Retool vs ServiceNow Now Platform comparison

Retool and ServiceNow are both solutions in the Rapid Application Development Software category. Retool is ranked #15 with an average rating of 8.1, while ServiceNow is ranked #14 with an average rating of 7.7. Retool holds a 1.3% mindshare in RADS, compared to ServiceNow’s 2.1% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Retool users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 98% of ServiceNow users who would recommend it.

Retool

Read 11 Retool reviews

1,139 Views
809 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

ServiceNow Now Platform

Read 50 ServiceNow Now Platform reviews

2,468 Views
1,728 Comparison Views

98% willing to recommend

Retool

ServiceNow Now Platform

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 17, 2024

ServiceNow Now Platform and Retool compete in the enterprise software solutions category. ServiceNow has an upper hand due to its advantage in pricing and support, while Retool is considered superior in terms of features.

Features: ServiceNow Now Platform is notable for workflow automation, IT service management, and robust IT operations management. Retool stands out with its flexibility to create custom internal tools quickly, extensive API integrations, and ease of use for developers.

Room for Improvement: ServiceNow could improve in user interface customization, integration complexity, and deployment simplicity. Retool might enhance scalability for larger teams, improve real-time support options, and expand its built-in components for diverse use cases.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Retool offers a straightforward deployment process, emphasizing quick implementation and efficient customer service. ServiceNow's deployment is more complex, fitting larger enterprises with sophisticated IT setups, and it has a robust customer service framework.

Pricing and ROI: ServiceNow requires a higher initial setup cost which aligns with its comprehensive solutions, offering a strong long-term ROI for large enterprises. Retool presents a more cost-effective initial investment with quick returns due to its rapid deployment capabilities and flexibility in building custom solutions.

To learn more, read our detailed Retool vs. ServiceNow Now Platform Report (Updated: March 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Retool vs. ServiceNow Now Platform

March 2026

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Helped 884,933 peers since 2012

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score

6.0

Reducing developer needs and using affordable tools led to significant cost savings and justified user fees.

Sentiment score

6.4

Larger enterprises see ROI from ServiceNow via enhanced performance and AI features, but smaller companies may struggle with costs.

We had fewer front-end resources, and while developing with Retool, we did not need many front-end team members, which saved on salaries.

Kozykorpesh Tolep

software engineer at a non-tech company with 1,001-5,000 employees

I think we can see time saved to start the proof of concept and maybe money saved because I was able to develop the mobile app alone without needing additional resources.

Yannick LE GAL

IT consultant for healthcare sector at Freelancer

For more quotes and insights, download the Retool report

No quotes available

For more quotes and insights, download the ServiceNow Now Platform report

Customer Service

Sentiment score

5.0

Retool's support is responsive and helpful, with users suggesting chat for improvement amid varied experiences with assistance resources.

Sentiment score

7.2

ServiceNow Now Platform's support is praised for responsiveness and expertise, particularly at higher levels, with ratings between seven to ten.

The customer support is amazing; overall, AWS customer support is very professional and fast.

Kozykorpesh Tolep

software engineer at a non-tech company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Technical support team is available, but I haven't needed to contact them.

Anees Shoukat

Full Stack PHP/Python AWS Developer at Binary Port

For more quotes and insights, download the Retool report

They generally know what they are talking about.

Srivathsa Ramachandran

Associate director at Accenture

They are tremendous in helping their customers such as us with their expertise of the platform and knowledge.

Vishal Savajiani

Senior Analyst at DXC Technology

For more quotes and insights, download the ServiceNow Now Platform report

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score

6.6

Retool is scalable and efficient, supporting large user bases and datasets with customizable security and effective performance management.

Sentiment score

7.8

ServiceNow Now Platform excels in scalability, customization, and integration, efficiently supporting large-scale, cloud-based business environments.

It's scalable and doesn't experience any slowdown when handling increasing data volumes.

Anees Shoukat

Full Stack PHP/Python AWS Developer at Binary Port

Retool is more suited for startups, but it can get messy at scale.

Kozykorpesh Tolep

software engineer at a non-tech company with 1,001-5,000 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the Retool report

Users can build and modify the platform according to their needs.

SiddharthZunjarrao

Associate Director at KPMG India

You can have thousands of users using the platform very efficiently.

Vishal Savajiani

Senior Analyst at DXC Technology

It is easily scalable and very powerful in this direction.

reviewer2675172

Product Owner at a computer software company with 51-200 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the ServiceNow Now Platform report

Stability Issues

Sentiment score

8.3

Retool is generally stable and reliable, with occasional issues, garnering mostly positive ratings from users.

Sentiment score

8.1

ServiceNow Now Platform is reliable with high availability, seamless critical app handling, and improved cloud performance, despite occasional upgrade issues.

Retool is stable in my experience.

Yannick LE GAL

IT consultant for healthcare sector at Freelancer

For more quotes and insights, download the Retool report

I haven't had any situations where it would be unavailable for our calls, so I don't have complaints there.

reviewer2675172

Product Owner at a computer software company with 51-200 employees

Overall, it achieves a 99.99% SLA on availability.

Vishal Savajiani

Senior Analyst at DXC Technology

ServiceNow Now Platform has improved it since then.

Mayur Patil

Assistant Manager at Wipro Limited

For more quotes and insights, download the ServiceNow Now Platform report

Room For Improvement

Retool struggles with customization, integration, support, and documentation, requiring better tools, language support, and user resources.

ServiceNow users face challenges with its complex licensing, unintuitive interface, integration, AI features, customization, and low-code support.

Retool needs more customization options, as it should not be limited to a few customization features; it should be broader, with more features available for users to utilize.

Kozykorpesh Tolep

software engineer at a non-tech company with 1,001-5,000 employees

AI tools, features, and machine learning capabilities should be added as they would be helpful in the future.

Anees Shoukat

Full Stack PHP/Python AWS Developer at Binary Port

There should be better documentation or support for non-technical users, providing a platform to learn and implement Retool effectively.

reviewer2775993

Construction Data Analyst at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees

For more quotes and insights, download the Retool report

Historical data isn't as easily available as expected and it requires buying additional licenses for more features.

reviewer1930077

Senior IT consultant at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

It lacks support for rollbacks in case of complex customer processes.

SiddharthZunjarrao

Associate Director at KPMG India

There are many areas where ServiceNow leverages AI or machine learning to enhance the features.

Vishal Savajiani

Senior Analyst at DXC Technology

For more quotes and insights, download the ServiceNow Now Platform report

Setup Cost

Retool offers competitive pricing, appealing to small teams with free plans and larger deployments facing affordable user costs.

ServiceNow's high licensing costs are offset by valuable functionalities, offering a good return on investment for organizations.

The pricing, setup cost, and licensing experience were good as the free plan was enough for us.

Yannick LE GAL

IT consultant for healthcare sector at Freelancer

For more quotes and insights, download the Retool report

ServiceNow Now Platform is an expensive product.

reviewer1930077

Senior IT consultant at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

ServiceNow Now Platform falls within the more expensive tier of a product.

reviewer2675172

Product Owner at a computer software company with 51-200 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the ServiceNow Now Platform report

Valuable Features

Retool simplifies UI dashboard creation with easy API integration, supports complex logic, and enhances efficiency for teams and startups.

ServiceNow Now Platform offers incident management, automation, integration, low-code development, AI enhancements, and custom solutions for IT service management.

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.

reviewer2775993

Construction Data Analyst at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees

Retool provides built-in features with all processing happening within the platform, which is a significant advantage.

Anees Shoukat

Full Stack PHP/Python AWS Developer at Binary Port

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.

Yannick LE GAL

IT consultant for healthcare sector at Freelancer

For more quotes and insights, download the Retool report

The most valuable features are the ease of use, stability, and the ability to change or upgrade seamlessly.

reviewer1930077

Senior IT consultant at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

The text-to-code feature is particularly useful for turning natural language instructions into recognizable code on the ServiceNow platform, aiding both implementation teams and customers.

SiddharthZunjarrao

Associate Director at KPMG India

It is extremely powerful and very much customizable, which allows for quick building of solutions around it.

reviewer2675172

Product Owner at a computer software company with 51-200 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the ServiceNow Now Platform report

Categories and Ranking

Retool

Ranking in Rapid Application Development Software

15th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

AI Software Development (13th)

ServiceNow Now Platform

Ranking in Rapid Application Development Software

14th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Low-Code Development Platforms (9th), No-Code Development Platforms (3rd), Business Orchestration and Automation Technologies (17th)

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Rapid Application Development Software category, the mindshare of Retool is 1.3%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of ServiceNow Now Platform is 2.1%, up from 1.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Rapid Application Development Software Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
ServiceNow Now Platform	2.1%
Retool	1.3%
Other	96.6%

Rapid Application Development Software

Featured Reviews

Yannick LE GAL

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.

Read full review

Vishal Savajiani

Senior Analyst at DXC Technology

Low-code workflows have transformed how we automate processes and build enterprise apps

First and foremost, ServiceNow Now Platform allows us to do a low-code or no-code platform, which is the wonderful first feature. On top of that, if you want to do some customization along with the low-code and no-code, you can do it. Beyond that, if you write a full-fledged customized code and make your functionality, you can do it. Workflow is there, and we can automate our workflows. Flow is there as an option. Apart from workflow and flow, we have many business rules and script includes. These are all the technical components and features of ServiceNow Now Platform that allow us to achieve our objective. ServiceNow Now Platform offers a very easy feature that we call workflow or flow. Using workflow or flow, we can customize industry workflows. The development on that flow is very simple, and you can use drag and drop functionality. If you want to do some scripting, you can do it. This is an awesome feature of ServiceNow Now Platform that allows us to develop or automate any flow in quick time. Internally, ServiceNow Now Platform uses a lot of AI features and machine learning features. This makes it more wonderful. AI and machine learning are the core of ServiceNow Now Platform, and they are using it heavily. It is making a lot of impact on deliverables. You can develop anything whatever you want on ServiceNow Now Platform. If you understand ServiceNow Now Platform capabilities, you can develop a full-fledged application on ServiceNow Now Platform easily. You don't have to write scratch code or do any database operations. You just need to create tables and forms, which are very easy to develop if you are familiar with ServiceNow. Everything is on one platform, so it is a single source of data that you can find on ServiceNow itself for the overall enterprise. ServiceNow Now Platform offers a reporting feature very well. Along with the reporting, they are offering workspace and dashboard. All these UI interfaces you can use to extract precise information for your customer. This is really helping the customer make decisions with the precise and versatile reports. You can have a list report view, a graph report view, or a pie chart. All these features can be developed quickly and used in ServiceNow. This is where ServiceNow Now Platform makes a lot of difference.

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Manufacturing Company

13%

Comms Service Provider

12%

University

Financial Services Firm

13%

Government

10%

Manufacturing Company

University

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	5
Midsize Enterprise	3
Large Enterprise	4

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	15
Midsize Enterprise	3
Large Enterprise	35

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Retool?

The pricing, setup cost, and licensing experience were good as the free plan was enough for us.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Retool?

Retool, being a low-code/no-code platform, could improve by allowing users, particularly non-technical users, to use it more easily. In the mobile app development, you have to use JavaScript to int...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Retool?

My main use case for Retool involves an inventory app project. I built a mobile app to make an inventory of chemistry products. Retool helped me with that project as it was a good way to show a qui...

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What do you like most about ServiceNow Now Platform?

The integration with other tools is pretty good.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ServiceNow Now Platform?

I find the tool to be quite affordable.

See all answers

What needs improvement with ServiceNow Now Platform?

I do see some negative sides and room for improvement. I think there may be some integration with AI and a smart way of reporting, reporting mechanisms, and automation mechanisms on the inputs from...

See all answers

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Retool

March 2026

Download Retool product report

Buyer's Guide

ServiceNow Now Platform

February 2026

Download ServiceNow Now Platform product report

Overview

Retool enables rapid construction of internal tools with minimal coding, streamlining workflows across HR, customer support, and compliance. Praised for its drag-and-drop interface, extensive component library, and SQL support, it boosts organizational efficiency by automating tasks and enhancing data management.

Retool

ServiceNow Now Platform enhances IT service management with request cataloging, incident handling, and knowledge management. Its low-code environment, integration capability, and flexible workflow automation offer a smooth user experience and scalable solutions for enterprises.

ServiceNow Now Platform is designed for seamless integration across IT service management, including incident, problem, and change management. Known for stable performance and a user-friendly interface, it supports flexible workflow automation, efficient report generation, and comprehensive data management. The platform's scalability and low-code customization create opportunities for innovative process automation, enriching user experience. While its licensing and pricing models could be more user-friendly, enhancements in mobile capabilities, AI integration, and modern UI are on demand. Additional improvements in ERP integration and technical support are also needed. The platform serves multiple sectors with configurations for enhanced process automation and service orchestration.

Which features stand out?

Request Cataloging: Streamlines service requests efficiently.
Knowledge Management: Enhances information sharing and resource access.
Incident Handling: Smooth and effective incident resolution.
Workflow Automation: Supports flexible and adaptive process flows.
Integration Capabilities: Seamlessly integrates with existing systems.
IT Service Management: Comprehensive management features for IT services.
Low-Code Environment: Allows for simple and rapid application development.
Custom Scripting: Offers tailored scripting for specific needs.

What benefits can be achieved?

Efficiency: Boosts operational efficiency with integrated workflows.
Scalability: Supports growth with scalable solutions.
User Experience: Provides a smooth and intuitive user experience.
Automation: Increases productivity with automation capabilities.
Data Management: Enhances data handling and report generation.

In diverse industries, ServiceNow Now Platform supports a variety of functions such as IT service management, customer support, workflow automation, and service delivery. Organizations employ it for HR processes, analytics, asset management, and compliance. Its strong integration capabilities allow it to be paired with existing tools, offering flexible configurations and end-user support on a global scale, making it suitable for companies across sectors.

ServiceNow

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

experian, beachbody, health partners

Buyer's Guide

Retool vs. ServiceNow Now Platform

March 2026

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