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Build your first app and put it live on the web with about ten minutes of hands-on time. There is nothing to install and nothing to configure. You describe what you want, Lovable builds it, and you publish it to a real URL you can share. In this guide you build a website for Little Fern, an imaginary neighborhood cafe: a homepage with an interactive menu, opening hours, and a location section. It is a stand-in for anything you would rather build, so swap in your own idea at any step. When you finish, How to build a real product with Lovable shows you how to take on the full journey.
Building with Lovable uses build credits, and the free plan includes five per day, up to 30 per month. See subscription plans for what each plan includes.
1

Create your account

Go to lovable.dev and sign up for free with email, Google, GitHub, or Apple. Your account comes with a personal workspace on the free plan, and you land on the dashboard, ready to build.You can also skip ahead: type your prompt on the homepage first, and Lovable asks you to sign up when you submit, keeping your prompt through sign-up.
2

Describe your app

The prompt box (“Ask Lovable to create…”) is front and center, and it is where every project starts. Describe what you want to build in plain language, in any language.Try this prompt, or adapt it to your own idea:
The last line of the prompt matters. Keeping your first version free of logins and databases means there is less to go wrong, and you can add both later with a single prompt.
Adapt one of these starters, or write your own prompt from scratch. The steps in this guide stay the same.
3

Watch the first version appear

Lovable creates your project and starts building. The first version takes a few minutes, and you can watch it take shape as Lovable works.When it is ready, you are in the editor, which has two halves: the chat on the left, where you talk to Lovable, and the preview on the right, where your app runs live. Click around the preview: try the menu filters, scroll the sections.Everything you see is a real, working app, and the code behind it is yours. From here on, every change is saved as a version you can restore, so nothing you do next can break it permanently.
4

Make a change

Ask for one change at a time and check the preview after each. For example:
If the app works but does not look or feel like you pictured, say that in plain words too. This is a perfectly good prompt:
5

Tweak it by pointing

For small visual changes, pointing beats describing. Open the preview toolbar, select the exact element, and say what should change. To change text, such as a headline or a button label, use Edit text inline and type directly on the page. No prompt needed.
6

Check that it works

Before publishing, spend a few moments testing your app. A quick check now saves a round of confused messages from the first person you send the link to:
  • Click every button and link.
  • Try the interactive parts: filter the menu by every category.
  • Use the device toggle above the preview to check Mobile view. Most people will open your link on their phone.
If something is off, tell Lovable exactly what is wrong and where:
7

Publish

Click Publish in the top right of the editor. Review your site’s name and icon, then confirm. After a short deploy, your app is live at your own lovable.app URL, free on every plan. Send the link to a friend, or invite them to the project to build together.And the single most common surprise for new users: your live site is a snapshot. Later changes appear in the preview immediately, but the live site only updates when you click Publish → Update.
That is the whole loop: describe, refine, publish. Every app you build in Lovable, however ambitious, is this loop repeated.

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Keep going

How to build a real product with Lovable

Ready for a real product? The full journey: shape an idea, plan, build in loops, add a backend, test, publish, and grow.

Prompting basics

Get better results with clearer prompts.

Add a backend

Store data and sign in users.

Custom domain

Put your app on your own domain.