No more typing reviews! Try our Samantha, our new voice AI agent.

Make vs Retool comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 15, 2026

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
5.8
Using Make, businesses achieved up to 500% returns through automation, reducing labor costs and enhancing operational efficiency.
Sentiment score
6.0
Reducing developer needs and using affordable tools led to significant cost savings and justified user fees.
I have indeed seen a return on investment as it has saved us hundreds of hours in repetitive tasks, streamlining our follow-up to the leads that we are generating.
Network Engineer at AT&T
I implemented a booking system for my client that previously required data to be entered directly into Google Sheets and reminders to be sent manually; using Make, they have saved about 50% of their time, which equals one labor resource, translating to a significant amount of money saved.
Founder at WebEase
With that extra time each month, I could focus more on sales and upscaling my business, so it is really worth it.
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
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
5.4
Make offers efficient customer support with quick responses, helpful forums, effective documentation, and a reliable chatbot for inquiries.
Sentiment score
5.0
Retool's support is responsive and helpful, with users suggesting chat for improvement amid varied experiences with assistance resources.
We have escalated a few issues that we faced during some integrations, and we received reasonable responses from Make support.
Chief Executive Officer at Ashtex Solutions
They were doing the best job for my use cases and my problems.
Bubble.Io | Xano | No Code | Mba | Make | Zapier | Full Stack at Indian Railways
When I had a problem during the pricing payment, the customer support handled it very well.
Freelancer at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
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
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
5.4
Make is praised for scalability and ease, but enterprise pricing and complex workflow errors challenge extensive scaling.
Sentiment score
6.6
Retool is scalable and efficient, supporting large user bases and datasets with customizable security and effective performance management.
When you have an error, it is very hard to do error handling and debugging.
Automation Engineer at MyDubai.io
Make's scalability is very good, and if the pricing were lower, I could scale a lot more.
Founder at WebEase
Whenever a new task comes to mind, I think about automating it with Make, which is good.
Gtm Operator, Lead Generator at 404Minds Technologies
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
7.2
Make is mostly stable and reliable, with few minor issues, and is often used alongside Zapier for effectiveness.
Sentiment score
8.3
Retool is generally stable and reliable, with occasional issues, garnering mostly positive ratings from users.
Retool is stable in my experience.
IT consultant for healthcare sector at Freelancer
 

Room For Improvement

Make needs better API integration, pricing, debugging, usability, and developer features, plus increased free limits for improved user experience.
Retool struggles with customization, integration, support, and documentation, requiring better tools, language support, and user resources.
There should be clarity about whether the data is secure while passing through these automations or integrations created within Make.
Chief Executive Officer at Ashtex Solutions
I would love to have more detailed logs, step-by-step error tracing, and better visualization of failed executions, as I think it would improve the user experience significantly.
software engineer at a non-tech company with 1,001-5,000 employees
The lagging problem needs to be solved.
Gtm Operator, Lead Generator at 404Minds 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

Make offers affordable pricing compared to Zapier, valued for time savings and streamlined automation, with manageable enterprise setup costs.
Retool offers competitive pricing, appealing to small teams with free plans and larger deployments facing affordable user costs.
Licensing was affordable.
Network Engineer at AT&T
I found a solution that allows me to use Make almost for free, just using the Docker on-premises.
Automation Engineer at MyDubai.io
It's cost-effective and it's pocket-friendly.
Bubble.Io | Xano | No Code | Mba | Make | Zapier | Full Stack at Indian Railways
The pricing, setup cost, and licensing experience were good as the free plan was enough for us.
IT consultant for healthcare sector at Freelancer
 

Valuable Features

The platform offers a no-code interface, integrations, and automation, boosting efficiency and accessibility for all user levels.
Retool simplifies UI dashboard creation with easy API integration, supports complex logic, and enhances efficiency for teams and startups.
Make has positively impacted my organization by enabling us to solve use cases for hundreds of clients across hundreds of different platforms, providing the customization capabilities to automate accounting and invoicing processes that save dozens of man-hours a month, and allowing us to build custom churn, retention, and engagement costs that have driven a 30% reduction in churn.
Network Engineer at AT&T
Instead of spending several days implementing and testing API integrations inside our FastAPI back end, I was able to build the workflows in a few hours using Make.
software engineer at a non-tech company with 1,001-5,000 employees
The task that I would complete in a span of one day is completed in a matter of minutes by using Make.
Executive at Core Jobs
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
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
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.
IT consultant for healthcare sector at Freelancer
 

Categories and Ranking

Make
Ranking in AI Software Development
4th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
5.4
Number of Reviews
17
Ranking in other categories
Process Automation (6th)
Retool
Ranking in AI Software Development
14th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
11
Ranking in other categories
Rapid Application Development Software (15th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the AI Software Development category, the mindshare of Make is 0.7%, down from 1.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Retool is 0.6%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
AI Software Development Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Make0.7%
Retool0.6%
Other98.7%
AI Software Development
 

Featured Reviews

FA
Chief Executive Officer at Ashtex Solutions
Flexibility and efficiency accelerate business processes
Make needs to put some focus on or clarify the security aspect in its documentation or website. When creating automation through these modules between two different applications, there should be clarity about whether the data is secure while passing through these automations or integrations created within Make. The pricing of Make at this point is through operations consumption, and it becomes really expensive in certain scenarios when iterations are involved. The operation consumption is too high and sometimes becomes a burden on the client. Make needs to review its pricing strategy since they have tough competition from n8n. Make sometimes has issues with user logins and data saving when simultaneously working on two different PCs or when two developers are working on something or some blueprint. It can lose saved data from one interface to the other, and when logging on with the same user on another workstation, it occasionally misbehaves. We were unaware that Make had its own local implementation module. They need to advertise this feature more effectively as we are developing many projects in Make and working with various clients.
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.
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which AI Software Development solutions are best for your needs.
894,738 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Outsourcing Company
15%
Educational Organization
10%
Non Tech Company
9%
Construction Company
8%
Construction Company
20%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business14
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise6
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise4
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Make?
Earlier I used to spend too much time understanding the insights from my projects. Now I only spend four to five hours, but I can get everything in one hour or even 30 seconds. It's easy. After one...
What needs improvement with Make?
Sometimes the platform is too laggy and loads slowly. The credits are also getting used up too quickly, which takes too much credit. If the credits could be reduced, that would be more efficient. T...
What is your primary use case for Make?
I'm using Make for integration with GoHighLevel, which is a CRM tool. I integrate data from Google Sheets or the GHL CRM to automate repetitive tasks. I use Make nearly every day for whatever task ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Retool?
I found it affordable regarding pricing, setup costs, and licensing.
What needs improvement with Retool?
Retool has some drawbacks, including limited customization; of course, it has limitations compared to React, where you can customize it as you want, but with Retool, there is limited customization....
What is your primary use case for Retool?
I used Retool in one of my projects a few months ago. The project involved making a monitoring real-time IoT system for IoT devices, and we used Retool as an internal dashboard. We had a stack of a...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

Integromat
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Buan Consulting, Armadia
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Make vs. Retool and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.
894,738 professionals have used our research since 2012.