Glide
Retool
| Feature | Glide | Retool |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free / from $60/mo | Free / from $10/mo |
| Free Plan | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
| Rating | 4.3 / 5 | 4.5 / 5 |
| Best For | business-teams, operations-managers, internal-tools, citizen-developers | engineering-teams, operations, data-teams, startups, enterprise |
| Founded | 2018 | 2017 |
| Spreadsheet To App | ✓ | ✗ |
| Ai Columns | ✓ | ✗ |
| Custom Layouts | ✓ | ✗ |
| User Roles | ✓ | ✗ |
| Integrations | ✓ | ✗ |
| Computed Columns | ✓ | ✗ |
| Responsive Design | ✓ | ✗ |
| Drag Drop Ui | ✗ | ✓ |
| Database Connectors | ✗ | ✓ |
| Api Integration | ✗ | ✓ |
| Workflows | ✗ | ✓ |
| Self Hosting | ✗ | ✓ |
| Rbac | ✗ | ✓ |
| Ai | ✗ | ✓ |
✓ Glide Pros
- Create apps directly from Google Sheets or Excel
- Beautiful pre-built components and layouts
- AI columns for automated data processing
- Fast app creation for internal tools
✗ Glide Cons
- Limited to structured data-driven apps
- Row limits on lower plans
- Cannot publish to app stores natively
✓ Retool Pros
- Fastest way to build internal tools
- Connects to any database or API
- Self-hostable for security
- Pre-built components save hours
✗ Retool Cons
- Only for internal tools — not customer-facing
- Can get expensive for large teams
- Learning curve for complex queries
The Verdict
Glide is built for business teams and operations managers, with a focus on spreadsheet-to-app and ai-columns. Retool targets engineering teams and operations and leads with drag-drop-ui and database-connectors.
On pricing, Retool is the clear winner for budget-conscious users — starting at $10/mo compared to $60/mo for Glide. That $50/mo difference adds up quickly for growing teams.
Both offer free plans, so you can test each with your real workflow before committing to a subscription.
This is a genuinely close comparison. If you can, sign up for both free trials (where available) and run a one-week test with your actual team tasks before deciding.