The tech stack is always one of the most significant points to consider before initiating the development process. When it comes to no-code or low-code projects, it is crucial to think about the platform that you will use for it. Today the market offers a row of advanced tools that you can rely on for building your solutions. At Akveo, we have solid expertise in no-code or low-code development and deeply understand the peculiarities and capabilities of Retool and different Retool alternatives. In this blog post, we’d like to share our insights with you.

What is Retool?

Before talking about alternatives to Retool, we need to provide some general information about this low-code platform. It entered the market in 2017. And since that time it has been helping businesses to reduce the time and budgets needed for creating their powerful internal tools.

It is highly praised for its rich library of pre-built components that can be reused and customized based on your specific needs. Thanks to this, a row of business solutions can be ready just in hours, instead of weeks that are typical for custom development from scratch.

If you choose Retool for your project, you do not need to have a full-scale development team by your side. All the processes will be significantly streamlined and simplified.

Retool stands out from the row of its competitors for its extensive integration opportunities. For example, you can easily connect your solution with any of the most commonly used databases, as well as numerous external business tools and services via APIs, like Slack, Zendesk, Asana, AWS, Github, Jira, Salesforce, and many others.

Based on the experience of our team we can say that Retool can become an excellent choice for low-code development. Nevertheless, there are still some pitfalls associated with its use.

It offers some space for customization. However, you do not have full freedom here. If you have highly specific processes and requirements, it could be more sensible to consider traditional development from scratch.

Another point is that you can face some issues with enterprise-grade solutions. But it is highly unlikely that you will have any, in the case of building apps for small and medium businesses.

As for pricing, Retool offers various options for companies with different needs. It has a free plan with limited features, as well as various special deals for startups, students, professors, and non-profit organizations. Prices for the paid Team plan start at $10/month per standard user and $5/month per end user. The extended Business plan costs $50/month per standard user and $15/month per end user. The cost of the Enterprise plan is calculated based on the individual needs. You can read more about Retool pricing here.

The description of this platform may look very appealing. Right? But for a better-informed choice, the information about Retool alternatives is required as well.

Budibase vs Retool

Being a Retool open source alternative, Budibase is often taken by businesses for creating internal and workflow applications. For example, it is used to build such simple solutions as admin panels, forms, and other tools required for organizing internal processes.

With this low-code platform, companies can efficiently work with their data, as well as manipulate and share it in a highly secure environment. Budibase offers its built-in database. Moreover, it provides access to different SQL and NoSQL databases and a wide range of the most highly demanded REST APIs. It also allows businesses to create their own custom data sources with the help of its plug-ins command line interface.

As well as Retool, it lets users choose between cloud or self-hosting options and has different pricing tiers. There is a Free plan that can be suitable for small teams. It has some limited features and restrictions regarding the number of users. However, the number of apps and workflows is not limited. There is also a Premium plan with more advanced features. Here, the price starts at $50 per app creator/month and $5 per app user/month. Moreover, for enterprises, this platform has a dedicated plan, with the prices provided on request.

Pros:

• Cost efficiency;
• Quick deployment;
• Extensive integrations with databases.

Cons:

• Limitations in advanced customization;
• Limited scalability;
• Fewer third-party integrations.

UI Bakery vs Retool

This Retool competitor is positioned as a low-code platform for developers that allows them to save the time needed for creating different types of internal business apps. It offers a user-friendly drag-and-drop UI builder and automation features. Thanks to this, users can efficiently eliminate repetitive tasks and actions by simply automating them.

The platform is targeted at a wide range of users, including businesses of all sizes. Nevertheless, as well as in the case of other alternatives to Retool, UI Bakery has more options for startups and small businesses than large enterprises.

Users, who have built their apps with the help of UI Bakery, can embed them into already existing portals and websites. This feature ensures simple integration into companies’ software ecosystems and simplifies interaction between business solutions.

Just like Retool, this platform is quite suitable for real-time collaboration on app creation.

As it is quite typical for low-code tools, UI Bakery has a free plan for small teams and several paid options. For example, the Standard plan, which offers some extra features like user roles and release history, will cost €4/month per user and €9/month per developer. The Business plan provides even more extended possibilities, with customer themes, unlimited seats, and audit logs. For this plan, prices start at €9/month per user and €35/month per developer. Enterprises can leverage individual offers, with prices adjusted to meet their needs.

Pros:

• Great variety of pre-built templates;
• Design flexibility;
• Smooth learning curve.

Cons:

• Limited data handling capabilities for data-heavy operations;
• Limited opportunities for building complex apps;
• Smaller ecosystem and community in comparison to Retool;

Appsmith vs Retool

This is one more Retool open source alternative on our list. This solution provides practically everything developers may need to build efficient internal solutions for businesses with different requirements. It provides users with access to the grid-style canvas where they can create interfaces for their apps by dealing with pre-constructed widgets. To introduce any changes, it is necessary to drag and drop them.

As well as Retool, Appsmith provides wide opportunities for working with databases, including MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, and other popular options. Users have the possibility to make data handling simple and smooth by editing specific database queries.

This tool is also focused on ensuring advanced security for apps built with it. To protect their applications from unauthorized access, users can leverage such features as two-factor authentication and SSL encryption. Moreover, it is also allowed to set role-based access control in relation to some specific data or functionality within the created apps.

The prices depend on the needs of users. The more features and possibilities are required, the higher the costs will be. Nevertheless, this approach allows companies to choose the most feasible options for them and not overpay for the functionality that they won’t use. The platform has a free plan for individual developers and small teams, as well as business and enterprise plans.

Pros:

• Open-source nature;
• Compatibility with different data sources;
• JavaScript customization.

Cons:

• Limited reusability of UI components and workflows;
• Difficulties in using more advanced features;
• Challenges with adapting the UI for different screens.

Airtable vs Retool

Airtable is a low-code platform for app development that is considered to be another Retool competitor. It is designed to help businesses create their workflows in such a way that will efficiently revolutionize their business processes. With Airtable, it is possible to tailor apps to the needs of every end user.

Thanks to the no-code features, even specialists without any specific technical background can successfully utilize the capabilities of relational databases to ensure optimization of their workflows. Users with technical skills can get access to more advanced features to create their own automation and more complex formulas.

As well as Retool, Airtable offers a row of highly demanded integrations with various tools. By integrating external solutions with their newly created apps, businesses can ensure reliable data exchange between them. Google Drive, Zendesk, Asana, Dropbox, Evernote, Miro, Slack—that’s only a small part of all the available options.

For professionals or very small teams that are just starting their journey with Airtable, the platform provides a free plan. Those teams that need to create applications for collaboration on their internal workflows can opt for the Team plan. In this case, the cost will be $20 per seat/month or $24 per seat/month billed annually or monthly respectively. If a company needs to have access to basic administration and advanced features, it’s better to opt for the Business plan, with $45 per seat/month billed annually or $54 per seat/month billed monthly. The plan for enterprises presupposes custom pricing.

Those users who want to power their workflows with AI capabilities like text summarization, translation, or categorization, can get this opportunity for extra cost.

Pros:

• User-friendly interface;
• Real-time collaboration;
• Excellent choice of pre-built templates.

Cons:

• Unlike Retool, no on-premise or self-hosted versions;
• Limited flexibility and scalability;
• Difficulties in managing large-scale databases or applications.

Superblocks vs Retool

Unlike many other alternatives to Retool, Superblocks is known as a good option not just for small businesses, but mainly for medium and large organizations. It is positioned as a good choice for companies working in such domains as healthcare, finance, and retail, where rapid development and smooth deployment play a crucial role.

Thanks to the intuitive interface and robust functionality, technical and non-technical professionals can collaborate and join forces in working with the platform. The range of key features includes pre-built templates, drag-and-drop components, as well as integrations with different APIs and data sources. The flexibility and customization options provided by Superblocks can be compared with those offered by Retool.

This platform stands out from the row of Retool competitors for its comprehensive support and ease of use.

As for pricing, Superblocks ensures enough flexibility for businesses with different requirements and expectations. For small businesses that need to manage their internal tools, there is a free plan. For growing teams, there is a paid option of $49/month per creator and $15/month per end user. This pricing is applied with an annual subscription. Those who are not ready for it and prefer monthly billing should expect to pay 30% more. For enterprises, Superblocks has custom pricing that will reflect the exact set of chosen tools and features.

Pros:

• The possibility to automate practically any workflow;
• Advanced customization features;
• Ease of use.

Cons:

• Challenges with the maintenance of some deployed apps;
• Occasional performance lags;
• Learning curve for non-technical professionals.

ToolJet vs Retool

ToolJet is an open-source low-code platform that can be viewed as one more alternative to Retool. It helps users build and maintain their entire internal tool stacks with any specific skills and resources.

With this platform, businesses can create visually appealing user-friendly frontend interfaces without the help of dedicated engineers. The range of the included integrations helps to connect data from various sources and conveniently work with them. ToolJet also provides users with the possibility to leverage the benefits of a scalable and highly secure no-code built-in database on PostgreSQL.

When it comes to pricing, ToolJet is quite flexible. The Basic plan is offered for free. However, it can be suitable for those who need only essential features. For SMEs that are focused on scaling, there is a special Business plan. It costs $24/month per builder and $8/month per end user for both cloud and self-hosted versions in case of annual billing. It presupposes a 20% discount in comparison with monthly billing. Enterprises with special needs can contact the platform to get individual offers.

There is also a plan called Flexible that costs $99/per app. It means that in this case, businesses pay not based on the number of users but based on the number of applications and add-ons that they need to make.

Pros:

• Open-source advantage;
• Rapid development and deployment;
• Extensive integration capabilities.

Cons:

• Performance issues;
• Challenging setup;
• Low popularity at the moment and a small community.

PowerApps vs Retool

Power Apps is one of the most established platforms among the Retool competitors. It represents a collection of low-code development tools offered by Microsoft. This explains why this platform boasts great popularity among organizations that are deeply involved in the Microsoft ecosystem. Power Apps provides close integrations with other popular tools delivered and supported by Microsoft, like Dynamics, SharePoint, SQL Server, and others.

To handle app logic, Power Apps relies on its proprietary language dubbed Power Fx. This language is derived from Visual Basic. This means that those users who have a good understanding of Excel may find it rather familiar and clear.

What makes this Retool alternative so special is that it allows users to deliver solutions embedded with AI that can help to fully revolutionize their legacy systems without serious time investments. To build solutions their own way, users can provide just one sentence, sketch, table, or some part of their own code.

The Developer plan is offered for free. It allows users to create and test unlimited applications across different environments before proceeding to production. The Premium version costs $20/user per month. This option enables users not only to build, but also update, deploy, and run their apps. However, it is important to keep in mind that some additional features, like AI builder, will be billed separately.

Pros:

• Seamless integrations with Microsoft products;
• Rich library of templates and app samples;
• Intuitive interface.

Cons:

• Dependence on Microsoft and its ecosystem;
• Difficulties in using for more advanced cases;
• Performance issues.

What is the best alternative to Retool?

While the list of Retool competitors may look quite impressive, if you ask us to name just one platform that we can call the best choice, we won’t be able to provide any response. It is vital to understand that despite some strengths and weaknesses every platform may have, they all are best suited to address different needs.

For example, while Power Apps is a good choice for companies that actively use Microsoft products in their processes, Superblocks is targeted at large organizations, and UI Bakery has more offers for small businesses.

When it comes to making a choice, you need to analyze different platforms, their features, their key pros and cons, as well as their pricing policies. Each case should be viewed individually.

If you have some doubts regarding the choice of the most appropriate low-code development platform in your case, you can turn to our team. At Akveo, we will be always ready to provide you with our professional consultancy and development services. Today, our portfolio includes hundreds of successfully delivered apps built for companies from different industries and domains. We can not only deeply understand the needs and requirements of our customers but also find the most efficient approaches and solutions to addressing them, either with Retool or any of its reliable alternatives.

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