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Knack vs Retool comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Knack
Ranking in Rapid Application Development Software
35th
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
No-Code Development Platforms (8th)
Retool
Ranking in Rapid Application Development Software
20th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
12
Ranking in other categories
AI Software Development (22nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2026, in the Rapid Application Development Software category, the mindshare of Knack is 0.9%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Retool is 1.3%, up from 0.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Rapid Application Development Software Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Retool1.3%
Knack0.9%
Other97.8%
Rapid Application Development Software
 

Featured Reviews

it_user1460940 - PeerSpot reviewer
Managing Director at ITdirector.ie
Flexible and granular security options, good filtering, and the pricing model is cost-effective
The vendor does a really poor job of marketing this software because it should be more popular. This is something that I have pointed out to them. It's a super piece of software, but very few people are aware of it. I am an EX-IT director and I've worked in big systems, and I'm amazed this solution isn't more popular. The "native" integration with other products could be improved. The user interface for the systems that you build can use some improvement because as it is now, you may have to use HTML and CSS to make it look more modern or to match a clients existing look. The documentation is amazing, although they don't do videos and their YouTube channel is very poor. They could create some training videos.
YL
IT consultant for healthcare sector at Freelancer
Has provided a quick way to build mobile apps and could improve usability for non-technical users
The best features Retool offers include the ability to quickly create a mobile app and use this mobile app in a native mobile app for Android. I found the process of creating and deploying those mobile apps for Android with Retool to be smooth as the documentation is very good, and I found answers and examples to create a mobile app. I can access a debug mode in the mobile app which was really convenient to make tests and find what can be improved, where I have a problem, and how to correct it. Retool positively impacted my organization as the proof of concept we built gave us a way to convince power users and key users before developing the real software. It was a way to maintain the launch date of the project, which helped speed up the project timeline and save resources.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"The security is the most valuable feature, in particular, the way I can give different access to different areas to different people, so you can really fine-tune access for different users."
"Overall, I am a big fan of Knack."
"There are several key aspects to Retool that make it stand out. Firstly, its extensive range of components makes integration straightforward. Secondly, its support for SQL and JavaScript allows for the implementation of complex logic, which is particularly beneficial for developers like yourself with experience in .NET development."
"We have seen a return on investment because we are building these internal dashboards 30 to 50% faster, so we are saving approximately 30 to 50% of an employee's time."
"The most valuable feature of the solution is connectivity with APIs and other databases."
"With the help of Retool, we saved a lot of time; for instance, we made a similar project before that took two to three weeks to implement the same features, but with Retool, we could check our API right away very quickly, saving around twenty percent of our time and allowing us to visualize how our API works, see the drawbacks, and make changes to our FastAPI backend."
"The most valuable feature of Retool is the workflow because I can integrate multiple features, such as RESTful API, JavaScript API, or different databases on the same dashboard."
"Retool positively impacts our organization by saving costs compared to using other data repositories, and teams prefer Retool for daily tasks that perform customizations to showcase web pages or link their data backend, making it more efficient and cost-effective than other software available in the market."
"Retool provides built-in features with all processing happening within the platform, which is a significant advantage."
"We can create the dashboards quickly."
 

Cons

"The user interface for the systems that you build can use some improvement because as it is now, you have to do a lot of HTML and CSS to make it look modern."
"One area for improvement in Retool is expanding its library support to include a broader range of third-party JavaScript libraries."
"Retool could enhance support, including efforts to establish support centers in Europe, which was lacking previously. However, the community is still in the growth phase, leading to potential delays in receiving responses to queries."
"Retool is more suited for startups, but it can get messy at scale."
"The components are changed frequently, which is very irritating."
"The solution lacks inbuilt customization to customize bar charts."
"Retool should add more resource integration."
"Retool, being a low-code/no-code platform, could improve by allowing users, particularly non-technical users, to use it more easily."
"My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Retool is that it is straightforward but somewhat pricey compared to other industry leaders such as Sentry and others."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"This product has really good value, as it doesn't have a per-user cost, there's a flat fee."
"For me, I'm in India right now, and we have Retool's subscription for one team member for $10 per month."
"The pricing is very expensive. It costs for each user, for automated users, open-end users, et cetera."
"The tool is a little bit expensive."
"For new users, evaluate the scale of their administrative needs as Retool provides excellent free services for smaller setups, but larger deployments might require transitioning to a paid plan."
"I don't know Retool's current pricing, but it cost around $12 per month earlier."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Comms Service Provider
16%
Construction Company
11%
University
11%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Construction Company
20%
Comms Service Provider
14%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
10%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business7
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise4
 

Questions from the Community

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Retool?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Retool is that it is straightforward but somewhat pricey compared to other industry leaders such as Sentry and others. I feel it is an eigh...
What needs improvement with Retool?
I do not have specifics on how Retool can be improved because we are using it for internal tool building only. Regarding needed improvements, perhaps Retool can focus on not building customer-facin...
What is your primary use case for Retool?
We started using Retool last September, so it has been more than nine months now. Our main use case for Retool is an internal operations dashboard built in Retool for our AI agents. Whenever we shi...
 

Comparisons

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Siemens Kaiser Permanente VMware SunChemical C.R. England Philips The Salvation Army United Way U.S. Green Building Council Cambridge University Press
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