Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Node-RED VS Retool

Compare Node-RED VS Retool and see what are their differences

Node-RED logo Node-RED

Node-RED is a programming tool for wiring together hardware devices, APIs and online services in new and interesting ways.

Retool logo Retool

Build custom internal tools in minutes.
  • Node-RED Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-07-23
  • Retool Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-08-04

Retool

Website
retool.com
$ Details
freemium $10.0 / Monthly (Startup)
Release Date
2017 January
Startup details
Country
United States
State
California
Founder(s)
David Hsu
Employees
10 - 19

Node-RED videos

Intro to Node-RED: Part 1 Fundamentals

Retool videos

Retool - Logic Review

More videos:

  • Review - #Worth?! Ep.12 - Retool (Gameplay / Review)
  • Demo - February NY Enterprise Tech Meetup: Retool Demo

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Node-RED and Retool)
Automation
100 100%
0% 0
No Code
0 0%
100% 100
DevOps Tools
100 100%
0% 0
Developer Tools
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

Share your experience with using Node-RED and Retool. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Node-RED and Retool

Node-RED Reviews

10 n8n.io Alternatives
Node-RED is a flow-based development and programming tool for visual programming presented in the market by IBM for wiring together online services and hardware devices as part of the internet of things. Web browser-based flow editor is available over this software to create JavaScript functions, and elements of apps can be saved or shared for using reprocess. Back in 2016,...
Open Source Internet of Things (IoT) Platforms
Node-RED is a visual tool for lining the Internet of Things, i.e., wiring together hardware devices, APIs, and online services in new ways. Built on Node.js, Node-RED describes itself as “a visual means for wiring the Internet of Things.”
9 Home Automation Open-Source Platforms for Your projects
If you would like to know how to build your own home automation system with Node-RED, Raspberry Pi, ESP8266 and Arduino, I’ve just released a new course on this subject: Build an Home Automation System for $100.

Retool Reviews

React UI Components Libraries: Our Top Picks for 2023
Retool offers extensive documentation and support. Its support is available on its Discourse forum, Slack (if you are a Retool power user), Intercom for live chat, and dedicated support for enterprise customers.
Source: kinsta.com
ILLA Cloud vs. Retool vs. Bubble - Unveiling the Best Low-Code Platforms
In the quest for the best low-code platform, Retool, Bubble, and ILLA Cloud all offer unique features and capabilities. While Retool shines with its self-hosted option and Bubble contributes to the open-source community, ILLA Cloud stands out as a powerful and flexible low-code platform. With its comprehensive feature set, affordable pricing models, and self-hosted...
Top 9 Low-Code Tools for 2023 for low-code development
Retool is a powerful low-code platform that enables developers to build internal tools and apps with ease. It offers a drag-and-drop interface and a wide range of pre-built components for seamless development. Retool integrates with various data sources and external services, allowing users to fetch data, perform calculations, and display results in real-time. Its...
Superblock vs Retool: A Comprehensive Comparison for Low-code development Platforms
Retool caters to a diverse audience, including developers, product managers, and business professionals. Developers benefit from Retool's low-code capabilities, allowing them to build applications quickly without sacrificing customization. Product managers can leverage Retool to streamline internal workflows and enable teams to be more productive. Business professionals can...
Top React component libraries (2021 edition)
Style editors — Style editors are available across all Retool plans and allow you to customize your Retool components within the Retool UI by editing the style properties (e.g., color, border-radius) of any component.
Source: retool.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Node-RED might be a bit more popular than Retool. We know about 120 links to it since March 2021 and only 89 links to Retool. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Node-RED mentions (120)

  • Devin, the First AI Software Engineer
    Good question. I expect that we're moving into a phase of AIs talking to AIs, and initially it'll be wasteful (because it'll be mostly English), but eventually, they'll derive their own language and seamlessly upgrade protocols when they determine they're talking to an AI. No clue how that will come about or what that language will look like, but honestly, it's kind of exciting. Really interesting to think about... - Source: Hacker News / 3 months ago
  • IFTTT is killing its pay-what-you-want Legacy Pro plan
    Https://n8n.io/, https://github.com/huginn/huginn, https://automatisch.io/, https://www.activepieces.com/ and theres a lot more... I've used n8n, node-red, and huginn (a while back), but imo n8n has been the simplest off the shelf. - Source: Hacker News / 5 months ago
  • Pipe Dreams: The life and times of Yahoo Pipes
    I skipped to chapter 9 in the article ("Clogged"), and it looked like Pipes failed because it didn't have a large enough team or a well-defined mission. As a result they couldn't offer a super robust product that would lure in enterprise users. "You could not purchase some number of guaranteed-to-work Pipes calls per month" is the quote from the article. The reason I think that interesting is because that's the... - Source: Hacker News / 6 months ago
  • n8n.io - A powerful workflow automation tool
    I believe Node-RED (https://nodered.org/) the way to go. It's just an NPM package to install and you can run it how ever you wish (even on Windows). It has a friendly and helpful community with even the main developers tirelessly answering even beginner level questions. In fact the community forum its THE friendliest forum I've ever been a member of by a large margin. Node-RED's development is supported by the JS... - Source: Hacker News / 10 months ago
  • Loops and conditional branching (IF then else) in ComfyUI?
    Does anyone know if their are plans to implement something like this (or if there are already custom nodes out there). I'd like to experiment with things like looping and incrementing values (like a for loop) for a Ksampler for example. It's only an example though, so I am not looking for a ksampler specific solution; just a generic way to have a variable (e.g. Seed value), run some nodes that use that value,... Source: 10 months ago
View more

Retool mentions (89)

  • The End of Airplane.dev
    I am building https://github.com/claceio/clace and https://retool.com/, allow automation of operational tasks through a web interface while also allowing fully custom web apps. Clace also works great for running simple web apps locally. Building and deploying a web app should be as easy and common for backend engineers as creating a CLI app is. - Source: Hacker News / 3 months ago
  • FastUI: Build Better UIs Faster
    This seems to mainly be useful for spinning up quick and dirty internal tools. But for that use-case, isn't it easier to use something visual and established like Retool (https://retool.com/) or that generates nice react code, like MUI Toolpad (https://mui.com/toolpad/)? - Source: Hacker News / 4 months ago
  • Internal tools often make bad startup ideas
    There are obvious counterexamples, like https://retool.com, which is a successful company with solid revenue and multi-B valuation. > software engineers — who are often influencers in a purchase decision — are strongly incentivized to build instead of buy Regardless of what software engineers would rather do, pressure from real users trumps pressure from internal users. This especially true in startups, whose... - Source: Hacker News / 4 months ago
  • YC: Requests for Startups
    I submitted an application for w24 that fits in the "Developer tools inspired by existing internal tools" category but wasn't accepted. I suspect my pitch probably needed work, and I also haven't started building at all yet and submitted as a solo-founder which it seems has less chance of being accepted. Here's the pitch and some details, in case anyone else is interested in the idea: > Supportal uses AI to... - Source: Hacker News / 4 months ago
  • A list of SaaS, PaaS and IaaS offerings that have free tiers of interest to devops and infradev
    ReTool — Low-code platform for building internal applications. Retool is highly hackable. If you can write it with JavaScript and an API, you can make it in Retool. The free tier allows up to five users per month, unlimited apps and API connections. - Source: dev.to / 4 months ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing Node-RED and Retool, you can also consider the following products

n8n.io - Free and open fair-code licensed node based Workflow Automation Tool. Easily automate tasks across different services.

Bubble.io - Building tech is slow and expensive. Bubble is the most powerful no-code platform for creating digital products.

Zapier - Connect the apps you use everyday to automate your work and be more productive. 1000+ apps and easy integrations - get started in minutes.

Appsmith - Appsmith is an open source web framework for building internal tools, admin panels, dashboards, and workflows.

ifttt - IFTTT puts the internet to work for you. Create simple connections between the products you use every day.

Airtable - Airtable works like a spreadsheet but gives you the power of a database to organize anything. Sign up for free.