For teams looking to build custom internal software, there are a number of low and no-code solutions out there.
One of the most popular names in this space is Retool – but how does it compare to others on the market? Today, we’re going to explore just that. We’ll spend some time looking at Retool in depth, before exploring three Retool alternatives to understand which can deliver the most value to you:
Let’s begin.
Why choose a low/no-code solution?
Low and no-code platforms enable teams with limited internal software development resource – or who need to create and deploy internal software quickly – to build their own simple interfaces, dashboards or platforms.
Low-code solutions
Low and no-code platforms enable teams with limited internal software development resource – or who need to create and deploy internal software quickly – to build their own simple interfaces, dashboards or platforms.
No-code solutions
No-code solutions are ideal for citizen developers who want to build very simple applications – perhaps internal dashboards, for example. With no-code, teams require no CSS or SQL knowledge, and can build straightforward solutions very quickly and easily – but customisation and scope of functionality is likely to be limited.
Why are low-code tools so popular?
Often, internal software equals fairly low-value builds – such as interfaces or dashboards, which are only used for simple data-sharing or reporting. Internal tooling may only be used by one or two stakeholders, or may be needed solely for a limited time or for a certain project.
With all this in mind, a traditional code-based development approach (which could take days or even weeks of highly valuable software engineer time) can become too great an overhead for organisations to justify for simple internal tooling.
Enter the low-code toolkits. Suddenly, the work of weeks becomes hours, freeing up developer time to focus on more strategic or commercially valuable builds. And for organisations without an internal software development resource, no-code platforms – with their easy-to-use visual editors and widgets – open up a raft of possibilities for citizen developer teams to create their own basic applications.
Here at AC, we can support you with the more complex elements of solution design, build and management, including maximising value from AI-powered agents. From handling integrations to fine-tuning performance, we can elevate your initial internal platform to a powerful internal IT solution, which can successfully scale in line with business needs.
Spotlight on Retool: What is it?
Retool, as we mentioned at the top of this piece, is a leading low-code solution. It’s essentially an intuitive developer toolkit, increasingly focused on helping teams to leverage LLMs (Large Language Models) and AI capabilities more effectively.
Flexible, custom development
The guiding principle of Retool is that you should be able to quickly build and deploy a custom application that meets your teams’ needs. For software engineers, the platform enables a code-first architecture, so you can still input SQL or JavaScript at all stages for utter control of logic and UX, whilst AI-assisted development based on natural language is in the works for less experienced or technical users. Visual drag-and-drop editors and workflow builders are already available.
Wide-range of integration opportunities
By its very nature, an internal application almost certainly has to work with your existing techstack. Retool enables you to connect your custom application with any SQL or GraphQL data source, AWS resources, leading SaaS apps, and more.
AI Primitives: ‘Your app layer for AI’
Using Retool’s ‘building blocks’, teams can quickly build interfaces and dashboards that draw on the power of LLMs. You can connect your Retool interface or application with any LLM of your choice, from gpt-4 to Claude, to enable your teams to access data and insights from AI through a user-friendly and simple interface.
Retool Agents: Powerful custom AI agents
Retool Agents are a new AI-powered solution from Retool. Teams can design and create their own AI agents to complete highly specific tasks and actions. Deploying Retool Agents saves teams significant time through automating processes and tasks, whilst also enabling organisations to better use and act on data from LLMs.
What will you build with Retool Agents? Discover more here!
Looking for specialist help? As an official Retool Partner, and with over two decades across Agile, DevOps and the end-to-end software lifecycle, we’re ideally placed to help you design, deploy and integrate your custom solutions.
Now let’s look at some of those Retool alternatives in a little more depth.
Appsmith
Appsmith is another low-code development platform, and is is completely open-source. (This may give it the edge for some teams over Retool, which is not open-source.)
Like Retool, Appsmith allows users to create internal applications and dashboards which pull on existing tools in a techstack, workflows and LLMs.
Users can build quickly using drag-and-drop widgets, supported by natural language prompts, whilst for greater complexity or customisation, software engineers can code using JS, HTML or CSS.
Appsmith vs Retool
Appsmith is a strong alternative to Retool, offering a similar low-code developer toolkit provision – and the fact that is an open-source platform, with a thriving community, may be a big plus point for some organisations.
On the other hand, however, it appears that Retool’s AI Agent capabilities are more developed than Appsmith; their AI Agent offering is still in closed wait-list mode.
Superblocks
Superblocks is low-code development platform and, unlike Appsmith, is not open source.
A key difference here is that Superblocks appears to be aimed squarely at an enterprise audience, differentiating itself from fellow Retool alternatives by promoting the potential depth and complexity of apps built using its toolkit.
Superblocks enables teams to generate the majority of their app through AI prompts and some visual editing, whilst a software engineer can customise at the code level. Teams can also move up and down through layers of abstraction – which Superblocks describes as a ‘first’ in the app development space – and can manage applications centrally to configure, enforce and monitor an enterprise-level application performance, scalability and security.
Superblocks has also recently launched an AI agent offering (named Clark).
Superblocks vs Retool
The platform may have an advantage over Retool when it comes to enterprise customers (although Retool does also state that it is used by Fortune 500 companies), and some teams will be fans as Superblocks is one of a few platforms to support Python.
However, Superblocks does have some limitations, particularly around its pricing structure (which we understand to be more costly than alternatives), and a weaker Git integration than others.
Unsure which low-code platform will help you meet your objectives? Talk to us. From solution design through to integration management, we can provide guidance – whether you’re a small organisation or a global enterprise.
ToolJet
Last but not least on our comparison of three Retool alternatives, we come to ToolJet.
One of the first things to note is that ToolJet is open-source, similar to AppSmith. Its primary proposition appears to be building internal apps using natural language prompts and AI-guided support – although the platform does also provide access to ‘expert’ human architects to advise on complex integrations or strategic decisions.
Again, you can connect to LLMs of your choice, and integrate your databases – whether they’re in raw data form or structured.
ToolJet vs Retool
Launched in 2021, ToolJet is less mature than some of its fellow low-code solutions (as a comparison, Retool arrived on the scene in 2017), which may impact the range of its ecosystem and feature-set. A plus point, however, is that it is an open-source platform, and we’re interested to see how its AI provision evolves.
Retool alternatives: What’s the verdict?
We could have written a list double as long as this one, as there are a lot of low and no-code development platforms out there – all designed to ease the burden of developing internal applications and software.
Before we finish up, let’s take a final glance at all four Retool alternatives.
| Retool | Appsmith | Superblocks | ToolJet | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Launched in… | 2017 | 2019 | 2021 | 2021 |
| Open-source? | No | Yes | No | Yes |
| Suited for | Start-ups, scaling organisations and enterprises | Start-ups, scaling organisations and enterprises | Enterprises | Mid-sized businesses |
| Pricing | Priced per user + per end user; Free plan available; 4 pricing tiers, from free to enterprise | Priced per user; Free plan available; 3 pricing tiers, from free to enterprise | Pricing on request | Priced per builder; Free plan available; 4 pricing tiers, from free to enterprise |
| AI agents? | Yes | Wait list | Yes | Yes |
| Git integration? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Success stories* | $8m in cost-savings and 20,000 hours saved | 75% reduction in bugging time | 10x faster front-end work | 400 hours a week saved |
* Retool case study. Appsmith case study. Superblocks case study. ToolJet case study.
What’s the best low-code choice for you?
Ultimately, Retool’s continual innovation, mature ecosystem and powerful AI capabilities make it an excellent choice for a diverse range of organisations – from start-up right and scaling, right through to enterprise level.
AppSmith and ToolJet, meanwhile, will both appeal to organisations seeking an open-source platform, whilst Superblocks is ideally pitched for enterprises, or for teams using Python.
As an official Retool partner, we can help you maximise the value of low-code platforms, and guide you through challenges around scalability, maintenance, adoption and more. Start unlocking more potential from your internal systems and create custom solutions that truly make a difference to your teams!
