Retool vs Zilliz Cloud comparison

Retool and Zilliz are both solutions in the AI Software Development category. Retool is ranked #21 with an average rating of 7.8, while Zilliz is ranked #27 with an average rating of 8.0. Retool holds a 0.5% mindshare in ASD, compared to Zilliz’s 0.4% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Retool users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Zilliz users who would recommend it.

Retool

Read 12 Retool reviews

2,098 Views
1,007 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Zilliz Cloud

Read 2 Zilliz Cloud reviews

974 Views
604 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Retool

Zilliz Cloud

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Retool and Zilliz Cloud based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

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To learn more, read our detailed AI Software Development Report (Updated: May 2026).

Buyer's Guide

AI Software Development

May 2026

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Helped 896,942 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 AI Software Development

21st

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Rapid Application Development Software (17th)

Zilliz Cloud

Ranking in AI Software Development

27th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

4.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Vector Databases (19th)

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2026, in the AI Software Development category, the mindshare of Retool is 0.5%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zilliz Cloud is 0.4%. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

AI Software Development Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Retool	0.5%
Zilliz Cloud	0.4%
Other	99.1%

AI Software Development

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.

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PrinceKumar2

Cloud Engineer at Rishabh Software

Managed vector search has reduced infrastructure overhead and empowers faster AI workloads

Zilliz Cloud has allowed us to focus on building the AI products without the overhead of operating vector database infrastructure. The best features Zilliz Cloud offers, in my opinion, include high-performance similarity search, managed infrastructure for cluster maintaining, infrastructure scaling, backup management, storage planning, Milvus compatibility, and metadata filtering. The offering of this managed infrastructure of a vector database is most useful for me, and the high-performance similarity search is useful in my case. Regarding the similarity search, it delivers low latency retrieval and maintains strong relevance in returned units, which is particularly useful for me. Zilliz Cloud has positively impacted my organization because initially, we spent too much time hosting self-hosted Milvus and planning for infrastructure that did not yield very useful results. Now, we do not have the overhead of managing infrastructure for my vector database, so we can directly focus on building our RAG system and AI workload. Time saved is the first and foremost outcome since all the time we invested in self-hosting Milvus has been redirected towards building the AI workloads. Time has definitely been saved, which is the primary benefit of using Zilliz Cloud.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

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

"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."

"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."

"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 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."

"The stability is okay."

"With the help of Retool, we saved a lot of time; for instance, we made a similar project before that took two to three weeks to implement the same features, but with Retool, we could check our API right away very quickly, saving around twenty percent of our time and allowing us to visualize how our API works, see the drawbacks, and make changes to our FastAPI backend."

"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."

More Retool pros

"The best feature of Zilliz Cloud is that it helps in very high-performance vector search, and it is also very scalable, with very low latency that helps provide faster results."

"Zilliz Cloud has allowed us to focus on building the AI products without the overhead of operating vector database infrastructure."

Cons

"Retool should add more resource integration."

"One area for improvement in Retool is expanding its library support to include a broader range of third-party JavaScript libraries."

"There are restrictions on the front-end side."

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

"Retool is more suited for startups, but it can get messy at scale."

"The part where we can add some custom logic or custom plugins could be better."

"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."

"Retool, being a low-code/no-code platform, could improve by allowing users, particularly non-technical users, to use it more easily."

More Retool cons

"It can be improved a little bit on the search functionality."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing is very expensive. It costs for each user, for automated users, open-end users, et cetera."

"The tool is a little bit expensive."

"I don't know Retool's current pricing, but it cost around $12 per month earlier."

"For me, I'm in India right now, and we have Retool's subscription for one team member for $10 per month."

"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."

Information not available

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Construction Company

21%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

No data available

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	7
Midsize Enterprise	3
Large Enterprise	4

No data available

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Retool?

I found it affordable regarding pricing, setup costs, and licensing.

See all answers

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....

See all answers

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...

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Retool

May 2026

Download Retool product report

Buyer's Guide

Vector Databases

May 2026

Download Zilliz Cloud 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

Zilliz Cloud is a cutting-edge cloud-native vector database designed for managing and processing large-scale vector data effectively. It provides robust performance and scalability tailored for AI-driven applications.

Specialized for AI use cases, Zilliz Cloud delivers high-performance vector similarity searches with millisecond latency. It's perfect for powering search, recommendation, and anomaly detection systems. Engineered to handle vast datasets, it scales efficiently across distributed environments, ensuring seamless data ingestion and retrieval. Its architecture supports complex queries, making it ideal for businesses leveraging AI and machine learning technologies to gain insights and drive innovation.

What are some key features of Zilliz Cloud?

Scalability: Easily handles growing data sizes across distributed systems.
High Performance: Offers fast vector similarity search with low latency.
Integration Capabilities: Seamlessly connects with machine learning workflows.
Data Management: Supports complex data types and high-throughput ingestion.

What benefits should users expect from Zilliz Cloud?

Enhanced Efficiency: Reduces time for data retrieval and processing.
Cost-Effectiveness: Optimizes resource utilization, minimizing expenses.
Innovation Enablement: Facilitates the development of AI-driven solutions.
Scalability ROI: Investment scales with growing data demands, ensuring long-term returns.

In the e-commerce industry, Zilliz Cloud elevates recommendation systems by delivering precise product suggestions. Healthcare sectors utilize it for genomic data analysis, accelerating research and diagnostics. Financial services rely on its anomaly detection capabilities to enhance fraud prevention systems.

Zilliz

Buyer's Guide

AI Software Development

May 2026

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