Best for
Best for founders and freelancers who want one project published as a native iOS app, a native Android app and a web app without writing code.
- Freelancers
- Small and mid-sized
- Enterprise
AI App Builders Comparison
Adalo vs. Retool
At a glance
At a glance
Best for
Best for engineering and operations teams building internal tools on top of existing databases and APIs.
- Small and mid-sized
- Enterprise
Cataleo does not name a winner. Both statements come from the vendors themselves.
Full Comparison
| Criterion | Adalo | Retool |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | Free plan; paid from $36 / month Annual billing is the rate shown by default; monthly billing costs 20 percent more. Plans differ mainly in published apps (1 on Starter, 2 on Professional, 5 on Team), editors and storage. Publishing to the stores also needs an Apple Developer account ($99 / year) and a Google Play developer account ($25 one-time), both charged by Apple and Google directly. | lower value Free; paid plans from $10 / builder / month Annual billing: Team $10 per builder and $5 per internal user per month, Business $50 per builder and $15 per internal user. On monthly billing that becomes $12 / $7 and $65 / $18. Enterprise on request. |
| Free trial | Free plan with unlimited test apps, 500 records per app and no publishing | Free plan for up to 5 users |
| Output | Native iOS and Android apps plus a responsive web app from one project | Internal web and mobile apps, workflows and AI agents |
| API | Yes, a Collections API and a Notifications API, plus custom actions against any REST API | Yes, the Retool API manages the organisation, its users and Spaces |
| Hosting | Not stated | Retool cloud or self-hosted |
| What it generates | Native iOS and Android apps plus a responsive web app from one project, assembled on a multi-screen canvas or built and edited by prompting the Ada assistant | Internal tools: web and mobile apps, scheduled and event-driven workflows, and AI agents; an AI app builder starts an app from a prompt next to the classic drag-and-drop editor |
| Stack and frameworks | Visual no-code editor with more than 200 drag-and-drop components; a developer mode allows private custom components, and a marketplace adds third-party ones | Drag-and-drop component library with JavaScript in queries, bindings and transformers; custom components are written in React and TypeScript and published to the organisation's component library |
| Auth and database | Built-in hosted Postgres database with relational collections; outside data through external collections over REST, Google Sheets and Xano, which can also supply external users | Connects to any database, API or LLM provider, with a hosted Retool Database included; permissions and audit logging from the Business tier, SSO and SCIM on Enterprise |
| Hosting and deploy | Published to an Adalo-hosted domain or a custom domain, and from paid plans to the Apple App Store and Google Play | Retool cloud or self-hosted; the free, Team and Business tiers can both be self-hosted, Enterprise adds unlimited end users and white-labelling |
| Payments | Yes, Stripe payments collected inside the app | No built-in billing or checkout; a payment provider is connected as an API resource like any other |
| Access to the code | Custom components rather than an exportable codebase. A component is bootstrapped outside Adalo with the create-adalo-component tool, which needs Node 10.2 or newer and developer mode enabled on the account, and is published with npx adalo publish, either publicly or privately. Code otherwise reaches an app from the outside: custom actions call any external REST API, and the Adalo API, documented for the Team and Business plans at up to 5 requests per second, reads and writes the app's collections and triggers push notifications. The developer documentation covers building and publishing components and does not document exporting an app's own source | Apps live in Retool rather than as an exportable codebase; JavaScript and custom React components extend them, and Git-backed source control is an Enterprise feature |
| Deployment | Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based | more entries Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based, On-premise |
| Support | more entries Email helpdesk, Community forum | Community forum |
| Onboarding | more entries Documentation and knowledge base, Video tutorials | Documentation and knowledge base |
| Company size | more entries Freelancers, Small and mid-sized, Enterprise | Small and mid-sized, Enterprise |
| Integrations | more entries Stripe, Zapier, Make, Google Sheets, Google Maps, Xano, Airtable | OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, AWS Bedrock, Azure OpenAI |
Add a tool
Adds a column to the table, from the tools in this category.
Row where the values differ The small markers point at the lower number, the longer list or the stated feature. They describe the data, they are not a verdict.
The short version
Key Differences
- Starting price Adalo Free plan; paid from $36 / month Retool Free; paid plans from $10 / builder / month
- Free trial Adalo Free plan with unlimited test apps, 500 records per app and no publishing Retool Free plan for up to 5 users
- Deployment Adalo Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based Retool Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based, On-premise
- Company size Adalo Freelancers, Small and mid-sized, Enterprise Retool Small and mid-sized, Enterprise
- Support Adalo Email helpdesk, Community forum Retool Community forum
Every line is one datapoint from the table above, picked automatically. Nothing here is written text.
The trade-offs
Strengths and Limitations
Adalo
Strengths
- One project publishes as a native iOS app, a native Android app and a web app
- Ada, the AI assistant, is included on every plan with no token or usage charges
- Built-in relational Postgres database, so no external backend is required to start
- Flat monthly price with no usage-based or per-action charges
Limitations
- The free plan can build and test but cannot publish an app
- Published apps are capped per plan, so shipping several apps means moving up tiers
- App store publishing needs paid Apple and Google developer accounts on top
- Email support runs on a response-time SLA of three, two or one business days depending on the plan
Retool
Strengths
- Connects to any database, API or LLM provider instead of starting from its own data
- Self-hosting is available on every tier, the free one included
- Extensible with JavaScript everywhere and custom React and TypeScript components
Limitations
- Priced per builder and per internal user, so cost tracks headcount rather than apps
- Apps are not an exportable codebase, so leaving the platform means rebuilding
- Git source control, SSO and SCIM are Enterprise-only
Plans
Pricing
Adalo
- Free $0 Unlimited test apps and screens, 500 records per app, 1 editor, Ada AI assistant. No publishing.
- Starter $36 Per month, billed annually. 1 published app, 1 editor, 5 GB storage, web and app store publishing, custom domain.
- Professional $52 Per month, billed annually. 2 published apps, 5 editors, 25 GB storage.
- Team $160 Per month, billed annually. 5 published apps, 10 editors, 125 GB storage.
- Adalo Blue Not stated Enterprise offering with dedicated infrastructure, custom monitoring, on-premise deployment and connections to data sources without an API. Priced on request.
Retool
- Free $0 Up to 5 users, unlimited apps, 500 workflow runs a month, 5 GB database and 5 GB file storage, 250 AI credits a month.
- Team $10 Per builder per month on annual billing ($12 monthly); internal users $5 ($7 monthly). 5,000 workflow runs a month, staging environment, release versions.
- Business $50 Per builder per month on annual billing ($65 monthly); internal users $15 ($18 monthly). Adds audit logging, rich permissions, portals and external user access.
- Enterprise Custom Quoted by the vendor. Adds SSO and SCIM, Git source control, unlimited end users and white-labelling.
What users say
Review Scores · opens after launch
Adalo
- Ease of use
- Not rated yet
- User interface
- Not rated yet
- Onboarding
- Not rated yet
- Support and service
- Not rated yet
- Value for money
- Not rated yet
- Features
- Not rated yet
No reviews yet. Be the first to review this tool. Every review is checked for fairness before it appears, and the vendor cannot have one removed.
Retool
- Ease of use
- Not rated yet
- User interface
- Not rated yet
- Onboarding
- Not rated yet
- Support and service
- Not rated yet
- Value for money
- Not rated yet
- Features
- Not rated yet
No reviews yet. Be the first to review this tool. Every review is checked for fairness before it appears, and the vendor cannot have one removed.
Where this comes from
Where this comes from
Adalo https://www.adalo.com · checked against the official source on 2026-09-12
Retool https://retool.com · no check date recorded yet
This table lists factual criteria taken from information the vendors publish themselves. For how we put it together, see the methodology.