A Strategic Move Toward Independence
Base44, the vibe coding startup acquired by Wix for $80 million in June 2025, has unveiled its own artificial intelligence model named Base1. This development marks a significant step away from dependence on external frontier AI providers such as Anthropic and Google. Competitors like Lovable and Replit continue to rely on these third party models, which exposes them to risks related to cost fluctuations and service availability.
By training Base1 on millions of real user interactions from its platform, Base44 aims to deliver superior latency, cost efficiency, and optimization specifically tailored for web application development. The company enables users to create functional applications through natural language prompts without requiring traditional coding skills.
Growth and Market Position
Founded by Maor Shlomo and launched in February 2025, Base44 has reported $150 million in annual recurring revenue as of May 2026. Its main rivals include Lovable, a Sweden based startup that uses Anthropic Claude and has reached $500 million in ARR, and Replit, a California based company that relies on both Claude and Gemini.
Owning the entire AI stack allows Base44 to differentiate itself in the increasingly competitive vibe coding landscape. The proprietary model gives the company greater control over its technology roadmap and reduces vulnerability to changes in third party model pricing or availability.
Source: Inc.
