Retool

Retool is a low-code application builder aimed primarily at internal tools, but it supports external user portals as a first-class use case. You're not buying a packaged client portal — you're building a custom one. That distinction matters: Retool gives you the flexibility of custom development with significantly less effort, but it still requires developers to set up and maintain.

What you can build

Retool's 100+ drag-and-drop components — tables, forms, charts, file uploads, rich text editors — connect directly to live data sources: Postgres, MySQL, MongoDB, Snowflake, BigQuery, REST, GraphQL, and gRPC APIs. You model your portal logic in Retool's query IDE, wire components to data, and deploy. For client portals, this means you can expose exactly the data your clients need — filtered to their accounts — with custom workflows behind it like automated ticket routing, record updates, or notifications.

Workflows are a separate canvas for automation: schedule recurring tasks, trigger on webhooks, chain conditional logic, and set retry policies on failure. Retool Agents (currently in beta) extend this with AI-assisted automation for repetitive operational tasks.

External users and portal-specific features

Retool distinguishes between builders (who create/edit apps), internal users (employees who use apps), and external users (clients, partners, vendors). External user pricing is tiered by volume: the first 50 are free, 51–250 cost $8/month each, 251–500 drop to $6/month, and above 500 you're at $4/month. This makes Retool reasonably cost-effective for portals with large user bases compared to per-seat SaaS alternatives.

The Portals product includes branded login and sign-up pages, customizable headers and email invites, app presentation mode, and public (unauthenticated) app access. You can embed authenticated Retool apps into your existing product via their embed feature. Mobile apps — iOS, Android, or PWA — are available on higher-tier plans, with offline support and push notifications.

Permissions and security

Role-based access control (RBAC), audit logs, environment separation (dev/staging/prod), version history with rollback, and SSO via Okta, SAML, or OpenID are available on Business and Enterprise plans. SOC 2 compliance is built into the platform. Self-hosting via Docker is available if your data residency requirements prohibit cloud deployments — setup takes roughly 15 minutes, and Retool only makes outbound connections for a license check every six hours.

Pricing

The free plan covers 5 builders and 50 external users. Paid plans separate builder seats from viewer seats — builders who edited an app during the billing cycle are charged at the higher builder rate; everyone else is charged at the internal user rate. Business plan pricing starts around $10/month per user (internal), with Enterprise pricing on request. External user pricing can be added for client portal use cases at the tiered rates above. Students, educators, and nonprofits can apply for discounted or free access.

Limitations

Retool is not a turnkey portal solution. There are no pre-built portal templates for common use cases like client onboarding or document sharing — you build from components. SQL or API knowledge is effectively required to get value from the platform, and non-technical operators will struggle. Custom external user pricing on self-hosted deployments requires an annual contract.

That said, for development teams building bespoke portals on top of existing databases or APIs, Retool eliminates most of the frontend boilerplate and handles auth, permissions, and deployment — making it genuinely faster than building from scratch.