Siteglade and Base44: website workflow, apps and source handover
Base44 and Siteglade both build websites and applications, offer backend services and let you export project source. Code ownership alone is not a difference between them.
Siteglade combines a website brief or editable source template with visual refinement, generated media and production publishing. Base44 documents an integrated app platform with database, authentication, integrations and workflows.
This Siteglade-published comparison, checked against the linked official sources on October 3, 2026, explains source handover and service boundaries. It does not rank untested design quality or reliability.
Both provide source export; check what stays hosted
Base44 documents two-way GitHub synchronization on Builder and above and a local development environment. Its local environment handles some backend capabilities itself and forwards others to deployed services.
Siteglade exports a conventional Next.js or Vite source project. A frontend-only site can run on compatible hosting elsewhere. If you use Siteglade Cloud, its data and backend services need separate migration, just as managed services do in other builders.
What "you own your code" should actually mean
The phrase is doing a lot of work in this market. At minimum it should mean the generated source is written in a mainstream framework, that you can read all of it, that you can get a complete copy out, and that the copy builds and runs somewhere other than the tool that produced it.
Those are four separate claims, and a platform can satisfy some without the others. Code you can read but not export is not portable. Code you can export but which depends on a proprietary runtime is not portable either. It is worth pressing on each one:
- Framework: is the output a mainstream stack, or a platform-specific format?
- Completeness: does the export include configuration, assets and dependencies, or just page files?
- Runtime dependencies: will it build without calling back to the platform?
- Mechanism: is there a real export, or only copy and paste from a viewer?
- Gating: which plan does export sit on, and can you get your code out of a free account?
What Siteglade hands over, concretely
Siteglade generates standard Next.js or Vite React projects. There is no intermediate representation and no proprietary component format — the file you read in the built-in Monaco editor is the file that gets built and deployed.
Read and edit source in the built-in editor on every plan. Export to your own GitHub repository on Free, Pro, Plus and Max. Self-service ZIP download and temporary Git clone access are available on Free, Pro, Plus and Max. A free export through support is available on every plan.
A frontend-only export uses a normal framework build and compatible hosting. Projects connected to managed backend, authentication or other services still depend on those services until they are migrated or replaced.
Where the honest limits are
Two areas deserve care, and we would rather write them down than let you discover them later.
The first is the managed backend. Siteglade Cloud can provision databases, authentication and storage for a generated site on Pro, Plus and Max, behind an explicit consent step that is enforced on the server so the agent itself cannot bypass it. If your site uses that, the frontend code is yours and portable, but the backend is a hosted service — moving off it means standing up an equivalent, exactly as it would with any managed backend from any vendor.
The second is generated media. Images and video produced in Media Studio are files in your project and travel with it, but they were generated through third-party models, and the usual sensible caution about generated media in commercial contexts applies here as it does everywhere else.
A site that is purely frontend — the majority of what gets built here — has neither issue. It exports as a plain codebase and that is the end of it.
Ownership beyond the source tree
Code is only one of the things you can be locked into. The domain matters at least as much: Siteglade hands domain purchases to a third-party registrar checkout and is never the merchant of record, so the name is registered to you at a registrar you can log into and transfer from. Domains you already own connect via generated DNS records instead.
Images, video and 3D models generated through Siteglade carry machine-readable AI markings in their file metadata where technically feasible, and those files travel with the exported code.
And the boring one: on Free the published site carries a Siteglade badge. Pro, Plus and Max remove it. That is the only visible Siteglade branding on a deployed site.
When Base44 is honestly the better pick
Evaluate Base44 when integrated data, user management and business workflows are central to your project. Evaluate Siteglade when website design, template-based iteration, media and a source handover are the main deliverables. Both can build projects with accounts and stored data; test the actual permissions and workflow you need.
If you specifically want a fully managed platform — one vendor for the frontend, the database and the auth, with no intention of ever exporting — then export mechanics are not a deciding factor and you should weigh the platform on its own merits.
Choose on the strength of the exit only if you think you might use it. Plenty of people never do, and that is a legitimate choice too.
| Method | How it works | Plan required |
|---|---|---|
| Read in the browser | Monaco editor and file explorer over the live project tree | All plans |
| Code download | Self-service ZIP archive of the whole project | All plans |
| Export through support | Free source export on request | All plans |
| GitHub export | OAuth flow creates a repo and pushes the project to your account | All plans |
| Git clone access | Short-lived signed clone tokens against a built-in git server | All plans |
| Deploy elsewhere | Standard Next.js or Vite project, no proprietary runtime | All plans |
Frequently asked questions
Can I export the code on the Free plan?
Yes. On every plan, including Free, you can read and edit the source, download it as a ZIP, export it to your own GitHub repository or clone it with Git. A free export through support is available too.
Does the exported project build outside Siteglade?
Yes for a normal frontend site — it is a standard Next.js or Vite React project, so install dependencies and run the usual build. The exception is any part of the site wired to the managed backend, which is a hosted service rather than code you can copy.
What exactly is Siteglade Cloud, and is it required?
It is an optional managed backend providing databases, authentication and storage for a generated site, on Pro, Plus and Max. It is never provisioned silently: there is an explicit consent step enforced on the server that the agent has no way around. Plenty of sites never use it.
Who owns a domain bought through Siteglade?
You do. Siteglade shows at-cost pricing through Cloudflare Registrar and then hands the purchase to a third-party registrar checkout, so the registration is in your name and Siteglade is never the merchant of record for it.
How does the GitHub export handle updates after the first push?
The OAuth flow creates the repository and pushes the project source into your account. Once the code is in your repository it is yours to manage with normal git tooling, which is the point of exporting it in the first place.
Is there anything Siteglade keeps that I cannot take?
The build history and chat transcript live in the product; we send you a copy on request. The managed backend is a hosted service. The site itself — source, assets, configuration — is a plain codebase you can download, push to GitHub or clone.