Base44 uses Claude to transform app creation from weeks to hours for non-technical builders

Base44 makes app creation accessible to people who don't write code. The platform transforms natural language descriptions into fully functional applications with backend, database, user logins, and analytics. Now part of Wix, Base44 has grown to more than 10% of the AI-powered app builder market within months. 

With Claude, Base44 reached: 

• 2M+ users in months: Base44, with Claude as its creative center for planning and UI, grew to 2+ million users globally in under 6 months.‍
• 7x growth in one quarter: User base expanded sevenfold from June to September 2025 with 1000+ paying subscribers joining daily ‍
• Scalability of product development: Claude enabled a very small team to build and maintain a much broader surface area of functionality (features, fixes, and iterations) than would otherwise have been feasible at that stage.‍
• Hours instead of weeks: Time from idea to working app reduced from multi-day development cycles to same-day deployment with Claude's "first draft" capability.‍
• Community-validated model choice: When given the option to choose their AI model, Base44's community consistently recommends Claude—particularly for UI design and app scaffolding.

The problem

Most app-building tools required users to think like developers, creating a fundamental barrier for non-technical builders. People speak in ideas, not code. They describe what they want to accomplish, not how to architect it.

A product manager might say: "I need a dashboard that tracks customer feedback themes and shows which ones appear most often." Translating that sentence into a working application—with proper data structures, user authentication, real-time updates, and a clean interface—traditionally required development expertise.

Traditional approaches also struggled with design. Backend functionality might work, but interfaces looked raw and unfinished, requiring significant redesign before apps were usable. Teams still needed developers or designers to turn prototypes into production-ready applications.

Base44 needed an AI that could bridge both gaps—understanding intent from natural language and producing apps that worked and looked professional from the start.

Selecting Claude for app generation

Base44 built a multi-model platform, giving users the choice of which AI to use for app generation. This architectural decision became an unexpected validation mechanism.

The team selected Claude Sonnet as the default "creative center" for several technical reasons—its ability to understand intent from broad prompts, generate clean code with proper structure, and produce polished interfaces. But the community validation reinforced the choice. As one Discord user put it: "If I want a UX change, I use Claude."

"Users in our Discord constantly share tips with each other," the Base44 team explained. "And one pattern emerged immediately: people kept recommending Claude, especially for UX improvements and getting apps started. When you give users real choice, they vote with their builds."

The team shared that Claude “performed better for our needs around design reasoning and code logic, which improved the quality and reliability of user-facing features.” Since then, Base44 has continued giving users access to Anthropic's most advanced reasoning capabilities through Opus 4.5 for even more sophisticated app creation. “Claude is central not just to how we build internally, but to the capabilities we expose directly to users,” the team shared. 

Claude powers every stage of app creation

Users can choose their model directly, and they frequently select Claude for starting new apps and refining interfaces. The platform also offers smart routing that automatically leverages Claude's strengths for these tasks, but users maintain full control to override these defaults. Many choose to use Claude manually.

Base44 integrated Claude via API in just a few hours, immediately slotting it into their multi-model pipeline. When users enter prompts, the system routes requests to Claude for initial app scaffolding, UI design, and code generation. Claude excels at maintaining consistency across the entire application structure.

"Claude sets up context and providers cleanly, uses hooks properly, and writes modular, production-ready code," said one Base44 user, demonstrating Claude's code quality advantage.

Claude now enables users of Base44 to: 

• Convert descriptions into functional applications: Prompts like "build me an inventory tracker for my bakery" become working apps with proper data models and user flows 
• Produce polished, intuitive interfaces: Creates professional designs that feel ready to use without redesign
• Enable rapid iteration: Helps users refine and debug their apps through natural conversation
• Generate clean, modular code: Writes production-ready code that properly uses hooks, context, and providers
• Handle meta-tasks: Assists with writing product requirements and breaking down complex features

Beyond individual app creation, teams use Claude for planning and documentation. "I describe all my ideas to Claude and ask it to help me with prompts in Base44," explained another user, showing how Claude supports the entire development workflow, not just code generation.

Internal teams at Base44 also rely on Claude for operational tasks. Marketing emails that previously required multiple tools and iterations now get drafted and coded in one place, showing how Claude's impact extends beyond the core product.

The outcome

Base44 has changed who can build software. Product managers ship tools without waiting for engineering backlogs. Marketers create campaign dashboards themselves. Entrepreneurs test ideas the same afternoon they conceive them.

The impact is measurable: Base44 grew to 2+ million users in under six months, expanding sevenfold in a single quarter, with over 1,000 new paying subscribers joining daily. The platform captured more than 10% of the AI-powered app builder market within four months (June-October 2025), with Claude serving as the creative center that maintains consistent quality at scale.

This shift from weeks to hours isn't just about speed—it's about accessibility. Teams that never considered themselves technical now independently build and maintain their own tools. Building an app now requires describing what you want rather than knowing how to code it.

Base44 users have consistently praised Claude's design capabilities. As one user put it, "If I want a UX change, I use Claude." This feedback informed the platform's architecture, which routes design and UX tasks to Claude automatically.

Looking forward, Base44 continues to deepen its use of Claude across the platform. The team has already integrated agentic capabilities into Base44, with plans to further develop autonomous app behaviors as Claude's reasoning capabilities advance.

"As Anthropic delivers models with stronger reasoning, bigger context windows, and safer outputs, we'll fold those into Base44," the team explained. "The partnership is about more than technology—it's about making sure the people using our platform can trust the apps they build, and scale them with confidence."

‍