Rebase vs Retool
Retool is priced per seat and assembled in a visual editor; Rebase is MIT-licensed and assembled in your repository. The other difference matters more as the tool grows: Retool queries your database with credentials the tool holds, and Rebase reads it as the signed-in user, under policies Postgres enforces.
Per seat, or open source
Where it hurts
Retool charges per seat. As more non-technical teammates, contractors or customers need access to an internal app, the bill grows with the number of people using it.
What Rebase does instead
Rebase does not charge for the people who use it.
- MIT-licensed and free to self-host.
- No per-seat licence. Ten users or ten thousand.
- Nobody has to ration access to an internal tool to keep a bill down.
Low-code walls, or React
Where it hurts
As app logic grows, Retool asks you to write JavaScript in small editor boxes. Debugging it is harder than debugging a file, and stepping outside the component library means an iframe.
What Rebase does instead
Rebase gives you a generated admin panel, and extending it is writing React — no plugin API, no escape hatch to learn.
- Your own editor: VS Code, Cursor, WebStorm.
- Any npm package — MUI, Tailwind, Recharts — without an iframe around it.
- TypeScript you can lint, type-check and test.
An exported app, or the app itself
Where it hurts
Retool apps live in Retool and are exported for version control — as a single JSON file, or as a Toolscript archive that splits it across files. Toolscript is far more reviewable than the JSON was, but it is still a serialisation of a visual editor's state: the artefact in your repository is a description of the app rather than the app. A Rebase project is TypeScript and React that runs.
What Rebase does instead
Rebase was built on Git from day one.
- Configuration and UI schemas are ordinary TypeScript files.
- A PR reads like any other frontend review: + published: boolean.
- Deploy through the CI/CD you already run, not a proprietary release tool.
Do not switch
When to stay on Retool
When you need to join data from many places quickly. Retool's catalogue of integrations — Stripe, Salesforce, S3, half a dozen databases, arbitrary REST — is enormous, and building an ops screen across four SaaS products is genuinely fast there. Rebase is Postgres-centred; if your data is not mostly in Postgres, much of the argument here does not apply.
Rebase and Retool, answered
Does Rebase connect to my database the way Retool does?
It runs on your infrastructure rather than connecting inward to it. Retool is a hosted canvas that reaches your database over a credential you give it — or a self-hosted agent you also operate. Rebase is the backend: it sits with your Postgres and serves the panel from the same place, so there is no outbound connection and no third party holding a database credential.
Do I have to build every screen by hand?
No, and this is the largest practical difference. Retool screens are drawn one at a time, and they stay drawn: add a column and you revisit every screen that should show it. Rebase generates the interface from the collection definitions, so a new field appears in the table, the form and the API at once. You still drop to custom React wherever the generated version is wrong.
How does the pricing model compare?
Retool is priced per user, which is what makes an internal tool expensive precisely as it succeeds — every viewer you add costs more. Rebase is open source and self-hostable at no licence cost, and Rebase Cloud is priced per resource rather than per seat. Adding the eleventh person who needs read access does not change the bill.
When is Retool the better choice?
When you need to join data from many places quickly. Retool's catalogue of integrations — Stripe, Salesforce, S3, half a dozen databases, arbitrary REST — is enormous, and building an ops screen across four SaaS products is genuinely fast there. Rebase is Postgres-centred; if your data is not mostly in Postgres, much of the argument here does not apply.
Can non-developers use Rebase CMS?
That is who it is for. Roles and permissions, forms with validation, media, kanban and list views, inline editing and search are the default experience, and what each role can see is enforced by row-level security in the database rather than by hiding a button.
Do I have to self-host Rebase?
No. Self-host it and you own the data, the code and the machine it runs on — that is the default and it is fully supported. Or deploy the same project to Rebase Cloud, which is live with real tenants today and opening in batches while it is in private beta, priced per resource rather than per seat. Your code is identical either way; hosting is a deployment target, not a fork.
Don't take our word for it.
The comparison that matters is the one you run. Point Rebase at a Postgres database you already have and see how it holds up next to Retool.