MIT App Inventor vs Retool
MIT App Inventor
appinventor.mit.edu
Retool
retool.comSide by side
| Figure | MIT App Inventor | Retool |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | $10/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | Yes |
| Open source | Yes | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | — |
| macOS | Yes | — |
| Linux | Yes | — |
| iOS | Yes | Yes |
| Android | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 2 | 5 |
| Spec score · Mobile App Development Platforms | 8.7 (#2) | 8.5 (#4) |
| Spec score · No-code app builders | 9.0 (#17) | 9.0 (#15) |
| Spec score · No-Code Development Platforms | 8.6 (#12) | 8.4 (#17) |
| Audience | The project’s stated vision is to enable anyone, including people who do not consider themselves coders, to create mobile apps. | Retool identifies developers, business engineers, analysts, and operations teams as people who can build with it. |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Integrations | The documentation covers Web and XML services, Google Sheets, CloudDB, sensors, Google Play uploading and external hardware connections. | The integrations page lists connections including REST API, Google Sheets, PostgreSQL, MySQL, Firebase, GraphQL, Snowflake, Salesforce, and Slack. |
| Support | MIT directs users to a community forum where community experts answer questions, rather than promising commercial support contracts. | Technical support from Retool’s Support Engineering team is listed as an Enterprise plan feature. |
Plans
Retool
- FreeFree
- Team$10 a month
- Business$50 a month
- FreeFree
- EnterprisePriced on request
In their own words
MIT App Inventor
MIT App Inventor is a free, browser-based platform for creating, testing, and sharing mobile apps with block-based programming. Its Designer is used to choose components, and its Blocks Editor is where users program app behavior. Projects can include games and media, AI for images, sounds, and text, surveys and charts, maps, sensors, and internet-connected devices. The MIT AI2 Companion app supports testing as an app is built on iOS and Android devices over Wi-Fi. Users can share projects for others to load and remix, then package completed apps for installation on Android. Although apps can be built for Android and iOS, the getting-started information says packaged app building and installation are Android-only for now. The browser tool supports Chrome, Firefox, and Safari on most laptops and desktops, plus Chromebooks, iPads, and Android tablets. A Google account is required. Creators own their apps and can download or delete them from the server. MIT says it tracks site usage and project-development information and may log device and browser details.
Retool
Retool provides tools for building apps and automations that connect to a business’s own data and can run in its infrastructure or the cloud. Its AI-native app builder generates a working app from a description for users to refine. The product supports web apps, progressive web apps, and native iOS and Android apps; mobile apps can take photos, scan barcodes, capture signatures, and read NFC tags. Workflows support scheduled and webhook triggers, custom error handling, and automatic retry policies. Listed connections include REST API, Google Sheets, PostgreSQL, MySQL, Firebase, GraphQL, Snowflake, Salesforce, and Slack. Retool lists role-based access controls, audit logging, SSO, independent workspaces, and self-hosting among its security capabilities. It says queries run against customers’ own data sources and that it does not store their data. Hosting can be in the cloud or self-hosted in a customer VPC, with Docker setup listed for self-hosting. The free plan supports up to five users. Team costs $10 a month per builder and $5 a month per internal user, with the listed Team features including 5,000 workflow runs and 1,000 AI credits monthly.