Editor Sebastiaan Smits ·
Published October 29, 2026 · Updated October 29, 2026
Teams look past Retool when per-seat pricing grows with every employee who opens an internal app, or when SSO, Git source control and self-hosting sit behind the top tier. The closest replacements are the open-source and cheaper builders Appsmith, Budibase and ToolJet, then Superblocks and UI Bakery.
Short answer: The closest replacements for Retool in our low-code platforms ranking are Appsmith, Budibase and ToolJet. Choose Appsmith if you want one flat per-user price and an open-source edition to host yourself. The other 13 entries come from our Best Low-Code/No-Code Application Platforms in 2026 list as well, and every one is set against Retool specifically, with a note on the cases where Retool should stay.
Visibility in our rankings can be paid for. Payment moves a vendor's position within the shortlist; it never adds a vendor, and it never changes a word of the review or of this page. The first three alternatives go to challengers, vendors outside the best-known brands in a category, wherever the category has them; the established names follow in their ranked order. How it works: placement disclosure · editorial process.
Retool's pricing page charges per builder, per internal user and, from Business, per external user. On Business that is EUR46 per builder and EUR14 per internal user monthly, so 100 employees who only open apps cost EUR1,400 a month before any builder. The free tier stops at 5 users.
Below Enterprise, the pricing page lists SSO, SCIM, 2FA, Git source control and a bring-your-own AI key as not included, and granular roles appear only on Enterprise. Business adds audit logs and rich permissions. A security review of a tool used company-wide can therefore force the highest tier.
Free, Team and Business run on Retool Cloud. Self-hosted and air-gapped deployments are listed for Enterprise, which is custom-priced. The docs describe a Retool-managed single tenant on your AWS account and a fully self-managed one, both outside the lower plans. AI credits are pooled monthly and do not roll over.
Ordered by how well each fits a team leaving Retool; our own placement among 25 ranked products is in the last column.
| # | Alternative | Headquarters | Switch if | Our rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Appsmith | United States | you want one flat per-user price and an open-source edition to host yourself | #21 |
| 2 |  Budibase | United Kingdom | you want cheap self-hosting with unlimited users and can live with one workspace | #22 |
| 3 |  ToolJet | United States | your tools have few builders and many viewers, and you want to run it yourself | #23 |
| 4 |  Superblocks | United States | your pain is per-user pricing and you would rather pay per hosted app | #24 |
| 5 |  UI Bakery | United States | you want to pay for editors only and keep a free self-hosted tier | #25 |
| 6 |  Microsoft Power Apps | United States | your data and identities already live in Microsoft 365 and Entra | #9 |
| 7 |  Mendix | Netherlands | you are building full business applications and not just admin screens | #4 |
| 8 |  Baserow | Netherlands | your real need is a structured shared database with simple apps on top | #6 |
| 9 |  NocoDB | United States | you want a spreadsheet-style front end over an existing database | #12 |
| 10 |  Appian | United States | the internal tool is really a regulated approval or case process | #10 |
| 11 |  Bubble | United States | the tool will face customers and nobody on the team writes queries | #8 |
| 12 |  Betty Blocks | Netherlands | business analysts, not engineers, will build and own the apps | #5 |
| 13 |  Grist | United States | your internal tool is mostly a smart spreadsheet that people already edit | #13 |
| 14 |  Zoho Creator | India | the rest of your back office already runs on Zoho | #16 |
Appsmith publishes a Community edition under Apache-2.0 and a cloud free plan for up to 5 users. Its paid Business plan is $15 per user per month for up to 99 users, so every user is priced alike, with no builder and viewer split. Enterprise adds SCIM and CI/CD.
Switch from Retool if you want one flat per-user price and an open-source edition to host yourself.
Budibase counts creators and sells end users separately: Pro is $19 a month with one creator, extra end users $5 each. The self-hosted open-source edition allows unlimited users but a single workspace. Its pages cover apps, automations and AI agents; the company is incorporated in Northern Ireland.
Switch from Retool if you want cheap self-hosting with unlimited users and can live with one workspace.
ToolJet is licensed AGPL-3.0 and sold per builder: Free covers 2 builders and 50 end users, Pro is $79 and Team $199 per builder per month. End-user caps sit at 50 or 100 until Enterprise. Workflows and the agent builder are listed as self-hosted only.
Switch from Retool if your tools have few builders and many viewers, and you want to run it yourself.
Superblocks starts at $100 a month annual for a Teams plan with up to 15 builders and one hosted app, then $10 per extra app. End users are unlimited. SSO, audit logs, source control and VPC deployment sit in Enterprise only. It builds through an AI agent called Clark.
Switch from Retool if your pain is per-user pricing and you would rather pay per hosted app.
UI Bakery prices only developers: Free $0, Builder $20, Team $35 per month annual. Free includes unlimited apps and public-app users plus a hosted database. A self-hosted install is offered with a free plan and unlimited seats. Role-based access control and audit logs begin on Team.
Switch from Retool if you want to pay for editors only and keep a free self-hosted tier.
Power Apps suits a company already on Microsoft 365 and Dataverse. Its Premium plan is $20 per user a month (annual), with a free developer plan for testing. It is licence-per-user without a builder split, and capacity beyond the included Dataverse storage is billed per GB.
Switch from Retool if your data and identities already live in Microsoft 365 and Entra.
Mendix is a model-driven platform sold per app or per user, from EUR918 a month for one app, with real version control. It builds whole applications with their own logic layer, which is more than Retool's screens-on-your-database approach, and costs correspondingly more.
Switch from Retool if you are building full business applications and not just admin screens.
Baserow starts from the database rather than the screen: an open-source, self-hostable table store with a REST API on every tier, and a no-code application builder added later. Premium is $10 per user a month on annual billing. Expect less workflow depth than Retool's query-and-script model.
Switch from Retool if your real need is a structured shared database with simple apps on top.
NocoDB is a self-deployable no-code database with an Airtable importer, a free community edition and cloud plans priced per seat or as an unlimited-seat bundle ($108 a month on Plus). It is organised around tables and records, so a screen-first Retool app needs reshaping to fit.
Switch from Retool if you want a spreadsheet-style front end over an existing database.
Appian centres on process and case management, priced per user per app with no figures published, plus a free Community Edition for personal development. Its pitch is regulated case work with audit trails, which is a different job from wiring SQL and REST calls onto admin screens.
Switch from Retool if the internal tool is really a regulated approval or case process.
Bubble builds customer-facing web products on its own database, priced by workload units: Starter $59, Growth $209, Team $549 a month on annual billing. Its free plan helps with a trial. It starts from a blank canvas, not from your existing databases and APIs.
Switch from Retool if the tool will face customers and nobody on the team writes queries.
Betty Blocks is a no-code platform priced per month in tiers (Create EUR1,500, Scale EUR3,500), not per user, and presents itself as a platform without vendor lock-in. The entry cost sits far above Retool's Team plan, so it only makes sense at organisation scale.
Switch from Retool if business analysts, not engineers, will build and own the apps.
Grist is a relational spreadsheet with Python formulas, free to self-host in its core and $10 per user per month on Pro ($8 annual). Editors and viewers work in the same document, which suits analysis-heavy tools but is a different shape from a database-backed admin panel.
Switch from Retool if your internal tool is mostly a smart spreadsheet that people already edit.
Zoho Creator sits in the Zoho family, with a free edition and per-user tiers whose prices we could not read on its server-rendered page. Portal users are sold as an add-on. Its value rises when your CRM, finance and desk data already live in Zoho products.
Switch from Retool if the rest of your back office already runs on Zoho.
Stay on Retool if your builders are engineers who value its query-first editor, your user count is modest and Cloud hosting passes your security review. A few builders on the Team plan pay EUR9 each, and source control runs through pull requests on GitHub, GitLab or Bitbucket. Rebuilding working apps rarely pays back at that size.
We found no Retool importer on the pricing, terms or documentation pages of the tools listed here. Treat each app as a rebuild of screens, queries and scripts. Your data stays in its own databases and APIs, so the work is mostly interface and glue code, which is why a pilot with one busy app is the fastest test.
Seat rules differ sharply. ToolJet caps end users at 50 or 100 below Enterprise, Budibase sells end users at $5 each, Appsmith bills every user at $15 on Business, and Superblocks bills per hosted app. Before moving, split your Retool users into builders, daily users and occasional viewers, then price each tool.
If you adopted Retool Enterprise for SSO, audit logs or a private network, confirm each replacement offers them at the plan you can afford. Appsmith, ToolJet and Budibase place SSO and audit logs on paid or enterprise tiers, Superblocks keeps SSO and audit logs in Enterprise.
No, the pricing page lists Retool Cloud for Free, Team and Business, and self-hosted or air-gapped only for Enterprise. Open-source alternatives such as Appsmith (Apache-2.0), ToolJet (AGPL-3.0) and Budibase (GPLv3 overall) can be self-hosted without a licence fee on their community editions.
Yes, Retool Free costs EUR0 per builder and per internal user for up to 5 users, with 250 pooled AI credits a month and production only. It excludes external users, audit logs, Git source control and SSO. Appsmith, ToolJet and UI Bakery also publish free plans.
On the Team plan, 50 internal users cost EUR250 a month at EUR5 each, plus EUR9 for every builder, billed annually per the pricing page. On Business the same 50 users cost EUR700 plus EUR46 per builder. Check your own currency, as the page we read displayed euros.
Your business data stays in the databases and APIs Retool connected to, so it does not move. What you lose is the app layer: screens, queries and scripts. We could not verify a documented export format for apps, so ask Retool support before you cancel.
Appsmith, ToolJet, Budibase and UI Bakery are the nearest: all are drag-and-drop internal-tool builders over databases and APIs with JavaScript or SQL in the editor, and all publish prices. Superblocks is closer in aim but builds through an AI agent and prices per hosted app.
Yes. UI Bakery charges developers only, Superblocks charges per hosted app with unlimited end users, and ToolJet and Budibase charge builders or creators with limited or paid end users. Open-source self-hosting removes per-seat fees but adds hosting and upgrade work.
Every price, plan limit and product statement about Retool here was read on the vendors' own pages on October 29, 2026. Either can change at any time, so read the figures as of that day.
Sebastiaan Smits, Founder, wrote, edited and fact-checked this page.
Founder of The Interregnum and of 2 Steps Ahead, an AI search visibility agency. Editorially responsible for every page here; research and drafting are AI-assisted. Last reviewed October 29, 2026.
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