Bolt builds, previews, and hosts a full-stack app from a prompt, all in the browser. Helix is how an enterprise deploys, runs, and governs what its people build with AI.
Thanks, keep an eye on your inbox for an invite.
Pick Bolt when a person or team wants to go from a prompt to a hosted full-stack app in one browser tab, with the database, auth, and hosting supplied by Bolt Cloud. Pick Tray Helix when IT needs every AI-built app in the company to reach production through one governed path, connected to your business systems. Bolt is a prompt-to-app builder from StackBlitz: its agent writes and runs the code in an in-browser development environment and publishes to Bolt's own hosting. Helix deploys the apps your teams build in Claude Code, Codex, or Cursor, and runs each one with a named owner, managed credentials, role-based access, an audit trail, and spend visible per app. Each app takes one path to production.
Bolt and Tray Helix both exist because AI collapsed the cost of building software. They answer different questions about what happens next.
Bolt answers the builder’s question: how does a person with an idea get a working app? You describe it, and Bolt’s agent writes and runs the code in a development environment inside the browser, then Bolt Cloud supplies the database, auth, and hosting. It is the builder and the runtime in one.
Helix answers the enterprise’s question: our people already build these apps in Claude Code, Codex, and Cursor, so how do they reach production, and how does IT see, secure, and pay for what ships? Builders keep their assistant. One command deploys the app to Tray’s managed runtime, and governance attaches as it ships: a named owner and registry entry, role-based access, managed credentials into your systems, an audit trail, and spend visible per app, with enterprise SSO in front.
Both companies sell governance, so the difference comes down to track record and scope. Tray has governed enterprise workloads for years: Airbnb, DoorDash, DocuSign, and Cisco run on the Tray platform, and Tray.ai is a Visionary in the 2026 Gartner Magic Quadrant for iPaaS. Bolt’s controls cover what is built and hosted on Bolt. Helix applies Tray’s governance to whatever your teams build with their own assistants, and an IT buyer feels that difference in the first security review.
A check means yes on every plan; the notes carry plan tiers and nuance.
| Capability | Tray Helix | Bolt |
|---|---|---|
| Building | ||
| How apps get built | Your teams build in Claude Code, Codex, or Cursor | Prompt-to-app in Bolt's agent, running in StackBlitz WebContainers in the browser |
| Builders keep the AI assistant they already use | Yes | Bolt is the build surface |
| Build and test locally, edit in place | helix dev runs the app locally with hot reload; the assistant tests real authenticated calls without a deploy | In-browser editor, terminal, and preview; two-way GitHub sync |
| Deployment and governance | ||
| One-command deploy to a managed runtime | Yes | Publish from the Bolt editor to Bolt Cloud hosting |
| Enterprise SSO and identity on every deployed app | Yes | Workspace SSO on Enterprise, with Okta, Azure AD, and SAML providers |
| Managed credentials into business systems | Native OAuth into 800+ services; auth aliases keep raw secrets out of code | Supabase and Stripe built in; MCP connectors give the build agent context from GitHub, Jira, Notion, and more |
| Audit trail | On every app | Enterprise plan |
| Role-based access control | Yes | Team-level access management on Teams; granular admin controls and user provisioning |
| Built-in app services | ||
| Backend services inside the app | Database, key-value store, persistent file storage with audit logs, scheduled functions, and triggers | Bolt Cloud: databases, auth, file storage, functions, Stripe payments, and analytics, on Supabase and Netlify |
| Visibility and cost | ||
| One pane over every app in production | Every app, deployment, and authentication org-wide: owner, connections, activity, and spend | Team workspace of Bolt projects |
| AI and compute spend per app | Yes | Token usage tracked per team member |
| App registry with a named owner | Yes | No |
| Track record | ||
| Years running enterprise workloads | Runs on the Tray platform: Airbnb, DoorDash, DocuSign, and Cisco run on Tray | Launched in 2024; enterprise program, Microsoft partnership, and private cloud deployment added in 2026 |
Bolt gives its agent a whole development environment in a browser tab. StackBlitz built WebContainers years before Bolt existed, so the agent installs packages, runs a Node.js server, reads the terminal, and fixes its own errors without anyone setting up a machine. Bolt Cloud then supplies hosting, databases, auth, file storage, functions, Stripe payments, and analytics, so a working app is one Publish button away.
The enterprise side is real and growing. Bolt is SOC 2 Type 2 certified and GDPR compliant. Teams adds centralized billing, team-level access management, and admin controls; Enterprise adds SAML SSO with Okta and Azure AD, audit logs, data retention policies, and a deployment that runs Bolt inside your own AWS or Azure tenant. Since July 2026 every publish runs a security audit that finds and fixes issues such as broken access control and secrets in code. Projects sync two ways with GitHub, so engineers can take over the code.
For a person turning an idea into a hosted app, or a team prototyping in the browser against its own design system, that speed and completeness are hard to beat.
Your teams already build in Claude Code, Codex, and Cursor. Helix is the deploy path those tools share, so governance never asks anyone to change how they build.
Helix's admin console shows every app across the org in one place: who owns it, where it is deployed, who can use it, which authentications it holds, what it is doing, and what it spends.
Helix apps connect to business systems through Tray's native OAuth into 800+ services. Credentials are stored encrypted and apps use auth aliases, so nothing ships hardcoded and builders never handle raw secrets.
AI and compute spend is tracked per app from the first request, so IT sees what each app costs alongside its activity, logs, and health.
Every app deploys with a named owner and an App Registry entry. This is the inventory a security review asks for.
Airbnb turned an 8-week integration project into 1 week on the Tray platform. DocuSign runs 150M tasks a month on it. Tray.ai is a Visionary in the 2026 Gartner Magic Quadrant for iPaaS, and Helix puts that platform under every app your teams ship.
Claude Code, Codex, and Cursor are not part of this comparison. They are the build surface: your teams write the app with the assistant they already use, and Tray Helix deploys, runs, and governs what they build. Choosing Helix never means changing coding assistants.
Published. From $50 per workspace a month plus $1.00 per HCU of usage, cheaper on a commitment. Billing is per workspace plus usage, never per app.
Public and token-based. Free is $0 with 1M tokens a month (300K a day); Pro starts at $25 a month with 10M tokens and rollover; Teams is $30 per member a month, with tokens allotted per member. Enterprise is custom and carries SSO and audit logs. Monthly prices shown; yearly billing saves up to 28%. Figures from bolt.new/pricing, October 2026.
Weighing more than two options? Read The 11 best Bolt alternatives in 2026, compared.
Bolt builds and hosts the app in one place: its agent writes and runs the code in the browser, and Bolt Cloud hosts it. Tray Helix deploys, runs, and governs the apps your teams build elsewhere, in Claude Code, Codex, or Cursor. One command takes each app to production with a named owner, managed credentials, role-based access, an audit trail, and spend visible per app.
It has a real enterprise program: SOC 2 Type 2 certification, SAML SSO with Okta and Azure AD on Enterprise, audit logs, data retention policies, admin controls and user provisioning, and an option to run Bolt inside your own AWS or Azure tenant. The difference is scope. Bolt governs what is built and hosted on Bolt. Helix governs the apps your teams build with their own AI coding assistants and connects them to your systems through managed auth, on a platform Airbnb, DoorDash, DocuSign, and Cisco run on.
Not cleanly. A Bolt app is built on Bolt Cloud's services, so there is no supported lift into Helix. Teams that want the governed version of an app rebuild it with the AI coding assistant they already use, inside a Helix project. The Helix SDK is small and opinionated, so the assistant carries an app's key features across as ordinary code work.
Per app, yes: a team picks one path to production, and the app runs either on Bolt or through Helix under the company's identity, credentials, audit, and cost visibility. At the account level there is room for both. Prototypes and point use cases fit Bolt; the governed path to production is Helix.
Bolt publishes token-based pricing: Pro from $25 a month, Teams at $30 per member a month, and Enterprise custom, with SSO on Enterprise. Tray Helix also publishes its pricing: it starts at $50 per workspace a month plus $1.00 per HCU of usage, cheaper on a commitment. Bolt charges per member for building; Helix charges per workspace plus usage for running apps.
Yes, when the goal is governed production rather than prototypes. Builders keep Claude Code, Codex, or Cursor, and every app deploys in one command with a named owner, managed auth across 800+ services, an audit trail, and spend visible per app, on the Tray platform that Airbnb, DocuSign, and Cisco run on. Bolt stays the faster pick for a browser-built app that lives on its platform.
It depends on where your people build. If they build on Bolt, its Teams and Enterprise plans govern that surface with admin controls, SSO, and audit logs. If they build with Claude Code, Codex, or Cursor, those apps need their own governed path to production, which is what Tray Helix provides: one deploy path, one registry, one view over every app.
Facts about Bolt last reviewed October 2026. Products change; if something here is out of date, tell us and we will fix it.
Your teams build with AI. Helix runs and governs it all.
Thanks, keep an eye on your inbox for an invite.
Want to talk to someone first? Contact us
We use cookies to understand how Helix is used and to advertise it. Privacy policy
