Bolt is fast to start with. You type a prompt, you get a React app, it works. But Bolt runs your code on a proprietary runtime with SQLite as the database and no built-in real-time capability. OpenKBS runs your code on AWS Lambda with Neon Postgres, CloudFront CDN, and MQTT via IoT Core.
Same starting point. Very different infrastructure. We measured the gap.
Bottom line: This is the widest infrastructure gap we measured. OpenKBS handles 1,000 concurrent users at 9% error rate; Bolt hits 100% failure at 500. OpenKBS runs real Postgres with 200 max connections; Bolt uses SQLite with a max of 1. Cold starts are 3x faster. The only metric where Bolt is competitive is single-user query latency — SQLite is fast when nobody else is reading.
| Metric | Bolt | OpenKBS | Winner |
|---|
p50 / p95 / p99 comparison
Requests per second sustained at each concurrency level. Bolt drops to zero at 1,000.
| Aspect | Bolt | OpenKBS |
|---|---|---|
| Runtime | Proprietary | AWS Lambda |
| Database | SQLite (file) | Neon Postgres |
| CDN | Shared CDN | CloudFront |
| Connection pooling | No | Yes |
| Real-time | None | MQTT (IoT Core) |
| Max connections | 1 | 200 |
| Scalability | Single tenant | Serverless auto-scale |
| None | SES |
Bolt is a code generation tool that happens to host your app. OpenKBS is an infrastructure platform that happens to generate code. The priorities are inverted, and it shows in every metric.
If you're building a throwaway prototype that you'll rewrite before shipping, Bolt is fine. If you're building something that needs a database, WebSockets, email, and the ability to handle more than one user at a time, Bolt's architecture is a constraint you'll eventually hit. There's no upgrade path — you migrate or you rebuild.