Directual vs Lovable: an honest comparison for founders and studios

Quick verdict

• Lovable — an AI-powered tool for ultra-fast prototyping and MVPs. Perfect when you need to test an idea, show an investor a demo, or build a simple product without a dev team.
• Directual — a full-stack no-code platform for building scalable, production-grade systems: complex business logic, integrations, AI agents, and enterprise-level requirements.

In short:
Testing an idea? Use Lovable. Building a long-term business? Choose Directual.

What makes Lovable truly good

To be fair, Lovable has something most traditional no-code platforms lack — a pure “wow-effect” of speed.

• You type a prompt — and in 10–30 minutes, you already have a live app with a React frontend, Supabase backend, authentication, and hosting.
• Non-technical founders, PMs, and marketers can build MVPs themselves: landing pages, simple SaaS apps, dashboards, or internal tools.
• Everything comes out of the box: frontend, backend, database, auth, and hosting. Plus, you can export the code to GitHub for further manual development.

For an early-stage founder, it’s a powerful way to validate ideas and show something real to users or investors over a weekend.

Where Lovable falls short: real user experience

As projects grow more complex, the story changes dramatically. Developers and advanced users have reported consistent frustrations.

Context loss — like a senior dev with amnesia

A typical quote from a developer:

Same issue as all dev agents — they lose context like a senior developer with Alzheimer’s. Without proper review, the code becomes unmaintainable.

In practice, this means:

• long prompt chains → AI forgets earlier context;
• code style and architecture shift mid-way;
• without manual review, projects quickly become tangled and expensive to maintain.

Endless bug loops and credit burning

A classic scenario: you find a bug, ask Lovable to fix it. The AI:

1. “fixes” it,
2. breaks something else,
3. reintroduces the same bug on the next run,
4. and keeps looping endlessly.

Developers often note that the only solution is to delete the file and ask it to regenerate from scratch. Meanwhile, your credits are draining fast. The free plan is only good for testing — you can’t really work on it seriously — and on paid plans, every small action costs money: every change, every bugfix, every iteration burns credits.

React libraries and complex UI issues

Another pain point:

• Lovable generates React-based frontends,
• you try to integrate a complex third-party component (e.g., a chat for AI agents or a custom UI kit),
• even with full documentation, the AI often fails — mismatched types, broken contexts, unstable logic.

It works fine as long as you stay within its template boundaries. But as soon as you move into custom territory, the fight begins.

Repetitive design patterns

Another common critique:

• The default UI looks decent,
• but every Lovable project looks the same,
• to get anything unique, you must feed dozens of references and design guides.

Otherwise, you end up with a generic SaaS template with minor visual tweaks.

How Directual is fundamentally different

Directual plays in a different league. Its purpose isn’t to generate code for you — it’s to provide a framework for building serious systems.

Workflows: a true process engine

The key advantage of Directual is its powerful workflow system:

• conditional logic, branching, loops;
• multi-step data processing;
• integrations with external APIs;
• process automation, recurring tasks, webhooks.

It’s effectively a built-in workflow engine that combines backend power with visual flexibility:

• built on a distributed NoSQL database (AWS or Yandex Cloud),
• with an API builder where scenarios run synchronously or asynchronously,
• with real-time capabilities via WebSockets,
• with built-in vector DB and full AI agent support,
• and with high stability under load without performance degradation.

Lovable, by contrast, relies on Supabase and basic CRUD operations. Any non-trivial logic quickly hits limitations or requires rewriting by hand.

Scalability and architecture

Directual was built from day one to handle:

• B2B SaaS products,
• internal business systems (CRM, ERP, LMS, etc.),
• high-load integrations and data-driven apps.

Core strengths:

• millions of records without custom optimization,
• workflows executing in milliseconds,
• DEV/TEST/PROD environments with versioning and logs,
• on-premise and private-cloud deployment options.

This is about keeping your product running for years, not rebuilding it every six months.

Money: credits vs predictable subscription

This is where the two models diverge completely.

Lovable

• you pay per credit,
• every prompt, edit, or “bug loop” costs money,
• during active development, expenses can reach tens of dollars a day.

Founders often describe it as paying for the process, not the outcome.

Directual

• classic subscription model with operation limits,
• you pay for real app activity (requests, workflows, API calls),
• iteration and refinement don’t affect cost.

Lovable may be cheaper for short experiments. For a live, evolving product, Directual provides far more predictable economics.

Security and enterprise readiness

Lovable offers solid compliance (SOC 2, ISO, GDPR) and automatic security scans. But architecturally, it’s a cloud-only platform with limited customization and basic RBAC via Supabase.

Directual, on the other hand:

• offers granular roles and permissions,
• data encryption and multiple password hashing options,
• audit logs, CORS, SSL,
• and, crucially, deployment in private cloud or on-premise.

For fintech, government, or healthcare — that’s critical. You stay compliant with your internal security policies.

When to choose Lovable

Lovable is a great choice if you:

• need to validate an idea or MVP in a weekend,
• want a quick investor demo,
• are a non-technical founder proving a concept,
• build simple CRUD apps, dashboards, or landing pages,
• plan to migrate later if the idea succeeds.

It’s a sprinter — fast off the line, but not built for endurance.

When to choose Directual

Directual is for you if you:

• are building a scalable product with long-term vision,
• need complex workflows and integrations,
• run B2B SaaS, CRM, ERP, or internal tools,
• want to integrate AI agents, RAG, or vector search into your app,
• work in regulated industries needing compliance and security,
• are a studio or freelancer prioritizing maintainability and predictability.

It’s a marathoner — not flashy at first, but rock-solid for the long run.

Hybrid approach: sprinter + marathoner

Many experienced teams combine both:

1. Prototype quickly in Lovable, validate UX and idea.
2. Once it works, move the validated concept to Directual (or another robust stack) for production-grade architecture, workflows, and integrations.

That way, you get Lovable’s speed for market testing and Directual’s stability for scaling.

Final verdict: not “who’s better,” but “when to use which”

Directual and Lovable aren’t direct competitors — they solve different problems.

• Lovable — for speed, demos, and rapid experimentation.
• Directual — for stability, scalability, and real business systems.

In short:
Lovable helps you see if the idea is worth building.
Directual helps you build it for real.