Budibase

Budibase gives you a screen designer, a workflow automation layer, and a built-in relational data store, so you can either connect to an existing database and API or just build the data model inside Budibase itself. That built-in option is the main difference from Retool and Appsmith, since it removes the need to stand up a separate database before you can start building the app.

Self-hosting is free and open source, with the hosted cloud plan priced per user for teams that don’t want to manage a server. Data created inside Budibase’s own tables can be exported, and the self-hosted route means your app and data stay on infrastructure you control rather than a vendor’s cloud. The ceiling is that the built-in database is fine for internal tools but isn’t meant to replace a production database at real scale, and the automation engine is simpler than a dedicated tool like Make. It fits small teams and agencies who want one platform to both hold the data and build the admin app on top of it.