> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.leap.new/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Leap vs Bolt

> Production-grade infrastructure vs browser-based development - when to use each approach

Bolt excels at browser-based development and rapid prototyping with WebContainers. Leap builds production-grade distributed systems with real cloud infrastructure.

## Key differences

|                                         | Leap                                 | Bolt                      |
| --------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------ | ------------------------- |
| **Approach**                            | Production-grade distributed systems | Browser-based development |
| **Deploys to your own cloud (AWS/GCP)** | ✅ Yes                                | ❌ No                      |
| **Real backend logic & microservices**  | ✅ Yes                                | ❌ Limited                 |
| **Infrastructure-as-code by default**   | ✅ Yes                                | ❌ No                      |
| **Built-in distributed tracing**        | ✅ Yes                                | ❌ No                      |
| **Multi-environment support**           | ✅ Yes                                | ❌ Limited                 |
| **Type-safe distributed systems**       | ✅ Yes                                | ❌ No                      |
| **Avoids vendor lock-in**               | ✅ Yes                                | ❌ No                      |

## When to choose each

**Choose Bolt for:**

* Quick full-stack prototyping in the browser
* Learning frameworks without local setup
* Single applications deploying to Netlify/Cloudflare
* Rapid experimentation and iteration

**Choose Leap for:**

* Production distributed systems with microservices
* Real backend infrastructure and databases
* Deployment to your own AWS/GCP account
* Enterprise applications requiring scalability

## The difference

**Bolt** generates single applications that work well for standalone projects and platform deployment.

**Leap** generates complete distributed systems with multiple services, databases, and cloud infrastructure that scale to enterprise requirements.