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Wix has bought AI app builder Base 44 for US $80 million, folding natural language, no code software creation into its platform. Here is what Base 44 is, why Wix wanted it, and how this could cut time and cost for solo business owners and website teams.
Remember when “build an app” meant six months, a dev agency, and a scary invoice? That clock’s just been smashed. Wix has bought Base 44 for US $80 million in cash.
Base 44 is only six months old, boot-strapped and (until recently) run by founder Maor Shlomo and a handful of mates. In that blink-and-you-miss-it timeline they:
Hit 100 K+ users by letting anyone type a plain-English prompt like “I need a loyalty app for my café”, and spitting out the full, hosted, login-ready thing (CTech).
Turned a profit of US $189 K in May despite LLM bills that would give most startups vertigo.
Signed up logos like eToro and Similarweb, all without outside funding.
Think of it as “Speak & Build” for software. You describe what you want; the AI handles the back-end, front-end, database, auth, email, the whole shebang, inside one system. No juggling plug-ins, APIs or Zapier spaghetti. It’s part of the new “vibe-coding” wave, where prompts replace code editors.
Wix already owns the DIY-website lane; now it’s gunning for DIY-apps. The company’s been rolling out AI features (remember Wixel for design and Astro the site assistant?) but full-blown app creation was the missing piece. Buying Base 44 means:
One-click upsell: Wix site owners can add a bespoke app next to their site without leaving the dashboard.
Locked-in ecosystem: the fewer tools you need to glue together, the stickier Wix becomes.
Serious AI cred: an $80 M cheque says, “We’re not dabbling; we’re all-in.”
Wix says Base 44 will keep its own brand and pace, just with Wix’s marketing muscle behind it. Translation: expect faster features, not a slow merger death.
App dreams just got real
Got an idea for a booking tool, a member portal, a client dashboard? You’ll soon be able to bolt it onto your Wix site the same way you add a contact form today. No dev-speak required.
Cost and time nosedive
Base 44 proved a tiny team can profit from app-building tech in half a year. Imagine what you can do in a weekend when the tool is baked into a platform you already know.
Conversational creation is the new normal
Your customers will expect everything, including websites, apps, and internal tools, to appear as quickly as you can describe them. If you’re still fiddling with plug-ins and templates in 2026, you’ll look archaic.
Confidence in the stack
“Is this startup going to vanish?” is the classic worry with no-code tools. A public company paying cash up-front is a pretty loud guarantee that Base 44 isn’t disappearing any time soon.
Wix buying Base 44 isn’t just another tech land-grab. It’s a flashing neon sign that natural-language software builders have left the hype stage and entered the real-money arena. For anyone running a small business (without a spare dev team) the message is clear:
Start thinking in prompts, not project scopes.
Because very soon, “I wish our website could do X” will change to “I told our website to do X.” And that, friends, is when the playing field tilts in your favour.
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