Retool vs ServiceNow comparison

Retool and ServiceNow are both solutions in the Rapid Application Development Software category. Retool is ranked #15 with an average rating of 8.1, while ServiceNow is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.5. Retool holds a 1.2% mindshare in RADS, compared to ServiceNow’s 7.2% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Retool users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 91% of ServiceNow users who would recommend it.

Retool

Read 10 Retool reviews

790 Views
679 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

ServiceNow

Read 224 ServiceNow reviews

22,688 Views
6,126 Comparison Views

91% willing to recommend

Retool

ServiceNow

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 17, 2024

ServiceNow and Retool are two enterprise software platforms competing primarily in IT and business process automation. ServiceNow holds an advantage due to its strong support for IT service management, while Retool excels in customization and rapid development, making it ideal for quickly building internal tools.

Features: ServiceNow offers robust IT workflows, change management, and incident resolution, catering to large enterprises with complex needs. Retool is known for its flexibility, rapid development capabilities, and seamless integration of custom applications, which create a developer-centric environment.

Room for Improvement: ServiceNow could benefit from streamlining deployment times and simplifying its extensive suite to make it more approachable for smaller teams. Retool might improve by expanding integration options and enhancing support for enterprise-scale deployments. Both platforms can enhance their user-friendly interfaces to increase engagement and adoption.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: ServiceNow's deployment process is comprehensive and offers excellent support aligned with mature IT practices, but it can be time-consuming. Retool provides a straightforward deployment model that is attractive to teams emphasizing speed and simplicity, with a user-friendly approach and responsive support services.

Pricing and ROI: ServiceNow has higher upfront costs tailored for large enterprises, justifying potential long-term ROI through streamlined IT operations. Retool offers a cost-effective initial setup, providing attractive ROI for teams focusing on the rapid development of tools. ServiceNow targets organizations with established IT budgets, while Retool appeals to those seeking agility and cost-effectiveness in application development.

To learn more, read our detailed Retool vs. ServiceNow Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Retool vs. ServiceNow

December 2025

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Helped 881,082 peers since 2012

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

Retool

Ranking in Rapid Application Development Software

15th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

AI Software Development (12th)

ServiceNow

Ranking in Rapid Application Development Software

2nd

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

224

Ranking in other categories

Help Desk Software (1st), IT Asset Management (1st), IT Service Management (ITSM) (1st), No-Code Development Platforms (1st)

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Rapid Application Development Software category, the mindshare of Retool is 1.2%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of ServiceNow is 7.2%, down from 11.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Rapid Application Development Software Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
ServiceNow	7.2%
Retool	1.2%
Other	91.6%

Rapid Application Development Software

Featured Reviews

Yannick LE GAL

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.

Read full review

Shafqat Paracha

General Manager at sPerception IT

Adopting flexible workflows with customized automation delivers measurable benefits

There are things that I would like to see improved in ServiceNow, such as the pricing, as it is a very costly solution compared to other tools. Additionally, its presence in the local market is very limited; in Pakistan, for example, I don't see any vendor or distributor of ServiceNow available. They need to increase their sales spectrum globally so people can easily access them and engage them for client meetings and more. From a functionality perspective, the features in ServiceNow are acceptable as, at the moment, the ITSM modules rank highly, being 13 plus Pink Elephant certified, which is a good aspect to have. When providing advice to users, I would suggest they consider making strategic decisions about their per user pricing since it is very high. In our region, people normally start with 5 to 10 users, but the per user price is quite steep. Moreover, ServiceNow does not charge based on data uploaded or downloaded, so they should reconsider their pricing and data policies to align better with the financial capabilities of the region.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Retool can be used with many applications as it is language independent; anyone can use it easily and create various visualizations regardless of their programming knowledge—this is the main reason I recommend 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."

"The most valuable feature of the solution is connectivity with APIs and other databases."

"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."

"Retool provides built-in features with all processing happening within the platform, which is a significant advantage."

"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."

"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."

"Retool provides us with the opportunity to save time and be more efficient."

More Retool pros

"I like the ease of use."

"Remote access is most valuable."

"I like the reporting aspect of it. It helps us know where we stand regarding the types of issues we're receiving... It also shows us trends. That enables us to possibly predict an issue that might come up in the future as well as what is happening right now. We will like that feature. With it, we can either avoid certain issues or know where we need to focus more regarding the service we provide."

"Easy to implement and consolidate different platforms and users with useful functionalities."

"The flow designer feature of ServiceNow has had the biggest impact on our productivity because it has helped me reduce manual efforts by creating automation and robotics."

"The feature that I have found most valuable from ServiceNow is the ability to assign sub-tasks to different teams, including problem tickets and the regular and chain tasks."

"Simplicity of Change Manager."

"It allows us to filter the data, create graphs, and get detailed reports."

More ServiceNow pros

Cons

"Retool should add more resource integration."

"In the mobile app development, you have to use JavaScript to interact with components, and for non-technical users, it's already too technical, so Retool has to add some integrated solutions."

"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."

"In the mobile app development, you have to use JavaScript to interact with components, and for non-technical users, it's already too technical, so Retool has to add some integrated solutions."

"The UI of Retool could be improved, as I am not fond of the current design, and there should be a platform for learning how to use Retool efficiently, especially since our software team customizes it for their needs, leaving the operational team with limited knowledge on how to customize it."

"The components are changed frequently, which is very irritating."

"The solution lacks inbuilt customization to customize bar charts."

More Retool cons

"The setup was time-consuming and required a lot of internal resources."

"In an upcoming release, there should be more administration tools."

"Very expensive."

"If you have advanced questions, technical support often doesn't know the answer."

"The interface is not user-friendly."

"The reporting, which also includes dashboards, needs to be improved, and there should also be the ability to turn on and off portions of Project Management. Currently, as soon as you install the new version, you've got to go back there and make all the tweaks. There should be just a configuration file that goes to the new version. The Project Management module does not leverage the knowledge base the way it should, and there is no built-in ability to get to the articles. Resource management should be easier. It would be amazing if they can make resource management a little bit more graphical. There are other solutions that I've seen where resource management was a more visual experience."

"The high price is a huge barrier in Portugal."

"They need to be providing vendors and implementation partners with materials and guidance on implementation."

More ServiceNow cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."

"The tool is a little bit expensive."

"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."

"The platform offers a free trial, by providing a free developer instance once you sign up."

"The pricing is reasonable and affordable, making it suitable for businesses ranging from small to large scale."

"It has a higher cost compared to local/regional solutions."

"It is fairly expensive."

"We know that ServiceNow is not cheap, it's more expensive than other solutions. But we are trying to increase our ability to handle tickets so that the cost per ticket is less."

"In Tunisia, the companies find the licensing costs to be expensive."

"There is an annual subscription to use this solution."

"The product cost is higher than that of other vendors."

More ServiceNow pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Manufacturing Company

14%

Comms Service Provider

14%

University

10%

Outsourcing Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Computer Software Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	5
Midsize Enterprise	3
Large Enterprise	3

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	55
Midsize Enterprise	35
Large Enterprise	166

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Retool?

The pricing, setup cost, and licensing experience were good as the free plan was enough for us.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Retool?

Retool, being a low-code/no-code platform, could improve by allowing users, particularly non-technical users, to use it more easily. In the mobile app development, you have to use JavaScript to int...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Retool?

My main use case for Retool involves an inventory app project. I built a mobile app to make an inventory of chemistry products. Retool helped me with that project as it was a good way to show a qui...

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Which solution is better for developing non-ITSM applications: OutSystems or Service Now?

The short answer is that OutSystems is far better for 2 main reasons. Firstly, with Service Now you are locked into that platform for good. The business model is to lock in and then keep pumping th...

See all answers

Would you choose ServiceNow over Microsoft PowerApps?

Hi Netanya, I will choose ServiceNow because ServiceNow is a very good tool compared to Microsoft PowerApp. Because ServiceNow has a very strong module (Performance Analysis) reporting which will ...

See all answers

What do you like most about ServiceNow?

The solution has a user-friendly interface.

See all answers

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Compared 6% of the time

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Compared 4% of the time

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Compared 4% of the time

Pega Platform vs ServiceNow

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Compared 4% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Retool

January 2026

Download Retool product report

Buyer's Guide

ServiceNow

January 2026

Download ServiceNow product report

Overview

Retool enables rapid construction of internal tools with minimal coding, streamlining workflows across HR, customer support, and compliance. Praised for its drag-and-drop interface, extensive component library, and SQL support, it boosts organizational efficiency by automating tasks and enhancing data management.

Retool

ServiceNow is a cloud-based task-management platform that specializes in IT operations management (ITOM), IT services management (ITSM), and IT business management (ITBM). ServiceNow allows users to manage their teams, projects, and customer interactions using a variety of different plugins and apps with which it easily integrates.

ServiceNow offers prebuilt applications to support any process, as well as a framework and tools that allow you to build your own.

ServiceNow’s service management solutions include change, request, incident, problem, and cost management, as well as HR, IT, field service, and facilities management solutions. They also cover business management solutions such as vendor performance management, financial management, performance analytics and project portfolio suite, as well as governance, risk, and compliance.

“The Smarter Way to Workflow”

ServiceNow’s activities, processes, and tasks are overseen as part of a comprehensive managed workflow that supports such features as real-time collaboration, communication, and resource sharing. ServiceNow’s suite of products allow for operation using serverless computing, and include the categories of Business Apps, Customer Service, HR, IT, and Security.

ServiceNow can be used to support most workflows because of the wide range of tools it offers. These include on-suite ticketing tools, predictive modeling to manage workflows, and benchmarking for the tracking of progress. ServiceNow can assist with artificial intelligence and machine learning processes and can be used to organize the cases of a help/service desk as well as for instance management and problem management. It also smoothly integrates with many legacy systems.

ServiceNow offers service management software for industries including:

Cloud services
Education
Financial services
Government
Healthcare
Manufacturing
Telecommunications

Reviews from Real Users

PeerSpot users prefer ServiceNow to its competitors because of its scalability, stability, and ease of use. It helps everyone in the company to be on the same page by creating a single source of record across all departments. One user stated that “I’ve definitely used over 20 project management solutions, but they can't be compared with ServiceNow.” Another said that “ServiceNow is an industry leader in multiple areas and provides an excellent ROI.”

ServiceNow

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

AAA, AstraZeneca, Becton, Dickinson and Company, Broadcom, Christus Health, Epicor, Equinix, GE Capital, Intuit, KPMG, Loyola Marymount University, OshKosh, Quantas, RedHat, Royal Bank of Scotland, Swiss Re, U.S. Department of Energy, Safeway, Yale University, and Zillow

Buyer's Guide

Retool vs. ServiceNow

December 2025

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