Replit alternative
A Replit alternative for native iPhone apps
Replit's Agent builds mobile apps in React Native with Expo, beside the websites and back ends it's known for. Borel is the alternative for someone whose whole project is one iPhone app: it writes native SwiftUI, shows every build in the iOS Simulator free on every plan, and publishes to the App Store from your browser.
Updated
Apps built by Borel, in the iOS Simulator.
Replit
Who is Replit for?
Replit is a whole development environment in the browser, with an AI agent that builds apps and websites and the hosting, database and sign-in to run them. It's a good home for people who want to see and steer the code, and for projects that are mostly on the web.
For phones, the Agent writes a React Native app with Expo, and you try it by opening it in Expo Go on your phone.
The iPhone question
Where does Replit stop for an iPhone app?
Replit takes you a long way: it builds in the cloud with no Mac and guides you through submitting to TestFlight. Two things are different from Borel. Its iOS Simulator preview is on the Core plan and up, and Expo Go, where you try the app on a phone, runs only the modules included in the Expo SDK.
And the app is React Native: JavaScript that drives the iPhone's screens. That's the right trade if you also want Android. If the app is for iPhone, native SwiftUI is the shorter path to how iOS itself looks and behaves.
Borel
What Borel does differently
The simulator for everyone
Every Borel build opens in the iOS Simulator in your browser, on the free plan too, with no monthly cap on Pro.
SwiftUI, compiled by Xcode
Borel writes Swift and SwiftUI and builds it with Xcode on its own Mac, the toolchain Apple uses for its own apps.
The real app on your iPhone
On Pro, Borel Companion installs the actual app on your iPhone, not a preview inside another app.
At a glance
How do Replit and Borel compare?
From Replit's own site, as of October 2026. The full comparison has every row.
| Borel | Replit | |
|---|---|---|
| Code | Swift and SwiftUI | React Native, with Expo |
| iOS Simulator preview | Every plan, free | Core plan and up |
| On your phone while you build | The real app | Inside Expo Go |
| No Mac needed | Yes | Yes |
| Paid plans from | $20 a month, or $16 a month billed yearly | $20 a month, or $18 billed yearly |
Switching
How to switch from Replit to Borel
- 1
Describe what you built
Tell Borel what your Replit app does, screen by screen, or paste the prompt you gave the Agent.
- 2
Keep the web side if you have one
A Replit back end or website can stay where it is. Borel's app comes with its own accounts, data and storage.
- 3
Test, install, publish
Tap through it in the simulator, install it on your iPhone with Companion, and publish from the browser on Pro.
Choose Borel if…
- The project is an iPhone app, not a website with a mobile version.
- You want the iOS Simulator before you pay for anything.
- You want native SwiftUI rather than React Native.
Frequently asked questions
No. Borel writes Swift, so it builds the app fresh from your description or prompt. What the app does carries over; the JavaScript doesn't.
No. Borel is a chat that builds the app for you. You can read the Swift it writes and download the project on any plan to open it in Xcode, but you don't need to touch the code.
Every Borel app comes with Borel AI, accounts with email and password, a cloud database and file storage, run by Borel. There's no server of your own to set up.
No. Borel makes native iPhone apps, and the same app runs on iPad.
Yes: 5 free credits a day, up to 30 a month, and the iOS Simulator is free for everyone. Pro, from $20 a month, adds installing on your iPhone and the App Store.
See your app in the simulator, free
Describe it once and watch the SwiftUI version run in your browser.