Retool vs Appsmith: pricing, self-hosting, embedding and MCP compared

Retool vs Appsmith is the comparison engineering teams run when they need an admin panel this quarter and do not want to write a React app for it. Both are drag-and-drop builders with JavaScript in the gaps. The differences that matter are how they bill, where they run, and what happens when the people using the app are not your employees.

This page stays neutral through the verdict. The Gigacatalyst section at the end is separated and only covers customer-facing apps.

What each one is

Retool is a low-code builder for internal tools, and since 2023 also for customer, vendor and partner portals and embedded apps. It targets engineering and ops teams who want dashboards, admin panels and forms on top of their own databases and APIs.

Appsmith is an open-source low-code builder for internal tools, admin panels and dashboards, aimed at engineering teams who connect it to their own databases and APIs. Apache 2.0, 40.9k GitHub stars, 4.8k forks.

Pricing

Prices as of September 2026, from https://retool.com/pricing and https://www.appsmith.com/pricing.

Retool splits seats into builders (who edit apps) and internal users (who only use them), with external users as a third tiered type on Business and Enterprise. Free covers up to 5 users. Team is $10 per builder and $5 per internal user per month on annual billing ($12 and $7 monthly). Business is $50 per builder and $15 per internal user annual ($65 and $18 monthly). External users on Business: first 50 free, 51 to 250 at $8 annual or $10 monthly, 251 to 500 at $6 or $7, 500+ at $4 or $5. Enterprise is custom and required for unlimited users, SSO and advanced self-host features. AI credits renew monthly and do not roll over. Agents bill separately by the hour.

Appsmith has one meter: a user is "any member that has been added to a workspace," billed for the full month if present at any point in the cycle. Developers who only use the IDE are not charged extra. Free is up to 5 users on cloud with 3 Git repos. Business is $15 per user per month, capped at 99 users. Enterprise is $2,500 per month for 100 users, unlimited from 100 up, and adds SAML, OIDC, SCIM and private embeds. Annual discount is not published. Public app viewers have no published price.

Two things to notice. Retool is cheaper per seat at the low end (a $5 Team internal user vs Appsmith's $15 flat), and more granular, but every dimension is metered. Appsmith is simpler, then hits a cliff: a pricing teardown on dev.to noted there is "no mid-tier between Business at $15/user (capped at 99 users) and Enterprise at $2,500/month," and that the flat fee applies "whether they log in daily or once a quarter."

Rough example: 20 builders and 60 internal users. Retool Business annual is 20 x $50 + 60 x $15 = $1,900 per month. Appsmith Business is 80 x $15 = $1,200. Push to 120 users and Appsmith jumps to $2,500 Enterprise, while Retool Business stays linear.

Open source and self-hosting

This is Appsmith's clearest win. Self-hosting is available on all plans including Free, via Docker (recommended), Kubernetes, AWS AMI or DigitalOcean, with a 2 vCPU and 8 GB baseline. An air-gapped build is available through sales. Git version control works with any provider on every plan (3 repos on Free, unlimited on paid) with branch protection and per-environment branches.

Retool self-hosts too: Docker for testing, Kubernetes with Helm for production, or Retool-managed single-tenant on your AWS. Free, Team and Business match cloud prices with feature restrictions, and external user pricing for self-hosted is not published. The bigger gap is Git Source Control, which is Enterprise only. Business gets in-app release versioning. If your team treats "apps in a repo with PR review" as a requirement, Appsmith gives it to you for free and Retool makes you call sales.

Connectors

Retool lists 40+ resources including SQL databases, REST and GraphQL APIs and SaaS connectors, plus Retool Database included on every plan.

Appsmith lists REST, GraphQL and Authenticated API, 14 databases (PostgreSQL, MongoDB, MySQL, MSSQL, Snowflake, Redshift, Oracle, Databricks, S3, DynamoDB and more), 26 SaaS integrations (Salesforce, Google Sheets, Slack, Jira, Zendesk, Airtable) and AI connectors for OpenAI, Anthropic, Google AI and Appsmith AI.

For a typical stack (Postgres plus a few internal APIs) both are fine. Retool's edge is breadth and the included database.

Embedding and SSO gating

Retool: Portals (hosted, custom domain, themed login) are Business and Enterprise. Embed via React and JavaScript SDKs is available on all plans, but Retool API authentication for embeds needs Business or Enterprise. SAML SSO for external users exists; multiple SSO connections need Spaces or multi-instance self-hosting. Permissions are group based (Use, Edit, Own per app), custom groups are Business and up, and the docs describe no built-in row-level policies. Scoping is done in queries.

Appsmith: embedding is an iframe from App Settings. Public embed with no login works on all plans. Private embed is Enterprise only, requires SSO on a self-hosted instance, and does not support GitHub OAuth. Granular Access Control (Business and up) covers apps, pages, datasources and queries with custom roles. Row-level permissions are not mentioned in the docs. Branding removal is Business, custom branding is Enterprise.

Net: Retool has a more built-out external story (Portals, tiered external seats, SDK embeds). Appsmith's customer-facing path is either public-and-free or Enterprise-and-$2,500.

Performance complaints

Retool, per G2 reviewers quoted by Zite: the editor "can start lagging when apps grow larger." Capterra reviewers: "SQL content disappears randomly," "pretty slow and the UX isn't the best," "learning curve can be quite steep."

Appsmith, per G2 (4.7 from 67 reviews): "can be slow or buggy at times" with "heavy data or numerous widgets," and reviewers want "more UI components, more chart types, a more refined mobile responsive mode." AWS Marketplace (4.6 from 67 reviews): "UI customization is limited (compared to pure frontend code)." Product Hunt (4.9 from 32): "lack of direct DOM interaction still limits some advanced use cases."

Both are worth load-testing before you build a data-dense dashboard for many concurrent users.

AI and MCP

Retool has Assist, which generates and edits classic apps from prompts (free "for a limited time"). Retool Agents automate processes with LLM steps and can call external MCP servers. Retool's own MCP server has been in public beta since 2026-05-08 at your instance's /mcp path with OAuth 2.0, for cloud and self-hosted, and manages apps, workflows and users from Claude, Cursor, Codex, ChatGPT and Kiro.

Appsmith has the Appsmith AI datasource (generate, classify, summarize, extract) and Appsmith Agents, which is labeled Legacy and "no longer accepting new sign-ups." Prompt-to-app generation is not published. There is no official MCP server, only community projects.

If your team drives tooling from Claude Code or Cursor, Retool wins this outright.

Side by side

	Retool	Appsmith
Entry paid price	$10 builder, $5 internal user (Team, annual)	$15 per user (Business)
External users	Tiered $8 to $4 after 50 free, Business+	Billed as members; no published external rate
Enterprise cliff	Custom, needed for SSO and unlimited users	$2,500/month at 100 users
Open source	No	Yes, Apache 2.0
Self-host on free plan	Yes, feature restricted	Yes
Git source control	Enterprise only	All plans, 3 repos on Free
Private embed	Business+ (API auth)	Enterprise only, self-hosted SSO
Row-level permissions	Not built in, done in queries	Not mentioned
MCP server	Yes, public beta	No official
G2 rating	4.6, about 358 reviews	4.7, 67 reviews

Prices as of September 2026.

Verdict by situation

Pick Appsmith if you want to self-host for free, keep apps in Git from day one, and the users are a known headcount of staff under 99.

Pick Retool if speed matters more than license terms, you want the widest connector set and a bundled database, you plan to drive it from an AI client over MCP, or you need a partner portal with a modest number of external users and you can live on Business or Enterprise.

Pick neither if the users are thousands of paying customers and you need per-tenant data scoping. Both products leave row-level scoping to your queries, both put authenticated embeds on higher tiers, and both bill or gate by the head. The Retool review at /reviews/retool works the external-user math for 500 customers, and /alternatives/retool covers the wider field including Superblocks and Budibase.

Where Gigacatalyst fits

This section is about one case only: a B2B SaaS company shipping dashboards, reports or configured apps to its own customers.

The problem is not that Retool or Appsmith cannot render the dashboard. It is that the dashboard becomes a second product with its own seats and permission model. A sales engineering leader at Wrike named the core risk: "The danger is that you show the customer something that is not there." A product leader at Klue wanted "a permission system where the capabilities would be predefined and then the app builder can only operate within those bounds."

Gigacatalyst runs the generated app on your product's own APIs and permissions. It can only call approved endpoints, so it cannot show data or features the product does not have, and the logged-in customer sees exactly what their role allows. There is no separate seat for them because they are already your user. Pricing as of September 2026 is quoted per deployment with a pilot, not per customer login.

It is not a replacement for either tool on internal work; /best/internal-tool-builders-for-customer-facing-apps explains where each one lands. If the request in your backlog is a customer dashboard, /dashboard-analytics-bi shows what that looks like, and /contact is where we run it on your APIs.

Questions people ask

Is Appsmith cheaper than Retool? It depends on team shape. As of September 2026 Retool Team charges $5 per internal user and $10 per builder on annual billing, while Appsmith Business is $15 flat per user. Appsmith is simpler but jumps to $2,500 per month Enterprise at 100 users.

Can I self-host Retool for free? Yes, Retool's Free plan can be self-hosted with feature restrictions, matching cloud pricing. Git Source Control still requires Enterprise. Appsmith self-hosts free on all plans with Git included.

Does Appsmith have an MCP server? No official one as of September 2026, only community projects. Retool's MCP server has been in public beta since May 2026 and works with Claude, Cursor, Codex and ChatGPT.

Which is better for embedding in a customer-facing product? Retool has the more complete path (Portals, SDK embeds, tiered external seats) on Business and Enterprise. Appsmith private embeds are Enterprise only and require self-hosted SSO. Neither has built-in row-level data policies.

Do Retool or Appsmith have row-level security? Retool's docs describe no built-in row-level policies; scoping is done in queries. Appsmith's Granular Access Control covers apps, pages, datasources and queries, and row-level permissions are not mentioned.

Where does Gigacatalyst fit next to these two? Only for customer-facing apps. It runs the app on your product's own APIs and permissions, priced per deployment rather than per customer seat. For internal tools, use Retool or Appsmith.