12:00Blog
Build3 vs Bolt
16 October 2026
Bolt puts an AI coding agent next to the files. Build3 takes a description and hands you a website or a game you preview and publish. One of them assumes you want the code in front of you. The other assumes you want the result.
What is on screen
Bolt is a project full of files, with an agent writing them. Build3 is a conversation and a preview. You judge the page or the game, then ask for a change.
Open Bolt if you will read the code, edit a file, and keep going from there. Open Build3 if you would rather not.
Games
Build3 treats a game as a normal thing to ask for. You describe how it plays and then you play the preview. Bolt can write a game too, if you are willing to work in that project’s code.
Paying and publishing
Build3 sells credits. No subscription, and the credits do not expire. Bolt sells its own plans. This article does not quote Bolt’s prices.
Build3 publishes to a build3.site link from the project. That link is included. A domain you own is a separate unlock.
- What you look at on Build3: the preview
- What you look at on Bolt: the files and the running app
- How you change Build3: another sentence in the chat
- How you change Bolt: a prompt, or edit the code
- After Build3: a link you publish and update
- After Bolt: a project you can keep coding
Which one to open
If the job is a codebase you intend to maintain by hand, Bolt matches that job. Build3 is the chat and the preview, not a browser IDE.
There is no one-click handoff from one to the other. Build the thing in the one that matches how you want to work.
