bolt.new vs Theia IDE — Compare AI Tools | TryAnAI

bolt.new vs Theia IDE

Side-by-side comparison based on pricing, features, and community data.

bolt.new vs Theia IDE — quick answer

bolt.new and Theia IDE are both AI coding tools. bolt.new is Freemium; Theia IDE is Open Source. Bolt.new and Theia IDE serve fundamentally different buyers.

bolt.new pricing:: Freemium
Theia IDE pricing:: Open Source
Category:: Coding

Which should you choose?

Bolt.new and Theia IDE serve fundamentally different buyers. Choose Bolt if you want to build applications by describing them in natural language—it's purpose-built for rapid prototyping and deployment with minimal coding. Its AI agents handle testing and iteration automatically, making it ideal for non-technical founders or teams prioritizing speed over customization. Choose Theia if you're a developer who needs a transparent, self-hosted IDE with full control over your environment and AI tooling. Theia's open-source nature and VS Code compatibility make it better for teams avoiding vendor lock-in or running on private infrastructure. Bolt trades control for velocity; Theia trades ease-of-use for flexibility.

Pick bolt.new if

Pick Bolt.new if you want to prototype and deploy web applications fast without writing code yourself.

Pick Theia IDE if

Pick Theia IDE if you need an open-source, self-hosted development environment with full language support and plugin extensibility.

Feature-by-feature

Feature	bolt.new	Theia IDE
AI Code Generation	✓ Natural language → full apps	Partial (AI assistant only)
Hosting Model	Cloud-only (Bolt platform)	✓ Self-hosted or cloud
Open Source	—	✓ Apache 2.0
Multi-Language Support	Web frameworks focus	✓ Python, Java, C++, etc.
Deployment Integration	✓ Vercel, Netlify, Firebase	Docker, Kubernetes
Target User	Non-technical builders	✓ Professional developers
Vendor Lock-in Risk	High (platform-dependent)	✓ None (open-source)