I have spent years building websites, apps, plugins and random ideas that probably should have stayed random ideas. WordPress was where I started. Then AI builders showed up and Lovable completely changed the way I thought about building.
I loved it.
I could describe an idea, watch it build the interface, connect a database, add authentication and have something that looked like a real product ridiculously fast. I have built multiple projects with Lovable and spent thousands of dollars doing it. So this is not going to be one of those articles where somebody uses Lovable for twenty minutes and tells you WordPress is better.
I have used both. A lot.
And in 2026, I have moved WordPress back to the center of what I am building.
Lovable changed what I expect from building websites
The best part of Lovable is not the templates. It is not React. It is not even the speed by itself.
It is the feeling that you can just talk to your project.
You tell it what you want. It looks at the project. It changes the code. You test it. You tell it what is wrong. It fixes it. When it works well, it feels less like building a website and more like having a developer sitting beside you.
That spoiled me.
Going back into WordPress after getting used to that can feel old school. Open a plugin. Find a setting. Open Elementor. Find the container. Change CSS. Refresh. Clear cache. Figure out which plugin is fighting with which plugin. I understood why people were excited about AI website builders because I was one of them.
Then the cost side started bothering me
My problem was never that Lovable could not build good software. It can. My problem was what happened after I had several real projects sitting there.
I had already spent a lot building them. Then I started paying attention to the ongoing credits used not only while building, but by cloud services and AI features used by deployed apps.
This is not something Lovable hides. Its current pricing explains that credits can be used for building, Lovable Cloud and AI features inside deployed apps. Lovable also says paid plans receive monthly Cloud credits, and that deployed apps may stop working when the usage balance runs out until funds are added or free usage resets.
You can read Lovable’s current pricing here.
That became very real for me.
I had a project that was still online, but the data side of the app was not functioning the way I expected because the available balance had run out. I had just purchased more credits days earlier, so seeing credits continue to disappear while I was not actively sitting there prompting the builder got my attention.
That was the point where my thinking changed.
To be fair Lovable does not lock up your code
I want to make this clear because there is enough garbage comparison content online already.
Lovable says you own your code and your data. Projects can sync to GitHub, the code can be cloned, and applications can be deployed on other infrastructure. Their documentation also explains options for moving the frontend, backend and database away from Lovable Cloud.
Lovable’s deployment and ownership documentation explains those options.
So I am not saying Lovable holds your code hostage. It does not.
The issue for me is practical control.
If you are comfortable with GitHub, React, deployment pipelines, environment variables, databases and moving infrastructure around, you have options. If you are not a developer and you built the entire thing by talking to AI, moving that application and maintaining it somewhere else is a much bigger job.
That matters to me because I am exactly the kind of builder these tools attract. I can build a lot with AI, I understand WordPress extremely well now, and I can work through technical problems with AI. But I do not want to become a full-time React developer just because I need to make a small change to one of my projects.
WordPress gives me a different kind of control
WordPress is not perfect. I have fought themes. I have fought Elementor. I have had plugins conflict. I have broken things and spent hours figuring out why.
But I can get to everything.
I can move hosts. I can replace a plugin. I can edit a plugin. I can disable something that is causing a problem. I can access the database. I can use a cheap shared host for a small project or move to a better server when it grows. If I stop paying for an AI coding tool tomorrow, the WordPress site does not suddenly forget how to be a WordPress site.
That freedom started mattering more to me than I expected.
WordPress is also cheaper for the way I build
This will depend on what you are building, so I am not going to pretend WordPress always costs less.
For my projects, it does.
I already know the ecosystem. I can reuse plugins. I can build my own plugins. Hosting can be inexpensive. WordPress itself is free. I can keep working on the site even if I decide not to pay an AI builder that month.
With Lovable, I found myself thinking about credits while building and then thinking about usage after the project was live. That is fine when the project is making money. It feels very different when you have several experiments that are not making anything yet.
I have probably spent somewhere between $5,000 and $10,000 across AI building experiments over the last few years and I have not made that money back. That is on me, not Lovable. I build a lot of stuff. But it changed what I value.
There was still one huge thing WordPress was missing
This was the problem.
I wanted WordPress control with Lovable’s workflow.
I wanted to be able to open ChatGPT or Claude and say, “Go look at the site and figure out what is wrong.”
Not copy an error into ChatGPT.
Not paste 500 lines of PHP into Claude.
Not ask AI to write an article and then copy it into WordPress myself.
I wanted the AI to actually connect to WordPress, inspect the site, understand the plugins, work with Elementor, read approved settings and make changes when I told it to.
That is what finally changed the equation for me.
I now have ChatGPT and Claude connected directly to WordPress
I built a WordPress MCP connector and connected both ChatGPT and Claude to MLMPage.
Now I can be away from my computer and ask ChatGPT to inspect a setting on the live site. It can read the actual approved WordPress option instead of guessing. I can ask it what plugins are installed. It can inspect my custom plugin source. It can update an Elementor widget. It can create posts, manage categories and tags, inspect my PWA configuration and help diagnose a production problem.
Claude can work on the same WordPress project too.
When I get back to my computer, the three of us can work through a bigger problem together. One AI can inspect what the other changed. I can test the frontend. We can make another change. The site remains WordPress the entire time.
That is the Lovable feeling I was missing.
WordPress vs Lovable is a much harder decision now
| What matters | WordPress | Lovable |
|---|---|---|
| Fast AI-first building | Improving fast with AI connectors | Excellent |
| Traditional site ownership and hosting choice | Excellent | Code and data are portable, migration is more technical |
| Plugin ecosystem | Massive | Different app stack and integrations |
| Manual editing for non-developers | Strong | Easy through AI, code editing is more technical |
| Building prototypes quickly | Good | Excellent |
| Running lots of small experiments cheaply | My preference | Usage costs matter more to me |
| AI working directly on the project | Possible with the setup I use now | Built into the experience |
Who I think should use Lovable
If you have an idea for a web app and want to see it working fast, Lovable is still one of the coolest tools I have used.
If you have money to invest, you value speed more than minimizing ongoing costs, or you have enough technical ability to move and maintain the code yourself if necessary, Lovable can make a ton of sense.
I am not done using it either. There are projects where I would absolutely reach for it.
Who I think should use WordPress
If you are building a content site, membership site, community, affiliate site, MLM website, service business or a project that fits the WordPress ecosystem, I would seriously consider WordPress first.
Especially now.
The old argument was that WordPress gave you control but AI builders gave you the futuristic building experience.
I do not think those two things have to be separate anymore.
The setup that changed my mind
I am documenting the exact system I am using on MLMPage, including how I connected ChatGPT and Claude to WordPress through a permission-controlled MCP server.
This is not theoretical. It is the setup being used to help run this website.
Next: How I Connected ChatGPT and Claude Directly to WordPress
If you want the connector, setup guide and the same permission model I am using, visit the AI WordPress Builder page. The Marketur MCP Server download and full setup guide are included with MLMPage Pro Yearly.
