Hey I’m Seth!

Founder, No Code MBA
Each week I share the latest No Code MBA tutorials, interviews, and tool recommendations with 20,000 subscribers.
I'd love for you to join as well.
2 min read only
Practical lessons
Free access to content
Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form...
00
D
00
H
00
M
00
S
SPRING SALE: SAVE 10% →

Adalo vs Retool

An in-depth head to head comparison

In this article, read a side-by-side comparison between two no-code tools: Adalo and Retool. We'll compare pricing, the benefits, the drawbacks, give examples of what you can and can't build, as well as our overall recommendation.

What is Adalo?

Adalo makes creating apps as easy as putting together a slide deck.
Go to tool
No items found.

What is Retool?

Build internal tools, remarkably fast
Go to tool
No items found.

Pricing

Adalo pricing

  • Free plan with unlimited apps, an Adalo domain and Adalo branding, with up to 50 rows of data
  • $50/month - $200/month for custom domains, publishing to Apple and Google Stores, connecting to external data collections, custom actions, and additional data storage

Retool pricing

  • Free plan with editor mode only and up to 5 modules
  • $10/month - $50/month per user enables user mode (people can use your app without the ability to edit your set up), version history, more modules, and more advanced features

Benefits

Adalo benefits

  • Can build native apps that can be downloaded in app store
  • Can also build desktop apps
  • In-app purchases
  • Can build just about any app experience
  • Can connect to APIs

Retool benefits

  • Build internal apps connected to your company's data
  • Supports data from just about every database and data source
  • Lots of templates and components
  • Display, filter, and edit your company's data directly from retool
  • Allows businesses to create custom dashboards without developer resources

Drawbacks

Adalo drawbacks

  • Higher learning curve
  • Seems to be going through some growing pains. I’ve noticed published apps run a bit slower than I’d like.

Retool drawbacks

  • Somewhat high learning curve

What you can build

Adalo use-cases

  • MVP versions of mobile apps like Tinder and Zillow
  • Desktop apps
  • Apps with user accounts and complex logic
  • Complex apps that require API connections
  • Publish apps to the app store

Retool use-cases

  • Internal dashboards
  • Internal apps for your business such as a refund management system, data visualization, inventory management, content scheduler, promo code manager and more

What you can't build

What you can't build with Adalo

  • Desktop web apps (check out Bubble)

What you can't build with Retool

  • Customer-facing apps (Retool apps are meant to be used internally)

Overall Recommendation

Adalo recommendation

Adalo is best for building mobile apps that require one of the following: being published in an app store, in-app purchases, or connection with APIs.

In most other cases, I'd suggest Glide as it's easier to use and runs faster for end-users.

Retool recommendation

Retool is a fantastic tool for building internal apps at your business.

Where Retool really shines is allowing non-technical people to build apps that interact with a live database without needing to use developers.

Retool is the best tool for this use-case.

Access all of this with No-Code MBA Unlimited
Unlock premium step-by-step tutorials building real apps and websites
Easy to follow tutorials broken down into lessons between 2 to 20 minutes
Get access to the community to share what you're building, ask questions, and get support if you're stuck
Friendly Tip!
Companies often reimburse No Code MBA memberships. Here's an email template to send to your manager.

Bring Your Ideas to Life with AI and No Code

Unlock premium step-by-step tutorials building real apps and websites
Easy to follow tutorials broken down into lessons between 2 to 20 minutes
Get access to the community to share what you're building, ask questions, and get support if you're stuck
Access all of this with No-Code MBA Unlimited
Unlock premium step-by-step tutorials building real apps and websites
Easy to follow tutorials broken down into lessons between 2 to 20 minutes
Get access to the community to share what you're building, ask questions, and get support if you're stuck
Friendly Tip!
Companies often reimburse No Code MBA memberships. Here's an email template to send to your manager.

More tool comparisons