Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

RailsAdmin VS Retool

Compare RailsAdmin VS Retool and see what are their differences

RailsAdmin logo RailsAdmin

A Rails engine that provides an easy-to-use interface for managing your data

Retool logo Retool

Build custom internal tools in minutes.
  • RailsAdmin Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-14
  • 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

RailsAdmin features and specs

  • Ease of Use
    RailsAdmin provides a simple and intuitive interface, making it easy for developers to set up and manage administrative tasks in a Rails application.
  • Customizability
    The tool offers extensive customization options, allowing developers to tailor the admin dashboard to suit specific needs and integrate with existing functionalities.
  • ActiveRecord Integration
    RailsAdmin seamlessly integrates with ActiveRecord, the default ORM for Rails, enabling easy management of database records without additional configurations.
  • Rich Features
    It comes with a variety of built-in features such as filtering, searching, and sorting, which enhance the user experience and efficiency in managing application data.
  • Community Support
    Being a well-known tool in the Rails community, RailsAdmin benefits from a wealth of community contributions, resources, and plugins that can extend its functionality.

Possible disadvantages of RailsAdmin

  • Performance Overhead
    RailsAdmin can introduce performance overhead, especially in applications with large datasets, as its dynamic nature can affect load times and responsiveness.
  • Limited Customization of Views
    While customization is a strength, there are limitations in how deeply you can customize the look and feel of the RailsAdmin interface without delving into complex overrides.
  • Outdated Documentation
    Some users find the documentation lacking or outdated, which can complicate the setup and customization process, especially for newcomers.
  • Dependency Management
    RailsAdmin comes with several dependencies, which might conflict with other gems or lead to version compatibility issues over time.
  • Lack of Built-in Role Management
    By default, RailsAdmin does not come with built-in role or permission management, requiring additional gems or custom implementations for projects that need these features.

Retool features and specs

  • Speed of Development
    Retool allows developers to rapidly build internal tools with a drag-and-drop interface, reducing the time it takes to get functional applications up and running.
  • Integration Capabilities
    Retool supports integration with a wide range of databases, APIs, and other services, making it easier to connect different data sources and systems.
  • Customizability
    While Retool provides prebuilt components, it also allows for custom code and scripting, enabling developers to tailor applications to specific requirements.
  • Collaboration Features
    Retool supports collaborative features, such as sharing applications with team members and version control, making it easier to work in teams.
  • Security
    Retool provides robust security features, including access control and data encryption, to help protect sensitive information.

Possible disadvantages of Retool

  • Cost
    Retool can be relatively expensive compared to building internal tools from scratch or using some other platforms, potentially making it less accessible for smaller teams or startups.
  • Learning Curve
    Despite its user-friendly interface, there can be a learning curve for new users who need to become familiar with its specific functionalities and scripting capabilities.
  • Customization Limitations
    Though Retool offers customizability, there might be certain limitations compared to fully bespoke solutions, impacting highly specific or complex use cases.
  • Dependency on Retool
    Relying heavily on Retool may create a dependency that could be problematic if the company changes its pricing, features, or discontinues services.
  • Performance
    For very large datasets or highly complex operations, performance can become an issue, as it is with many platform-based solutions.

RailsAdmin videos

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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 RailsAdmin and Retool)
Data Dashboard
100 100%
0% 0
No Code
4 4%
96% 96
Developer Tools
7 7%
93% 93
Productivity
3 3%
97% 97

User comments

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Reviews

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

RailsAdmin Reviews

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Retool Reviews

Top 5 Dynobase alternatives you should know about - March 2025 Review
The choice ultimately depends on your environment and use case. Many teams use a combination of tools: for example, Dynomate for developers, and a Retool app for operations or support teams. By understanding the strengths of each alternative, you can select the tool (or combination of tools) that best integrates with your AWS workflow, making DynamoDB development smoother...
Source: www.dynomate.io
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...

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Retool seems to be a lot more popular than RailsAdmin. While we know about 98 links to Retool, we've tracked only 8 mentions of RailsAdmin. 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.

RailsAdmin mentions (8)

  • Ask HN: Why aren't Django Admin style dashboards popular in other frameworks?
    Like most things, it's probably a combination of things. The Django Admin existed before Django publicly existed. That meant that once anyone started using Django they knew that they should constrain their use of Django in certain ways so that the Django Admin would work with their usage. Features that would be added to Django would be built with the Django Admin in mind. Many tools like Flask or FastAPI don't... - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • From partials to ViewComponents: writing reusable front-end code in Rails
    We briefly considered migrating to a full-grown Rails admin interface, such as ActiveAdmin, RailsAdmin, Administrate or Avo. We especially liked Avo which is built on a very modern stack similar to ours (Tailwind + Hotwire + ViewComponents). In the end, we didn’t go this route as we found some of the options a bit too restrictive (even though Avo is very flexible) and we did not feel like trying to amend it to our... - Source: dev.to / almost 3 years ago
  • Admin Framework for Rails
    Https://github.com/railsadminteam/rails_admin Is very popular and I find it very easy to use. Source: over 3 years ago
  • 🤷‍♀️ The easiest way to monitor your app in production is email?
    It's really helpful to have a way to track what's going on with your application in production, things like: number of user sign ups, status of user accounts, number of X new database entries etc. Out of the box dashboards like Rails Admin are great but only go so far, eventually you will want significant customizations. - Source: dev.to / over 3 years ago
  • RailsAdmin: How to disable edit action?
    I'm working on a rails project with rails_admin and multiple models. There are several people working on the backend and I want to remove the ability to edit some of the records which have a imported boolean set to true. This records should just be readable in rails_admin. Source: over 3 years ago
View more

Retool mentions (98)

  • Code or No Code? The AI Revolution in Web Development
    Retool – Low-code platform for business applications. - Source: dev.to / about 2 months ago
  • I keep turning my Google Sheets into phone-friendly webapps, and I can't stop
    As mentioned by another poster, check out "Partner portals" section on https://retool.com/. - Source: Hacker News / 4 months ago
  • How to Build Internal Tools 100x Faster
    It is possible to speed up the development and delivery process for many internal applications by using no-code or low code tools. These vary in offerings from open source to SaaS, including popular ones like AirTable, BudiBase, Retool, NocoDB and others. These can all greatly help speed up delivery times. - Source: dev.to / 5 months ago
  • Do you need a No Code tool for Firebase?
    There are some No Code tools for Firebase. Some of them are fully integrated, some of them use some limited functions of Firebase through their API. If a tool allows you to integrate with a REST API, you probably can use it. Some of them are: FlutterFlow, JetAdmin, Retool, Bubble, etc. - Source: dev.to / 6 months ago
  • Visual Basic 6 rebuilt in C# – complete with form designer and IDE in browser
    >The No-Code world is fascinating, and the best I've seen in this space is https://retool.com/, but it's expensive and locks you into their ecosystem. >Even today, small businesses need to build out simple apps that were simple to do back in the Visual Basic days—a stock control system, a basic support system, sales tools, etc. Today, it's a minefield of options that can quickly get expensive. A RAD tool like... - Source: Hacker News / 6 months ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing RailsAdmin and Retool, you can also consider the following products

Active Admin - The administration framework for business critical Ruby on Rails applications.

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

Jet Admin - Build business apps really fast

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

Avo - Prevent human errors when implementing analytics

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