What Newly.app Actually Is

Newly.app is an AI app builder. You describe an app in a chat, an agent writes the code, and you try the result in a cloud simulator before sending it to the app stores. Newly’s FAQ says the apps are built with React Native and Expo, so they compile to native iOS and Android code instead of running as a website inside a wrapper.

The current docs call this version Newly v2. Apps start local-first. Data stays on the phone until you ask for accounts, shared data or payments, and only then does the agent add a backend. That is a sensible default, because most first versions of an app don’t need a server.

One more detail: the docs list a Newly for Mac app as coming soon. It would let chats run on your own machine with your own Claude or Codex login. Today everything runs in the browser at app.newly.app.

Newly.app Pricing 2026: What You Actually Pay

Newly sells one ladder of plans. Every tier gives you 4 credits per dollar, so the only thing that changes as you climb is the size of your monthly allowance.

Yearly billing costs 20% less than paying monthly, and credits still arrive month by month. There are two catches. Plan credits expire at the end of each month, so unused ones don’t roll over. And you can’t switch a yearly plan back to monthly inside the app. That takes a support request.

When you run dry, you can buy a one-time top-up. Top-ups run from $5.80 to $2,900 and last 12 months, but they cost 16% more per credit than plan credits. Newly may also ask you to start a plan before it lets you buy one.

There is no free plan. A new account starts with 0 credits, and the agent won’t run until you have a plan, a top-up or credits from Newly. Newly sometimes sends gift links worth one free month of the $25 plan, but you can’t count on getting one.

Year-one cost to publish on both stores

The subscription is only part of the bill. The pricing page itself says developer accounts, domains and connected services cost extra. Here is the minimum for a first year on iOS and Android, with Passion.io’s store-listing plan from my Passion.io review as a rough yardstick. They are different products, so read it as scale, not a like-for-like match.

Show the math

Newly monthly: 12 x $25 = $300, plus $99 Apple and $25 Google = $424. Newly yearly: $300 less 20% = $240, plus $124 = $364. Passion.io Expand: $599 x 12 = $7,188, plus the same $124 = $7,312. Android only on Newly monthly is $325.

How Newly.app Credits Work

Newly’s docs are blunt about this: credits follow work, not messages. Every step the agent takes uses credits, including reading your project, writing code, building and checking the app. A quick question can cost a fraction of a credit. A first build or a long fix can cost dozens.

The Ask and Plan modes aren’t discounted. They usually cost less only because the agent does less in them. Automatic fix turns also draw credits, so a build that fails and retries burns balance without you typing anything.

Some things don’t draw credits today: previews and cloud simulators, native builds, TestFlight uploads, Newly Backend hosting, and the Restore to here and Undo tools. Credits belong to your organization, so everyone on the team spends from one balance. On a shared project, the owner’s organization pays.

My read: on the 100-credit plan, plan for one app plus its fixes in a month, not several apps. That’s an inference from “dozens per first build,” not a measured number, so watch the balance in Billing during your first week. Three habits help:

• Ask for one change per message and name the screen.
• Use Plan or Ask to agree on an approach before the agent builds.
• Use Restore to here instead of asking the agent to undo its work.

How Building an App in Newly.app Works

The flow is linear. The docs list four chat modes (Build, Plan, Ask and Design), and the usual path looks like this:

There is no in-app file browser or code editor. To see what the agent changed, you expand a step in its reply and read the diff. If you expected a drag-and-drop editor, this is chat-first software.

Publishing to the App Store and Google Play

This is where the old version of this review was wrong, so here is the current process.

For iOS, you ask the agent to publish to TestFlight. A Ship to TestFlight card opens, Newly builds on a cloud Mac and uploads to App Store Connect. That usually takes 10 to 25 minutes, then Apple spends another 5 to 30 minutes processing the build. A release build stops if it runs past one hour.

Three version-specific rules can trip you up. The project needs a plain app.json, because projects using app.config.js or app.config.ts can’t publish. The project can’t exceed 5,000 files or 100 MB, not counting node_modules. And only an organization owner or admin can connect Apple and start an upload.

Newly doesn’t submit your app for review. You do that in App Store Connect. New developer accounts often get an Apple message titled “Guideline 2.1 – Information Needed,” so the Deploy tab includes a readiness checklist for review notes, contact details and a screen recording.

For Android, you can ask for a release APK and install it directly, or connect your own Play Console and send builds to internal testing. New personal Play Console accounts must run a closed test with at least 12 testers for 14 days before Google allows a production release. Organization accounts skip that step. For contrast, a real store listing on Passion.io only unlocks on a $599-a-month plan.

Backend, Push Notifications and Payments

When your app needs accounts or shared data, the agent adds Newly Backend. It includes a sign-in service, an API service, a Postgres database and file storage. Email and password sign-in work right away. There are separate dev and production environments, and the agent only touches dev. You ship production yourself with the newly CLI.

Push notifications are not simply “built in,” as the old review claimed. You ask for them in a chat, connect OneSignal from a card, then turn on iOS and Android delivery. To see one on a real iPhone, you need a TestFlight build. Payments work the same way, through a RevenueCat card.

Know the limits before you commit. The docs say Supabase, Firebase and other backend providers aren’t supported, background queue processing isn’t available, Newly Backend doesn’t send emails such as password resets, and there is no log viewer in the app. The newly logs command shows recent logs, but only for dev.

Owning and Editing Your Code

You own the code. Settings has a Download ZIP button that packs the project from the main branch: the React Native and TypeScript app, config files, assets and backend code. For the working dev branch, install the CLI with npm i -g @newly/cli, sign in, and run newly pull with your project ID. It needs Node.js 20 or later.

The catch is direction. The docs say you can’t send code from your computer back into a Newly project, and v2 projects can’t connect to GitHub. “No lock-in” is true in the sense that you can leave with everything. It isn’t true if you wanted to edit locally and keep using the agent.

If you do leave, an AI coding assistant can take over. I compared the options in what Claude Code can do that Cursor can’t, and there is a separate guide to using Claude Code in the browser. For a wider view, see whether Claude is good for coding in everyday work.

Newly.app vs Other AI App Builders

Newly’s niche is native mobile apps. Most prompt-to-app tools lean toward web apps, so the comparison depends on where your users will open the thing. The prices below come from my own reviews of each tool, and vendors change them often.

For the web-first tools in that table, my retest of ten vibe coding tools covers pricing and friction in detail, and the Taskade Genesis review shows what a workspace-first builder feels like.

You might not need Newly at all. If you already write code, an editor-based agent is the other route, and my Kimi Code guide covers plans and setup for one of them. If agents are new to you, my list of Claude Code use cases shows what they can do before you commit to an app builder.

How I Evaluated Newly.app

For this update I went through Newly’s live pricing page, its documentation at docs.newly.app, and its marketing FAQ on October 25, 2026. I cross-checked every price, credit figure and publishing requirement against at least two of them. Where they disagreed, I used the docs and the pricing page and flagged the conflict below.

I also re-checked every claim in my earlier version of this review. Several didn’t survive, including the free plan, the $5 tier and the APK-only-on-the-top-plan line. I’ve removed them rather than quietly editing numbers.

One limit to be upfront about: the credit costs in this post come from Newly’s documentation, not from a meter I ran over a full build. Treat “dozens of credits for a first build” as the vendor’s own estimate.

Where Newly’s Own Pages Contradict Each Other

This surprised me most. Newly’s marketing FAQ reads like an earlier version of the product, and it still circulates in search results. If a review quotes it, that review is probably out of date.

The pricing page and homepage also disagree on plan naming. Check the Billing screen before you pay, and trust it over any page, including this one.

Newly.app Pros and Cons

Who Should Use Newly.app, and Who Should Skip It

Use it if you’re a founder or creator who wants a real store-ready app to test with users, you’re comfortable paying $25 a month to find out, and you can live with the agent’s chat-first workflow. Agencies prototyping client ideas fit here too.

Skip it if you want a free trial, need to plug into an existing Supabase or Firebase backend, or plan to hand the code to developers and keep the agent in the loop. Skip it as well if you need a coaching or course app with community features, where a purpose-built tool is a better match.

FAQ

Is Newly.app free?

No. Newly has no free plan, and a new account starts with 0 credits. The cheapest plan is $25 a month for 100 credits. Newly occasionally issues gift links worth one free month of that plan, and promotion codes exist, but neither is guaranteed.

How much does Newly.app cost per month?

Plans run from $25 to $1,600 a month, giving 4 credits per dollar. Yearly billing is 20% cheaper. Top-ups cost about 16% more per credit. Publishing adds $99 a year for Apple and a one-time $25 for Google Play.

Does Newly.app build real native apps?

Yes. Newly’s FAQ says apps are built with React Native and Expo, which compile to native iOS and Android code rather than webviews. The docs describe a React Native and TypeScript project you can download.

Can I publish to the App Store and Google Play?

Yes, with your own developer accounts. Newly builds iOS and uploads it to TestFlight, and sends Android builds to Play internal testing. You still submit for review yourself in each store console.

Can I export my Newly.app code?

Yes. Download a ZIP from Settings or run newly pull with the CLI. You can’t push edited code back into Newly, and v2 projects can’t connect to GitHub.

Does Newly.app work with Supabase or Firebase?

No. The docs say Newly Backend is the backend for Newly apps and that Supabase, Firebase and other providers aren’t supported. Older marketing copy mentions Supabase, so ignore it.

How do Newly.app credits work?

Credits are prepaid usage shared across your organization. Each agent step uses credits, so a quick question costs little and a first build can cost dozens. Plan credits expire monthly. Simulators, native builds and TestFlight uploads don’t use credits.

Is Newly.app worth it?

For testing a native mobile app idea, yes, if you accept the credit model and the one-way code export. For web apps, free trials or existing backends, other tools fit better.

Conclusion

Newly.app is worth a look if you want a native iOS and Android app and don’t want to learn Swift, Kotlin or Xcode. The $25 plan is a fair price for testing one idea, and the TestFlight flow removes real friction.

But it isn’t the “start free” tool my earlier version described. Budget for the subscription, the Apple and Google fees, and credits that disappear faster on messy builds. Check the Billing screen first, because Newly’s own pages don’t always agree.

My verdict: a solid fit for founders validating a mobile idea, and a poor one for anyone who needs a free trial, GitHub sync or an existing backend.

This post contains an affiliate link. Pricing and features were checked against Newly’s pricing page, docs and FAQ on October 25, 2026, and may change.