Bolt.new: A Great Tool for Devs—Not So Much for Non-Devs

Intro

Let me start by saying: I love Bolt.new. As a developer, it’s one of those tools that can genuinely make life easier. I even made this blog site with it. But here’s the catch—it’s been adopted by non-devs in ways I don’t think it was ever intended to be used.

Bolt markets itself as a tool for developers to quickly get started on projects, and it absolutely delivers on that. But along the way, it’s caught the attention of indie hackers and non-developers who are trying to build projects from scratch. If you’ve seen the YouTube videos hyping it up, you know what I’m talking about.

The problem? Bolt isn’t really built for non-developers, and that’s where things start to fall apart.

Takeoff

Bolt took off in a big way because it delivers on the holy grail of software development: time to value. I’ll dive deeper into that concept in a future post, but here’s the gist: non-developers saw Bolt as a way to create something—anything—and deploy it, all within an hour. That’s huge.

For a lot of users, it felt like an amazing first step. They’d think, “If I can whip this up in an hour without knowing anything, just imagine what I can do when I really get the hang of it!”

But here’s where the wheels start to wobble: Bolt is fantastic for quick wins, but when you try to build something more complex, you hit its limitations—hard. Practice and experience with the tool will help, sure, but only up to a point.

Limitations

1. Building from Scratch Isn’t Always a Win

Bolt builds everything from scratch. While this sounds great, it introduces two massive problems:

• Token Consumption: Bolt’s reliance on its own internal build context means every little change—yes, even just tweaking a button—can burn through a huge number of tokens. This cost compounds as your app grows.
• Lack of IDE Compatibility: You can’t pull down your project, update it in an IDE, and push it back. The tool loses too much context and ends up breaking the build. And no, this isn’t something Bolt can easily fix, because it would go against the way the tool is fundamentally designed. (I’ll dig into this in my next article.)

2. Error Loops Are Brutal

Bolt inevitably runs into errors, especially with more complex apps. While some issues are easy to debug, others can spiral into error loops that burn through tokens even faster. If you’re not experienced at debugging, you’ll hit a wall.

3. Complex Apps Outgrow Bolt Quickly

Once your app reaches a certain level of complexity, you’ll need to move it off Bolt. But then what? At that point, you’re diving into the raw code, possibly with tools like Cursor—which, while great for devs, comes with its own set of challenges.

4. Security Limitations

Adding robust security features isn’t Bolt’s strong suit. You’ll need to reference external solutions like NextAuth, Firebase, or Supabase to handle authentication and user management. Bolt’s built-in options just aren’t up to par yet, and that’s a major gap for real-world applications.

5. Integration Struggles

Most modern apps rely on integrations—things like GitHub login or third-party APIs. Unfortunately, Bolt doesn’t handle integrations well, and setting them up requires experience with the underlying systems.

Conclusion

It’s still early days for Bolt, but I don’t think it’s the game-changer for non-devs that some people on social media claim.

For developers, though? It’s fantastic. Bolt is perfect for:

• Quickly getting started on tutorials or demo apps.
• Building prototypes to share with teammates or junior devs.
• Spinning up proof-of-concept apps, complete with animations and UI.

But as a tool for building real-world, complex apps? That’s a different story. Bolt’s inherent design means it struggles with scale, context, and debugging—the kind of challenges that experienced devs know can take the most time to solve.

Non-devs, if you’re building something simple—a landing page, notice board, or similar project—Bolt can absolutely help you get started. But if your goal is to create a fully functional, complex product, you’re going to need to learn to code—or hire someone who already knows how.