Base44 is the hardest comparison on this list, because it already does most of what people expect us to claim it cannot.
Base44 is the comparison that makes the lazy version of our argument fall apart, so it is worth putting first. It builds full-stack applications from a description, and unlike most of the AI builders it does not hand you a shell and wish you luck: the backend, the database and user management come with it. On the enterprise side there is SSO, there are security controls, and there is a portfolio-wide Security Center that lets an administrator look across everything that has been built.
So “AI builders cannot be governed” is not a claim we are going to make about Base44, because it is not true. The difference that remains is about the unit. Base44 governs a set of applications that were each built and given what they needed. Cordango starts from the company: the organizations, the people, the teams and the roles exist as platform records, and a capability reads them rather than being given its own.
Feature availability and pricing change. Every row is checked against the vendor's own current documentation, linked at the foot of this page.
Default means it is there without anyone setting it up. Available means the vendor supports it, sometimes only on a particular plan. Build or configure means it is possible and it is your work. Not a focus means the product is aimed somewhere else.
| Cordango | Base44 | |
|---|---|---|
| Building an app by describing it | Defaultthe normal way in, alongside ready-made capabilities | Defaultfull-stack, and this is what the product is built around |
| Backend and database included | Defaultthere is no per-app backend, because capabilities share the platform’s | Defaulteach app gets one, which is the point |
| Shared company records across every app | Defaultorganizations, people and teams are there before the first app | Build or configureeach app is built with what it needs. Sharing records across apps is something you design. |
| Organisation-level identity and roles | DefaultMicrosoft and Google sign-in on every plan, SAML and SCIM higher up | AvailableSSO and enterprise security controls |
| Authorisation inside the app | Defaultenforced below the application, per entity, per field and per command | Availableuser management comes with the app. What each role may do is still per app. |
| One view across the whole portfolio | Defaultthere is one platform to look at | Availablethe Security Center looks across everything built in the workspace |
| Audit across every app | Defaultfield-level history produced by the runtime, nothing to model | Availableenterprise security and monitoring. Check the tier for retention and detail. |
| Data architecture | Defaultone company model, one schema per tenant, every capability reads it | Not a focusa backend per app. Excellent for shipping an app, awkward for a company of them. |
| Managed hosting | Defaultbackups, updates and patching are ours | Defaultapps are hosted and published for you |
| German or EU data residency | DefaultGerman data centres, sub-processors published | Unclearwe could not find a documented customer-selectable German or EU region. Ask Base44 rather than assuming either way. |
| Apps you sell to customers | Not a focusCordango is for how a company runs, not for what it sells | Defaultcustomer-facing products are a first-class use case |
| Taking the result elsewhere | Not a focusyour data exports. The app is a definition on the platform. The compiler and CLI are Apache-2.0, the platform is not. | Availablecode export is supported. Check what leaves with it on your plan. |
| Who has to build it | Defaultyou describe it, or you ask us to build it on the same core | Defaultanyone can start, and the backend does not need assembling |
| One contract for the whole platform | Defaultapps are not priced separately. The tenth capability does not add a line item. | Defaultone Base44 contract, with published plans |
Base44 closed the gap that most AI builders leave open. The app arrives with a backend, a database and user management, and the enterprise product can look across the whole portfolio and tell you what exists and how it is secured. If your worry was that prompt-built software is ungoverned software, Base44 has an answer and it is a good one.
The distinction left is narrow but it is the one that compounds. Base44 governs applications that were each given what they needed. The tenth app was told what a customer is, granted its users, and then brought under the same oversight as the other nine. Cordango never tells a capability what a customer is, because the customer is a platform record that existed first, and rights are checked underneath rather than granted per app.
Whether that matters to you depends on how many internal things you expect to run and how much they overlap. For three apps that barely touch each other, Base44’s model is lighter. For fifteen that all involve the same people and the same customers, ours stops repeating itself.
Base44 is the better choice when some of what you build is customer-facing, when each application is genuinely independent, or when you want every app to own its backend and be portable on its own terms.
What we can show you, and what we cannot. Cordango holds no ISO 27001, SOC 2 or C5 certification today, and has not commissioned an external penetration test yet. We would rather you read that here than find it in procurement. Security and permissions at Cordango, and the data processing agreement in full.
Bring something you would otherwise build as its own app with its own backend. We will build it in the demo as a capability on a company that already has the records and the rights.