Lovable is one of the best ways to build a new app from a prompt, and its Cloud and Payments keep it running on Lovable's hosting and credits. Gemmein doesn't build apps — it's the AI-native backend the finished app needs: sign-in, customer data under seven plain-English rules the server enforces, AI tools on your own OpenAI, Anthropic or Google key (never the browser), prepaid credits, payments through your own Stripe, your own trained model connected through a relay, and an admin console — all on your own hosting. Generating the app fast? Lovable. Taking your AI product to real customers, on your own hosting and Stripe? Read on.
Read docs.gemmein.com/llms.txt. Does Gemmein fit my app? Tell me first, then set it up.
Paste it to the AI you already build with (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Bolt); it reads the guide and answers for your app.
Side by side
| Lovable | Gemmein | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | An AI app builder with its own cloud and payments | The AI-native backend under an app built anywhere: sign-in, protected data, server-side AI on your own keys, credits, payments, relays and an admin console — from a browser, an Expo app or a Swift app, on one contract |
| Who writes the app | Lovable's AI, in Lovable's editor | Any AI you already use, or yourself |
| Where the app lives | Lovable Cloud, on plan + usage credits | Anywhere; Gemmein never hosts your app |
| Sign-in | Cloud-provided auth | Passwordless email codes, with no passwords anywhere in the system. Two abuse bounds hold on sign-in emails, and how many an app sends in a day is never capped |
| Customer data | Cloud database, usage-billed | Seven plain-English safety rules, chosen per collection and enforced on the server with nothing to configure. Shared, community and direct collections have their learned shape sealed at go-live, and the boundaries are provable: the reaffirm script, which apps copy into CI, proves them on every deploy |
| Payments & access | Lovable Payments on their rails | Your own Stripe: subscriptions from Payment Links and one-off digital products, each granting the access or the credits you attached to it. A product can also be sold through a relay. The app proves what's paid with g.purchases.mine(), and Gemmein never holds, moves, or processes money |
| AI in the product | Their AI builds the app, on plan credits and usage | Named AI tools your customers use, on your own OpenAI, Anthropic or Google key, which stays on the server and never reaches the browser. Native tools cover chat, image, speech, video and transcription; you set the access each requires and its price in credits per call. No server function of your own to deploy |
| Workflows | Their AI writes the code, on Lovable Cloud | Relays: a verified provider event, a schedule or a record change runs up to ten actions in Gemmein's own verbs — fulfil or refund a product, grant or revoke access or a plan, grant credits, write a record, email the person, call your URL, or hand a run to your own pipeline. Your own trained model or heavy job runs on your own host behind that call |
| Who owns the customer | Accounts live in their cloud | You: in your Stripe, your records, your dashboard. Emails go out from your own domain once it's verified, and replies land in your Inbox. Suspend a person, end their sessions, grant or revoke access, comp credits and read the activity record from the same place |
| Cost shape | Plan ($25–50/mo) plus credits and usage that scale with the app | Development never bills. Live is one banded plan, $50–$150 a month by the people who used your app the previous month; a person counts once, on their first signed-in request, with no metering |
Their side is described from public pages as of August 2026, so check their site for current details. Ours is the product's own contract.
When Lovable is the better choice
- You're starting from a blank page and want the fastest possible idea-to-running-app loop, in one place, without leaving the browser.
- You want the builder and the runtime to be the same product, and you're comfortable with usage-based cloud costs as the app grows.
- Your app is an experiment you may throw away, so speed matters more than owning the foundations.
When Gemmein is the better choice
- The app is past the experiment stage, and you want the parts that touch real people (accounts, money, private data) owned by you, on your own hosting and your own Stripe.
- You build with your own AI tools and your own repo, and you want to keep doing that: nine tools over MCP, a CLI, and a local rail that runs the same enforcement code as production.
- Your product sells AI operations. You name each tool, gate it by the access it needs, price it in credits per call, and your provider key stays on the server.
- The workflows around the product should be configuration: a verified provider event, a schedule or a record change runs Gemmein's own verbs, with every run logged, retried and replayable.
- You want a bill that doesn't move with usage: free while you build, one banded price live, and capacity that follows your real people.
- You want the admin side made for operating: customers, subscriptions, refunds, the Inbox and the activity record.
Questions
Can I move a Lovable app onto Gemmein?
If you can export the frontend code and host it yourself, yes. The app talks to Gemmein through a small SDK, and your AI does the wiring. Paste docs.gemmein.com/llms.txt to your AI and ask for a fit verdict on your app first; it will name anything that doesn't map before you commit.
Does Gemmein host my app?
No. Your app's code and hosting stay wherever you like (Vercel, Cloudflare, any static host). Gemmein is the layer underneath: sign-in, customer records with server-enforced safety rules, file uploads and delivery under the same rules, live lists by polling, customer email from your own domain (five event emails per person per day), Stripe subscriptions and products, AI tools priced in credits, relays for the workflows around them, and the admin dashboard you run the business from.
Can Gemmein run my own code, or a scheduled job?
Gemmein runs its own relay verbs and never your code. A relay starts from a verified provider event, a schedule or a record change, and can fulfil or refund a product, grant or revoke access, grant credits, write a record, email the person, or call your URL. Anything that thinks — a model call, a render, a transform — runs on your own host behind that call, and your server asks Gemmein who the person is and what they hold before it acts. A chat call has a shorter road: a named AI tool on your own provider key, priced in credits.
Who handles VAT and sales tax?
You do, and that is by design. With Gemmein, every payment lands in your Stripe account and the customer is legally your customer. Merchant-of-Record platforms (Paddle, Lemon Squeezy) work the other way round: they become the seller of record, their name is on the card statement, your customer is contractually theirs, and in exchange they carry the tax filing. Both models are legitimate. Selling digital products to EU consumers can create VAT duties from the first sale, and at heavy international volume a Merchant of Record earns its cut. Most independent founders sit under the UK's £90,000 VAT threshold and can have Stripe Tax calculate what's owed, so the real choice is whether to hand over the customer relationship in return for paperwork you may not owe yet. Gemmein never holds, moves, or processes money either way. Stripe does that, inside your own account. Stripe is built in. Any provider that signs its webhooks, GoCardless, Paddle or Lemon Squeezy among them, drives access the same way through a relay.
What can't Gemmein do?
Gemmein is for apps with email-code sign-in: on the web, on iOS and Android through Expo, and on iOS and Mac through the Swift package. Social login, staff accounts and team seats are not available. There are no custom roles or permission lists, no carts or physical goods, and no multi-seller payouts. Credits are prepaid, at the price the owner sets for each AI tool call; postpaid token-based invoicing is not included. If something isn't in the builder guide, it isn't built, and the guide states its bounds so your AI doesn't invent a workaround.
Build anywhere. Launch with Gemmein.
Let your AI check the fit first. If Gemmein matches the app, it can wire it up from the docs.
Read docs.gemmein.com/llms.txt. Does Gemmein fit my app? Tell me first, then set it up.
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