |
| Plausible | Starter1 site, 10k pageviews a month tierPriced at the page's lowest traffic setting (monthly billing). | $9/month | https://plausible.io/#pricing |
| Plausible | Growthup to 3 sites, 10k pageviews a month tierPriced at the page's lowest traffic setting. | $14/month | https://plausible.io/#pricing |
| Plausible | Businessup to 10 sites, 10k pageviews a month tierPriced at the page's lowest traffic setting. | $19/month | https://plausible.io/#pricing |
| Plausible | Sites on Starter | 1 | https://plausible.io/#pricing |
| Plausible | Sites on Growth | 3 | https://plausible.io/#pricing |
| Plausible | Sites on Business | 10 | https://plausible.io/#pricing |
The stack bill: separate tools vs Forge64
List prices in USD per month, before tax, card-processing fees and domain registration, from each vendor's pricing page on October 22, 2026.
| Stage | Separate stack | Forge64 all-in-one |
|---|---|---|
| Side project1 app, commercial use, under 1,000 users | ≈ $62/moLovable Pro, Vercel Pro, Neon Launch, Clerk Hobby, Resend Free, Plausible, Sentry Developer, UploadThing free tierVercel's free Hobby plan is non-commercial only, so a paid app needs Vercel Pro. | Pro ($59/mo)One account and one bill. Auth, Postgres, hosting, domains, payments and payouts built in. |
| Launched startup2 seats, 3 apps, about 10,000 users | ≈ $218/moLovable Business, Vercel Pro, 2 seats, Supabase Pro + Small compute, Clerk Pro, Email service, 50k sends, Plausible Growth, Sentry Team, UploadThingBefore usage charges on hosting and database. | Pro ($59/mo) or Business ($245/mo)One account and one bill. Auth, Postgres, hosting, domains, payments and payouts built in. |
| Scaling product5 seats, about 60,000 users | ≈ $768/moBolt Teams × 5, Vercel Pro × 5 + usage, Supabase Pro + Medium compute, Clerk Pro + per-user charges, Resend Pro, Plausible Business, Sentry Business, UploadThingPer-user auth charges grow with every user; Forge64 auth has no per-user fee. | Business ($245/mo)One account and one bill. Auth, Postgres, hosting, domains, payments and payouts built in. |
Line by line: the launched-startup stack
| Part | Tool | List price | In Forge64 |
|---|---|---|---|
| AI app builder | Lovable Business | $50/mo | Included: the AI builds and edits the app |
| Hosting | Vercel Pro, 2 seats | $40/mo | Included: always-on app slots on paid plans |
| Database | Supabase Pro + Small compute | $30/mo | Included: a Postgres database per app |
| Auth | Clerk Pro | $25/mo | Included: sign-in and accounts, no per-user fee |
| Email service, 50k sends | $20/mo | Coming soon: transactional email with a monthly allowance | |
| Analytics | Plausible Growth | $14/mo | Included: first-party, cookieless page-view analytics |
| Error tracking | Sentry Team | $29/mo | Included: first-party error tracking that accepts the standard Sentry SDK |
| File storage | UploadThing | $10/mo | Coming soon: managed file uploads with a monthly allowance |
| Total | 8 separate accounts, plus a payment provider | $218/mo | Pro ($59/mo) |
Lovable, Bolt.new and Base44 bundle some of these parts into their own plans; v0 and code-export workflows need all of them. See the comparisons below for each builder.
What Forge64 includes
Every Forge64 app is generated from your prompt and deployed to Forge64's servers with sign-in, its own Postgres database, HTTPS, and checkout and subscriptions. If you have never set up payments, built-in Forge Payments onboarding lets you start selling anyway. Email and file storage are coming soon. Paid plans keep apps always on and add your own domains.
The Free plan includes 1 app on a forge64.app subdomain that sleeps when idle, 3 deploys and 5 GB of bandwidth a month, and is never charged overage.
Frequently asked questions
- What does it cost to run an app built with AI in 2026?
- More than the AI builder's plan. At October 2026 list prices, the separate stack runs about $62 a month for a commercial side project, $218 for a launched startup and $768 for a scaling product, before card-processing fees.
- What is included in a Forge64 plan?
- The AI build, auth with no per-user fee, a Postgres database per app, hosting, a subdomain plus your own domains with HTTPS on paid plans, Forge Payments checkout, subscriptions and payouts for owners who do not have a payment account of their own. Email and file storage are coming soon.
- Which Forge64 plan matches which stage?
- A side project fits Pro ($59/mo). A launched startup fits Pro ($59/mo) or Business ($245/mo). A scaling product fits Business ($245/mo). Every plan and allowance is on the pricing page.
- Is the separate stack ever cheaper?
- Yes, for a personal project that stays on free, non-commercial tiers. The trade-off is many accounts and free-tier limits: Vercel's free Hobby plan is for non-commercial use only, Supabase pauses free projects after a week of inactivity, and Resend's free plan stops at 100 emails a day.
- Can a Forge64 bill spike?
- No. Every meter has a hard cap and paid plans have an overage spend cap you set; when it is reached, usage stops instead of billing more. The Free plan is never charged overage. Above a paid plan's allowance, bandwidth is $0.05 per GB.
- Are card-processing fees included?
- Card-processing fees apply in both setups, so they are left out of both totals. With Forge64 the payment integration, webhooks and billing page are already built, and Forge Payments charges one all-in fee per sale that includes processing.
Sources
- https://lovable.dev/pricing (accessed 2026-10-22; price from a search result, re-check on the vendor page)
- https://vercel.com/pricing (accessed 2026-10-22)
- https://supabase.com/pricing (accessed 2026-10-22)
- https://clerk.com/pricing (accessed 2026-10-22)
- https://resend.com/pricing (accessed 2026-10-22)
- https://plausible.io/#pricing (accessed 2026-10-22)
- https://sentry.io/pricing (accessed 2026-10-22)
- https://uploadthing.com/pricing (accessed 2026-10-22)
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