Quickbase vs. Retool

At a glance

Best for

Best for operations teams whose departmental processes have outgrown spreadsheets and whose IT department wants governance around whatever replaces them.

Small and mid-sized
Enterprise

Retool

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	Quickbase	Retool
Starting price	From $35 / user / month Team is $35 and Business $55 per user per month, priced annually. Neither figure includes the platform minimum, a base charge on top of the per-user price. All users in an account must be on the same plan. Enterprise is quoted by Quickbase.	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	30-day free trial with the Business plan features	Free plan for up to 5 users
Output	Custom operational applications with tables, forms, reports, dashboards, roles and workflow automation	Internal web and mobile apps, workflows and AI agents
API	Yes, JSON REST APIs; the platform analytics API and solutions API are Enterprise only	Yes, the Retool API manages the organisation, its users and Spaces
Hosting	Not stated	Retool cloud or self-hosted
What it generates	Custom operational applications: tables and forms for the data, more than 13 report types and personalised dashboards, roles and permissions, and pipelines for workflow automation. Pave, the AI builder, takes a description of how the work happens today and constructs the application, including data structures with linked records, user roles and permissions, automation and hosting	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	There is no framework or language to choose. An application is assembled in Quickbase's own builder and runs on Quickbase's platform, and it is widened rather than swapped: more than 40 pre-built Pipelines integration channels connect it to other systems, and Quickbase Extensions, a paid package, adds document generation, e-signatures, SMS, email notifications and mapping to the same app	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	Quickbase's own tables and linked records, with role-based permissions, encryption, audit logs and data classification. Single sign-on and SCIM provisioning arrive with the Business plan; restricting user creation to realm admins and managing token permissions is Enterprise	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	Hosted by Quickbase, with the application ready to use once built. On-premise connectivity and data warehouse integrations are Enterprise features	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	No payment collection or checkout of its own, and none is documented for the apps built on it: these are internal operational applications rather than customer-facing products. Money stays in the systems Quickbase connects to, through the financial software category among the 40+ pre-built Pipelines channels or through the JSON REST APIs	No built-in billing or checkout; a payment provider is connected as an API resource like any other
Access to the code	Code pages let a builder add custom HTML, CSS or JavaScript to an app and surface it through a button, a hyperlink, a formula URL field or an iframe; JSON REST APIs cover programmatic access	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, Live online demos and webinars	Documentation and knowledge base
Company size	Small and mid-sized, Enterprise	Small and mid-sized, Enterprise
Integrations	Salesforce, Jira, ServiceNow, Procore	more entries OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, AWS Bedrock, Azure OpenAI

Compare more tools

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 Quickbase From $35 / user / month Retool Free; paid plans from $10 / builder / month
Free trial Quickbase 30-day free trial with the Business plan features Retool Free plan for up to 5 users
Deployment Quickbase Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based Retool Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based, On-premise
Support Quickbase Email helpdesk, Community forum Retool Community forum
Output Quickbase Custom operational applications with tables, forms, reports, dashboards, roles and workflow automation Retool Internal web and mobile apps, workflows and AI agents

Every line is one datapoint from the table above, picked automatically. Nothing here is written text.

The trade-offs

Strengths and Limitations

Quickbase

Strengths

Pave builds a working app, data model and permissions included, from a description of the existing process
Governance is part of the platform: roles and permissions, encryption, audit logs and data classification
No-code connectors to Salesforce, Jira and ServiceNow, plus JSON REST APIs
Code pages allow custom HTML, CSS and JavaScript where the no-code builder stops
Quickbase states that customer data is not used to train the AI

Limitations

The published per-user price excludes a platform minimum that is not published, so the real cost needs a quote
AI capability beyond Pave, namely the AI agent, Data Analyzer and AI Actions, is a paid Intelligence Package add-on
Single sign-on, SCIM provisioning, a sandbox and FDA and HIPAA compliance require the Business plan
All users in an account must be on the same plan, so one requirement can lift the whole account a tier
Platform analytics and solutions APIs are restricted to Enterprise

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

Quickbase

Free trial $0 30 days with the Business plan features.
Team $35 Per user per month, priced annually, on top of a platform minimum. Personalised dashboards, 13+ report types, workflow automation, user and data security, encryption and audit logs. The AI Intelligence Package is an optional add-on.
Business $55 Per user per month, priced annually, on top of a platform minimum. Everything in Team plus single sign-on, SCIM provisioning, Gantt charts, a sandbox and FDA and HIPAA compliance. Quickbase Extensions and the AI Intelligence Package are optional add-ons.
Enterprise Custom Quoted by Quickbase. Everything in Team and Business plus advanced performance tools, advanced encryption, on-premise connectivity, data warehouse integrations, the platform analytics and solutions APIs, and the extensions and AI add-ons.

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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.

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What users say

Review Scores · opens after launch

Quickbase

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

Quickbase https://www.quickbase.com · no check date recorded yet

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.