Saltcorn

What Saltcorn is

Saltcorn is an open-source database app builder for teams whose processes do not fit an off-the-shelf SaaS template. The home page calls it a "fully custom database app builder" and sums up the license terms as "open source, free, self-hosted, no license fee." The platform is MIT-licensed and self-hostable with no telemetry. It is made by Saltcorn Collective Ltd, a UK-registered company that works worldwide. The reader it speaks to is an operations or IT person who has been running things on spreadsheets and old Access databases and wants a structured app instead.

What you build and how

The product page names 6 capabilities, "one spine" running through every application. The first is the relational model, "the schema underneath every application": related tables kept in one place, which the site calls a structured data foundation. On top of it sits a drag-and-drop builder where views, pages and actions are "built visually." The third capability is output: "web, mobile, PDF, email," described as one application with every output channel. Then come workflows and actions, an AI copilot and agents, and deployment anywhere.

What it makes. The home page groups the typical builds into 3 families. Operational tools include process hubs, project trackers, equipment tracking, and monitoring and evaluation. Data and workflow apps include approval flows, compliance systems, internal databases and reporting workflows. Portals and interfaces include customer portals and CRM tools. The site also says you can "create forms, dashboards, portals and workflows with visual drag-and-drop builders." The pitch is replacing scattered tools with "one home for your ops," where processes, records, workflows and dashboards live together, and growing the system later without rebuilding it.

Workflows. The Saltcorn 1.2.0 release post, dated 22 May 2025 and written by Tom Nielsen, introduced durable workflow execution with custom steps and control flow logic. Workflows support loops, conditionals and error handling, and pass information between steps through a shared context. They can run periodically, in response to a system or table event, or on a button click. Each step runs in an atomic transaction, so a workflow that moves funds between accounts applies entirely or not at all. A WorkflowRoom view presents a workflow to the user as a chat interface, which the post says suits AI-backed workflows, and workflows can also ask the user for information at runtime. The current home page announces version 1.6.1 with a visual workflow editor, an enhanced view builder and a loop-based AI copilot app builder.

AI copilot. The release post describes 2 copilots. The user copilot lets you build a chatbot that people use to talk to designated database tables and run designated actions through a large language model. The system copilot builds Saltcorn applications themselves: it can design databases, build workflows and other actions, and build pages, though that post says it handled only a limited number of view types at the time. The home page says "The AI co-pilot builds pages and workflows from a description."

Mobile. According to the 1.2.0 post, mobile applications are built on Capacitor.js, "a more recent and better maintained framework." The post adds: "Potentially this allows us also to build different types of applications such as fully offline PWA and desktop." The same release added a simple facility for page animations, with delays and keyframes triggered by scrolling.

Code where the builder stops. Saltcorn Collective's services page says it aims for "90% of an application to be built no-code and the remaining 10% to be focused custom work." For that remainder it offers specialized modules in code, such as a domain-specific algorithm or a bespoke integration. Inside the platform, a React module lets you build views with React. Each view is optionally linked to a table and is a single component that can draw on shared code from a repository, which can import npm packages. With both the copilot and React modules installed, the copilot can write the React code.

Modules and sync. The release post names a CalDav module that synchronizes external calendars with database tables and, together with an IMAP sync module, supports personal information applications.

Permissions. The same post says the security model was tightened in 1.2.0, so that embedded views and drop-down options respect table read permissions, and developer accounts let roles below admin edit entities such as tables, pages and views.

What the pages state

• License and cost. "Open source MIT-licensed, self-hostable, no telemetry." The home page says "open source, free, self-hosted, no license fee."
• Hosting. The services page says the free hosted service on saltcorn.com is "the easiest start" for evaluation. For production self-hosting, DigitalOcean and Linode marketplace images are one-click, and Docker and npm images are available for behind-the-firewall installs.
• Services. Saltcorn Collective Ltd sells Build, Support, Train and Enhance engagements. Support can be on retainer or hourly. Training is taught on your own application. Enhance covers sponsored improvements to the platform at a reduced hourly rate, because the work benefits everyone using it. Clients keep the IP in the applications built for them. The company says hosting is not a profit center and clients are free to host with any provider.
• Contact. The services page describes Saltcorn Collective Ltd as UK-based and working internationally across time zones, with a contact form for project enquiries and a separate address for partnerships and sponsored open-source work. The page says the company usually replies within 2 working days.
• Community. Resources named on the site include a wiki, forum, Discord, GitHub, YouTube, an OpenCollective page for sponsorship, and a blog.

Who it suits

Saltcorn suits operations teams and small organizations with non-standard processes, the people the site describes as needing "someone who understands how the data and workflows fit together." Developers and agencies who want an open-source base they can self-host, extend with React and ship to web, mobile, PDF and email will find a lot of room. The services page names enterprises and local governments with many small projects, complex compliance and procurement, and hard-to-attract tech talent as a strategic fit for open source that can be deployed anywhere.

The caveats are straightforward. Self-hosting means someone on your side owns deployment and upkeep, and the company points larger or harder projects toward paid services. The builder expects you to think in related tables and workflows, so it is closer to an application platform than a form tool. And the details on the AI copilot and mobile output come from a May 2025 release post, while the home page now advertises a newer version, so the current wiki is the better guide to what a specific feature does today.