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Appian vs Retool comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 13, 2025

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

Appian
Ranking in Rapid Application Development Software
9th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
63
Ranking in other categories
Business Process Management (BPM) (10th), Process Automation (8th), Low-Code Development Platforms (5th), Process Mining (8th)
Retool
Ranking in Rapid Application Development Software
16th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
7
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Rapid Application Development Software category, the mindshare of Appian is 8.2%, down from 9.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Retool is 0.7%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Rapid Application Development Software
 

Featured Reviews

Kunal Sharda - PeerSpot reviewer
Experience enables seamless automation and elevates process efficiency while embracing innovative technologies
The features of Appian that have proven to be the most beneficial are its capability to create processes and integrate with external systems while ensuring data consistency across all the systems. The latest features of Appian are quite useful around the UI/UX design and the artificial intelligence integrations. Appian is aiding in leveraging AI technologies in multiple ways: one way is for developers, as they make development efficient and quick by enabling developer co-pilots across various phases of the application, which helps design Appian quickly and provides suggestions along the way. Another way is through AI Skills, which can be integrated anywhere in the process model to leverage artificial intelligence for tasks such as extracting data from documents, summarizing information from documents or long paragraphs, and building custom prompts with Appian. Appian also utilizes AI for business users, providing a feature called process each view, enabling business users to create their own dashboards, reports, and gain insights from their data and processes using artificial intelligence. It's multi-fold and always growing.
PriyankJain - PeerSpot reviewer
Has notably streamlined the creation and management of admin panels in my organization
One area for improvement in Retool is expanding its library support to include a broader range of third-party JavaScript libraries. This would enhance the tool's versatility and allow more complex functionalities to integrate seamlessly into the admin panels. Retool should include enhanced graphical customization tools in its next release, particularly for creating more dynamic visual representations within the admin panels.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Technical support has been amazing overall."
"Appian is easy to install and set up, and it does not come out with your audit. It has accessible process orchestration and process management. With Appian, the time to market is much faster."
"Write to Data Store Entity - Saving data in SQL databases is done easily using entities. Entities (CDTs in Appian terminology) define relationships and target schema tables via XSD files."
"Appian also has very flexible local integration."
"It's a stable product."
"The agile manner that we require to create our workflows. This is probably the most critical part of our solution and the time it takes to start processing the solution."
"The setup is easy."
"The application is mobile-friendly, allowing me to use it across any device, whether mobile, laptop, or desktop."
"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."
"The most valuable feature of the solution is connectivity with APIs and other databases."
"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."
"Retool's most valuable features are its drag-and-drop components and the ability to customize them extensively."
"Retool provides us with the opportunity to save time and be more efficient."
"We can create the dashboards quickly."
"The stability is okay."
 

Cons

"What could be improved is more on the front end perspective, like the user interface and the mobile application aspect."
"It has it's own built-in UI components and doesn't provide much flexibility to customize or extend those components."
"There should be more flexibility for the developers to choose the look and feel of the UI. They should have a better ability to design their widgets and customize them with different colors, shapes, and sizes. That is a limitation that could be improved upon."
"Something I would like to see improved is an SQL database connection."
"We have clients that want to use Office 365, Microsoft Analytics, and Power Apps. Appian just isn't the same as using something specifically designed to cater to the Microsoft Suite."
"Appian is a great tool for internal use cases where the users are company employees, but it has room to improve for use cases where the users are public facing, where anonymous users could come to a site and run a business workflow or interact with some data."
"We'd like improved functionality for testing new devices."
"Sometimes, clients expect us to implement ERP using Appian, which is very complicated. In such cases, I don't believe that Appian is a good tool for that."
"The components are changed frequently, which is very irritating."
"There are restrictions on the front-end side."
"One area for improvement in Retool is expanding its library support to include a broader range of third-party JavaScript libraries."
"The part where we can add some custom logic or custom plugins could be better."
"Retool should add more resource integration."
"The solution lacks inbuilt customization to customize bar charts."
"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."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's an enterprise tool and can be used by enterprise only. So it's a very expensive tool."
"It's good value for the price."
"The pricing can be a little confusing to customers."
"If you're doing an enterprise-wide digital transformation, Appian is worthwhile, but not for just one or two use cases because the license costs are higher."
"Appian is very flexible in their pricing. In general, Appian's pricing is much, much lower when compared to competition like Pega or other products. Appian also has a flexible licensing model across geographies. Pega usually goes with a single licensing cost—which is a US-based cost—for all global customers, and it's costly. Whereas Appian has a different regional licensing cost model and it can be cheaper, depending on geography. So Appian's licensing is very flexible, and cheaper when compared to other competition."
"BPM done right is a huge value proposition for almost any company, and with Appian's low code rapid development model, the ROI can be huge, while the break-even point should be accelerated tremendously."
"The cost is calculated on a per-user basis. It might be expensive for small and mid-sized enterprises."
"I think that if somebody is really serious at looking at business value, then by all means, the product is well worth the value. You get representative business value for the price that you pay for the product, and for the implementation of the product."
"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."
"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."
"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
Financial Services Firm
21%
Computer Software Company
11%
Government
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Manufacturing Company
17%
Comms Service Provider
15%
Outsourcing Company
9%
University
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

Which do you prefer - Appian or Camunda Platform?
Appian is fast when building simple to medium solutions. This solution offers simple drag-and-drop functionality with easy plug-and-play options. The initial setup was seamless and very easy to imp...
Is Appian a suitable solution for beginners who have no additional preparation?
Appian is actually pretty big on educating its users, including with courses that reward you with certifications. There is a whole section on their company’s website where you can check out the edu...
Is it easy to set up Appian or did you have to resort to professional help?
We had some issues when we were setting up Appian. It was quite surprising, since this is a low-code tool which, in its essence, means it is meant for business users and inexperienced beginners. So...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Retool?
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.
What needs improvement with Retool?
One area for improvement in Retool is expanding its library support to include a broader range of third-party JavaScript libraries. This would enhance the tool's versatility and allow more complex ...
What is your primary use case for Retool?
I employ Retool primarily to build admin panels that effectively manage office and backend project staff. These panels facilitate the management of various organizational functions and streamline u...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

Appian BPM, Appian AnyWhere, Appian Enterprise BPMS
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Hansard Global plc, Punch Taverns, Pirelli, Crawford & Company, EDP Renewables, Queensland Government Department of State Development, Infrastructure and Planning (, Bank of Tennessee
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Appian vs. Retool and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
865,384 professionals have used our research since 2012.