ABP vs. Retool

If you are building a simple web application and want to bypass all of the basic building blocks (authentication & authorization, multi-tenant, etc, etc.), then ABP Commercial will allow you to do this very quickly with their tooling. It is also an excellent tool if you are building a large complicated SAAS product, as long as you are willing to invest the time required to understand the 'why' behind their architectural decisions and follow their methods throughout your development.

Incentivized

If you need to build an admin panel or any other backend system, Retool is the right tool for you.

Incentivized

• Amount of templates
• Common features like authentication, localization, etc
• Support and community

Incentivized

• Ease of use - someone with small amount of experience can use it.
• Adaptability - you can build a lot of things with it.
• Reliability - works quite well.

Incentivized

• Initial learning curve - There is a lot of training and help material available, but one of the hardest things to grasp (and also to explain) are all of the reasons why the 'ABP way' is better. Many times, it seems to be more complicated or more difficult than the 'simple' way of doing things. Over time, as you expand on functionality and add more and more layers of complexity, you realize WHY they build the software the way they do, and it goes from appearing complex to appearing elegant.
• Support - Some support techs are excellent, but others seem to be missing to just supply ANY answer to a question (which is often something along the lines of 'read the help').

Incentivized

• Some Retool apps can become slow to load or refresh.
• When multiple team members work on the same app, changes can overwrite each other or break functionality.
• The UI/UX is pretty basic.

Incentivized

Because even though it is quite intuitive it is not the best tool I have ever seen.

Incentivized

We selected Retool because it offers the best balance of usability and power compared to alternatives like Appsmith, ToolJet, and OutSystems. It allows us to build much faster, with broad integrations and strong enterprise features like permissions and environment management. Competing tools were either too limited, required more engineering effort. Overall, retool support has been decent too.

Incentivized

• Time saving
• Costs saving

• Good ROI to give our teams the data they need.
• Some dashboards can be slow so it can take more time/ bandwidth.
• As apps grow more complex, troubleshooting logic or query dependencies can be time-consuming.

Incentivized