# Poly vs Replit for building with AI together

Both let a team build with AI in the browser. They disagree about what the team shares: Replit shares the project, Poly shares the session.

Published 2026-09-16 by the Poly team. Canonical: https://usepoly.co/poly-vs-replit
Poly (usepoly.co) is a web app where a team builds with AI, Claude or ChatGPT, together in a shared room. Free to start: https://usepoly.co/

**Replit and Poly both let a team build software with AI in a browser, and they make opposite bets about what the team shares. Replit shares the project: each teammate opens their own thread with Replit Agent, tasks run in isolated copies, and the agent merges them. Poly (usepoly.co) shares the session: one AI, one timeline, and every member can prompt it, approve its changes and undo its turns.** Replit is the more complete platform, with an IDE, hosting and deployment built in. Poly is the narrower tool built for a small group steering one build together, including people who do not code.

*Poly and Replit, from public documentation, September 2026.*

|  | Poly | Replit |
| --- | --- | --- |
| What the team shares | One AI session and timeline | One project; own Agent thread each |
| Approve before the AI acts | Yes, any member, per change | Review a finished task |
| Who spent what | Receipt per turn, per person | Pooled plan credits |
| Non-coder's role | Prompts, approves, reverts | Builder seat or read-only viewer |
| Parallel agent work | One turn at a time per room | Up to 10 tasks on Pro |
| Hosting and deploys | Live preview; static publish | Full hosting, domains, deploys |
| AI models | Claude and ChatGPT, per member | Replit Agent |
| Chat the AI cannot read | Yes | No |
| Price | Free start; $20 or $50 per AI user | $20 Core; $100 Pro |
| Runs where | Poly's sandboxes | Replit's cloud |

## Where Replit is stronger

- **It is a whole platform.** An editor, a shell, a database, hosting, custom domains and deployments in one place. A Poly room builds and previews; publishing gives a static snapshot, and anything with a backend is previewable but not yet publishable.
- **Parallel work.** Pro runs up to ten agent tasks at once across fifteen builders, each in its own copy, with a Kanban board to track them. Poly runs one turn at a time per room, on purpose.
- **Maturity.** Years of multiplayer editing, mobile apps, viewer seats for stakeholders, and a credits program for funded startups.

## Where Poly is stronger

- **One session.** Everyone sees the same prompt, the same reply and the same change as it happens, and the person who typed the prompt is not a bottleneck: any member can answer the AI's question or approve its edit.
- **A say before it lands.** In Replit, a finished task waits in "Ready" for review. In Poly's approval modes, the AI's proposed change is a card on every screen before it happens, in plain language, and the timeline records who decided.
- **Receipts.** Every turn names who ran it, which model, how long it took and what it cost in credits. Replit pools plan credits across the project.
- **The non-coder drives.** Replit's role for a non-builder is a read-only viewer seat. In Poly, the person who cannot code prompts, approves and reverts like anyone else.
- **Two labs.** Each member picks Claude or ChatGPT per turn in the same room.
- **A channel the AI cannot read.** Poly's group chat and polls are hidden from the agent. Replit's in-editor chat is visible to its assistant.

## Pricing, side by side

Replit Core is $20 a month for one project with up to five seats and one background task at a time; Pro is $100 for up to fifteen builders, ten parallel tasks and fifty viewers. Poly is free to start with no card; a person who runs the AI pays $20 a month for Pro or $50 for Max, and watching, chatting and approving are free for everyone. A team of five where two people run the AI pays Poly $40 and Replit $20 or $100 depending on how many parallel tasks they need.

## Which should you pick?

- **You want to ship a product with hosting, a database and deploys from one tool:** Replit.
- **Several engineers want to run many agent tasks in parallel:** Replit Pro.
- **A small group, including someone who does not code, wants to steer one AI together and see every change before it lands:** Poly.
- **You already have a repo and a deploy pipeline and want the AI's work visible and attributable:** Poly, connected to the repo; it pushes to a branch.

They also combine. A Poly room can work on a repository that a Replit project also uses; the code meets in git.

## Common questions

**Can I use Poly and Replit on the same code?**

Yes. Connect the Poly room to the GitHub repository; turns commit and push to a branch, and a Replit project can pull from the same repository.

**Does Poly have an editor like Replit?**

Poly has a file browser and a diff viewer, not a full IDE. The AI does the editing; people read, approve and revert. If you want to type code yourself, Replit is the better fit.

**Does Poly deploy apps?**

Members see the running app as a live preview while building. Publishing produces a static snapshot at a public address; apps that need a server are previewable but not yet publishable from Poly.

More guides: https://usepoly.co/guides · Security: https://usepoly.co/security · Pricing: https://usepoly.co/pricing