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Retool vs Windsurf 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
6.0
Reducing developer needs and using affordable tools led to significant cost savings and justified user fees.
Sentiment score
5.3
Windsurf enhances efficiency, reducing project time and staffing needs while increasing developer productivity and cost-effectiveness significantly.
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
My clients save time and money, and we are generally about twice as fast with AI-enabled software development.
Principal Consultant at a outsourcing company with 1-10 employees
The scope of work has increased a lot, but we managed to keep up without hiring due to the power of these AI-powered coding agents like Windsurf and Cursor.
Automation Engineer at a tech services company with 1-10 employees
It has saved a substantial amount of time compared to previous methods, with a 25% time reduction in code generation and completion of projects.
Software Engineer at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
5.0
Retool's support is responsive and helpful, with users suggesting chat for improvement amid varied experiences with assistance resources.
Sentiment score
6.1
Windsurf's customer service is good, with responsive communication and helpful documentation, despite email-based support being cumbersome for some.
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
Technical issues are handled very well when they arise.
Software Engineer at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees
I had an issue with billing, and the support team reached out to me about that issue quickly.
Full Stack Developer
I have not had to rely heavily on support for critical issues, which is a good sign in terms of product stability.
Software Enginner at Sera AI
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
6.6
Retool is scalable and efficient, supporting large user bases and datasets with customizable security and effective performance management.
Sentiment score
5.5
Windsurf effectively manages different workloads, supports scalability, enhances productivity, but faces challenges with very large projects.
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
Windsurf can ensure that multiple users can work simultaneously on a single product.
AI Engineer at Walkover Web Solutions
For larger projects, it understands and operates across bigger repositories, helps maintain consistency when making changes across connected components, and reduces the effort needed to navigate and manage complexity.
Software Enginner at Sera AI
I believe it can handle growth effectively as our team expands or projects get bigger because it keeps the context of the codebase in a specialized, cached way.
Automation Engineer at a tech services company with 1-10 employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.3
Retool is generally stable and reliable, with occasional issues, garnering mostly positive ratings from users.
Sentiment score
7.8
Windsurf is highly reliable and stable, with minor latency issues during complex tasks or longer sessions, according to users.
Retool is stable in my experience.
IT consultant for healthcare sector at Freelancer
In terms of speed and reliability, for most tasks such as code generation and debugging, it is pretty fast and keeps the flow uninterrupted.
Software Enginner at Sera AI
Windsurf is currently stable for me; I have not experienced any crashes or issues.
Angular Developer at a computer retailer with 51-200 employees
I have not encountered any crashes or reliability issues.
Student at a university with 501-1,000 employees
 

Room For Improvement

Retool struggles with customization, integration, support, and documentation, requiring better tools, language support, and user resources.
Windsurf needs better memory management, context handling, and tool integration to improve accuracy, speed, and user-friendliness.
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
Enhancing the reliability of the cascade agent for large and complex codebases, ensuring it understands projects thoroughly, and providing safer multi-file edits would make Windsurf a significantly stronger tool.
Angular Developer at a computer retailer with 51-200 employees
When it is given a larger amount of data, it hallucinates a lot and gives syntactically correct but logically wrong code sometimes.
Software Development Engineering Testing at HighLevel
Windsurf really shines when you treat it as a feature-level or system-level tool, not just something for autocomplete or small snippets.
Software Enginner at Sera AI
 

Setup Cost

Retool offers competitive pricing, appealing to small teams with free plans and larger deployments facing affordable user costs.
Enterprise users praise Windsurf's affordable pricing, ease of use, and flexible licensing, enhancing productivity for startups and fast-paced teams.
The pricing, setup cost, and licensing experience were good as the free plan was enough for us.
IT consultant for healthcare sector at Freelancer
It is very cheap compared to other tools in the market because 80% of the time, we are happy with their free model capabilities.
Founding BackEnd Engineer
If it were a bit less, it would be more useful for us to save money since we are a startup.
Software Engineer at Collecto Fintech Solutions Pvt Ltd
I did not incur setup costs.
Student at a university with 501-1,000 employees
 

Valuable Features

Retool simplifies UI dashboard creation with easy API integration, supports complex logic, and enhances efficiency for teams and startups.
Windsurf enhances productivity with Cascade AI integration, streamlining development through multitasking, code analysis, voice interactions, and real-time suggestions.
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
We were able to build a product from scratch, which would have taken at least two to three weeks. With Windsurf helping me build it in a week, the time savings are substantial.
Lead Software Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Windsurf's understanding of my Angular project context is better than basic auto-complete and less IntelliSense options because it understands what version of Angular I am using and what features I require.
Angular Developer at a computer retailer with 51-200 employees
If there are any exceptions, it automatically finds out what the exact issue is and provides the solution and fixes it.
Software Engineer at Collecto Fintech Solutions Pvt Ltd
 

Categories and Ranking

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)
Windsurf
Ranking in AI Software Development
1st
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
5.5
Number of Reviews
36
Ranking in other categories
IDE (1st), AI Code Assistants (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the AI Software Development category, the mindshare of Retool is 0.6%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Windsurf is 1.0%, down from 23.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
AI Software Development Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Windsurf1.0%
Retool0.6%
Other98.4%
AI Software Development
 

Featured Reviews

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.
Yess Kumar - PeerSpot reviewer
SRE at a tech vendor with 5,001-10,000 employees
AI coding workflows have accelerated routine development and debugging while improving focus
Overall, Windsurf is a powerful tool, but one key area is the accuracy and consistency of suggestions. While it is very helpful, sometimes the generated code or fixes need manual validation, especially for complex or production-level logic. Another improvement would be better control over AI actions, especially in agent workflows like Cascade. More transparency and fine-grained control would help developers trust and use it more confidently in critical tasks. Performance can be improved slightly. One area for improvement is around context limits and memory handling. Sometimes when working on very large codebases or long sessions, the context can feel limited. Improving how it retains and prioritizes context would make suggestions even more accurate. Another area is documentation and onboarding guidance. Since Windsurf is a relatively new tool, having more structured documentation, best practices, and real-world examples would help teams adopt it faster. Additionally, enterprise-level controls could be enhanced, such as better security, audit logs, and usage tracking. One additional area for improvement is offline and limited connectivity support. Since Windsurf relies heavily on AI capabilities, having a more robust fallback or partial offline functionality would be useful in restricted environments. Another point is the customization of AI behavior. It would be great to have more control over how the AI responds, such as tuning it for specific coding standards, project styles, or team preferences. Additionally, integration with more developer tools and ecosystems could be expanded. While it already fits well into the workflow, deeper integrations with CI/CD pipelines, issue tracking, and monitoring tools would make it more powerful.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
20%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Computer Software Company
8%
Outsourcing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise4
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business21
Midsize Enterprise7
Large Enterprise14
 

Questions from the Community

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...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Windsurf?
Time saved is very evident. Because time has been saved, if I am completing a task in five days rather than ten days, I can pick another task in the remaining five days. The product team can now de...
What needs improvement with Windsurf?
Overall, Windsurf is a powerful tool, but one key area is the accuracy and consistency of suggestions. While it is very helpful, sometimes the generated code or fixes need manual validation, especi...
What is your primary use case for Windsurf?
I have been using Windsurf for a few months now, mainly as part of my development and productivity workflow. During this time, I explored its capabilities for code assistance, faster debugging, and...
 

Comparisons

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Dell, Anduril, MongoDB, Zillow, Atlassian
Find out what your peers are saying about Retool vs. Windsurf and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.
894,738 professionals have used our research since 2012.