Bolt.new, v0 & Replit Apps to Production
Three excellent prototyping tools, three different failure modes. What you have to add depends on which one built your app — here’s the honest map for each, and the shared checklist that ships all three.
What you actually have
Bolt.new: full-stack in the browser
Complete apps generated in WebContainers — usually the most finished of the three. Watch for hardcoded environment values, dependencies frozen at prompt time, and the half-built feature where the tokens ran out.
v0: beautiful frontend, no backend
Polished React/Next.js UI — and that’s the scope. Accounts, data and payments are the whole remaining project. v0 frontend + properly built Supabase backend is one of our most common jobs.
Replit: agent, hosting and database in one
The most complete platform of the three, with the most operational lock-in. Watch agent credit costs, Replit-specific hosting assumptions, and generation-to-generation code quality swings.
All three: demo-grade defaults
Whatever built it, the defaults optimise for the demo working today — not for strangers, scale or subpoenas. That’s not a flaw; it’s a starting point.
Secrets in the bundle
All three will happily call APIs from the browser with the key inline. Anything named sk-, service_role or api_key in client code needs rotating today — our exposed-keys guide has the five-minute check.
The webhook layer
Payments, subscriptions and integrations all run on webhooks the prototype never needed. No webhook, no revenue truth: cancelled cards keep premium access forever.
Error handling and monitoring
Prototypes fail loudly at you; products must fail gracefully at users and loudly at you. That layer is always hand-built.
A deploy story
Preview links are not production. Real domain, environment separation, and a pipeline that makes shipping changes boring.
# secrets in the built output?
grep -rE "sk-|service_role|whsec|api_key" dist/ .next/ 2>/dev/null
# hardcoded localhost that will break in prod?
grep -rn "localhost:" src/ | grep -v test
# count the TODO debt the AI left
grep -rn "TODO\|FIXME\|placeholder" src/ | wc -l
The shipping checklist
Common questions
My Bolt app is half-finished — the tokens ran out. Can you complete it?
Yes, that's a standard rescue. We finish the remaining features by hand — usually faster than more prompting — and harden what exists on the way through.
Can you add a backend to my v0 frontend?
Yes. v0 UI plus a properly designed Supabase backend is a well-trodden path here; the frontend work is usually keepable as-is, which is why these projects quote like small MVPs rather than rebuilds.
Should I move off Replit hosting?
Not automatically. If costs and constraints are fine, stay. Triage gives you the numbers either way — we only recommend migration when it's actually justified.
Which of the three produces the best code?
Honestly: it varies more between generations than between tools. Bolt tends to be most complete, v0 most polished, Replit most variable. The audit matters more than the logo.
What does this cost?
Same as all rescues: $299 triage with a written report, fixed-quote sprints from $2,499. v0 backend builds scope like small MVPs — the estimate tool gives a 30-second ballpark.
Finish it and ship it
Whichever tool built it, the 48-hour triage tells you exactly what remains — and exactly what it costs.
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