Ninox vs Retool

Ninox is an AI-native low-code platform for building custom business software and workflows. Users can describe needs in plain language, then use AI and low-code tools to organize data, set business rules, create interfaces, and automate processes. Its use cases include CRM and sales, invoicing and orders, inventory, projects, HR, patient records, and care. Automations can respond to events and conditions or use scripting. Teams can collaborate in real time and generate, email, share, print, or export documents such as contracts, invoices, and reports. Ninox connects with Zapier, Make, and n8n and offers a public REST API. Its indefinitely available free plan costs nothing and supports up to five users, with 100 MB storage and up to 5,000 records. Team costs €25 a month billed annually, and Business costs €40 a month billed annually; prices exclude VAT. Ninox says it is ISO 27001 certified and GDPR compliant, hosted on AWS servers in Germany, with data encrypted at rest and in transit. It runs in a modern browser on desktop, tablet, or mobile; native iOS and Android apps are in development.

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.