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Dify vs Retool comparison

 

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:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
5.1
Dify's automation converted manual tasks to efficient operations, saving time and cost, and optimizing team performance significantly.
Sentiment score
6.5
Retool saves time and money, reducing developer dependency, while offering efficient, cost-effective solutions with a minimal monthly expense.
If a task would require an hour, it can now be done in seconds.
Software Engineer at Futurescape Technologies
This results in cost saving and time saving, as whenever you save some time, that is equal to cost saving.
AI Consultant at AI Solution.dk
I have seen a return on investment so far, as Dify worked for me, but I do not have a metric to determine how much time it saved.
CTO at Queryhat
We had fewer front-end resources, and while developing with Retool, we did not need many front-end team members, which saved on salaries.
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.
IT consultant for healthcare sector at Freelancer
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.
Product Manager at a tech vendor with 11-50 employees
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
4.8
Dify's customer service earns high praise for quick responses, flexible support options, and strong user satisfaction.
Sentiment score
5.5
Retool's customer service is mixed, with varying satisfaction levels, reliance on external resources, and praise for prompt assistance.
I have been impressed by the voice agent, the feedback the team requests, and the developments they have implemented so far.
AI AUTOMATION ENGINEER at a consultancy with 51-200 employees
Whenever you have questions, you get an instant answer.
AI Consultant at AI Solution.dk
I already understood how to use user input, the LLM model, and templates without needing guides.
Student at Sector 125
The customer support is amazing; overall, AWS customer support is very professional and fast.
software engineer at a non-tech company with 1,001-5,000 employees
It is very easy to learn and integrate within our database and infrastructure because we are already on Amazon Web Services, and our entire tech stack is on Amazon Web Services.
Product Manager at a tech vendor with 11-50 employees
Technical support team is available, but I haven't needed to contact them.
Full Stack PHP/Python AWS Developer at Binary Port
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
4.0
Dify is scalable but faces challenges with larger workloads and occasional issues, suggesting cloud scaling for improved performance.
Sentiment score
6.7
Retool efficiently scales, supporting many users with large datasets, offering customization and security, although complexity may rise with features.
Rather than using a cloud-hosted platform, using a self-hosted platform means there can be scalability issues.
Automation Engineer at a tech services company with 1-10 employees
Dify's scalability is good and it handles growth or increased workloads effectively, depending upon the resources available.
Software Engineer at Futurescape Technologies
I would need to consider cloud scaling, such as vertical and horizontal scaling as the number of users increases.
AI AUTOMATION ENGINEER at a consultancy with 51-200 employees
It's scalable and doesn't experience any slowdown when handling increasing data volumes.
Full Stack PHP/Python AWS Developer at Binary Port
Retool is more suited for startups, but it can get messy at scale.
software engineer at a non-tech company with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.9
Dify is praised for its stability, reliability, and scalability, despite AI effectiveness varying with model selection.
Sentiment score
8.4
Retool is highly rated for dependability, with users experiencing minimal issues, praising its stability and reliable performance.
Retool is stable in my experience.
IT consultant for healthcare sector at Freelancer
 

Room For Improvement

Enhancing onboarding, workflow features, UI, and engagement, while optimizing performance, can significantly boost Dify's user experience and attractiveness.
Retool's front-end and usability limitations frustrate users, highlighting needs for enhanced customization, integration, and non-technical user support.
For EU customers, adding more documentation about how Dify processes the data when starting to use Dify would be really beneficial for companies in Europe to get started with Dify.
AI Consultant at AI Solution.dk
We currently use OpenAI Agents SDK, which requires you to build everything by code, but the observability is really good.
Automation Engineer at a tech services company with 1-10 employees
The only improvement would be if Dify provided an SMTP server that could be connected to automate Dify workflow management, as that would be a great option.
Software Engineer at Futurescape Technologies
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.
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.
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.
Construction Data Analyst at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
 

Setup Cost

Retool's pricing is affordable for small setups but can be expensive for larger deployments compared to industry leaders.
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing is that it was free to use.
Automation Engineer at a tech services company with 1-10 employees
Dify is free to use and has a free license from GitHub under a Dify open-source license based on Apache 2.0.
Software Engineer at Futurescape Technologies
The experience with pricing is that it is quite reasonable.
AI Consultant at AI Solution.dk
The pricing, setup cost, and licensing experience were good as the free plan was enough for us.
IT consultant for healthcare sector at Freelancer
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.
Product Manager at a tech vendor with 11-50 employees
 

Valuable Features

Dify enhances productivity and efficiency with seamless AI integration, user-friendly tools, and GDPR-compliant automation for organizations.
Retool streamlines development with a user-friendly interface, enabling rapid MVP creation and enhancing productivity with extensive customization features.
Initially, we had about two weeks of time to implement the whole thing, but that was cut down to two days of time through using Dify.
Automation Engineer at a tech services company with 1-10 employees
Dify has positively impacted the organization because accuracy has been improved, and the time and complexity in flows that were manual are now automated.
Software Engineer at Futurescape Technologies
Dify stands out to me because it is compliant with GDPR, and it is 100% compliant with GDPR rules.
AI Consultant at AI Solution.dk
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.
Construction Data Analyst at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Compared to other solutions, the time is 30 to 50% shorter when we are building an internal tool using Retool.
Product Manager at a tech vendor with 11-50 employees
Retool provides built-in features with all processing happening within the platform, which is a significant advantage.
Full Stack PHP/Python AWS Developer at Binary Port
 

Categories and Ranking

Dify
Ranking in AI Software Development
16th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
5.1
Number of Reviews
8
Ranking in other categories
Low-Code Development Platforms (17th)
Retool
Ranking in AI Software Development
21st
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
12
Ranking in other categories
Rapid Application Development Software (19th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2026, in the AI Software Development category, the mindshare of Dify is 0.6%. The mindshare of Retool is 0.5%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
AI Software Development Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Dify0.6%
Retool0.5%
Other98.9%
AI Software Development
 

Featured Reviews

Rusira Sathnindu - PeerSpot reviewer
Automation Engineer at a tech services company with 1-10 employees
Visual workflows have accelerated our agent POC while better UI and observability still need work
My personal experience with Dify's UI is that it is not my favorite, as it can be improved a little bit, and sometimes the UI feels a little bit buggy. I am not sure if that is because it was a self-hosted version. The documentation can also be improved a little bit more. I think not a lot of people are using Dify currently, so that is why the documentation is not very great. If the documentation was improved, that would also be a really good thing. Currently, Dify could improve by offering better observability like other platforms. We currently use OpenAI Agents SDK, which requires you to build everything by code, but the observability is really good. It has OpenAI Traces, and you can basically trace everything for a conversation. If Dify had that kind of tracing functionality, that would be great.
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.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
20%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Computer Software Company
8%
Construction Company
21%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Comms Service Provider
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Large Enterprise3
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business7
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise4
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Dify?
The experience with pricing is that it is quite reasonable, and the setup cost depends on our usage, so I do not have any complaints regarding this.
What needs improvement with Dify?
I choose eight out of ten for Dify because there's always a way to improve it, but I feel that for the advanced features, it's still hard for hands-on use. I have a relatively limited experience wi...
What is your primary use case for Dify?
My main use case for Dify is to build a quick prototype about an interactive AI product to test the prompts and retrieval-augmented generation behavior, and I tested the workflow in that manner. I ...
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

Find out what your peers are saying about Dify vs. Retool and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
902,894 professionals have used our research since 2012.