Adminmate vs Retool: admin panel or internal app builder?
Co-founder of Adminmate
Retool and Adminmate are often compared, but they don’t solve exactly the same problem. Retool is a low-code builder to create any internal application. Adminmate gives you a complete back-office generated from your database models.
Here is an honest comparison to help you pick the right one — or use both.
Prices and features checked in October 2026 on the official websites.
The short version
- Choose Retool if you need custom internal apps that combine many data sources — databases, REST APIs, Stripe, Salesforce — with tailor-made screens, workflows and AI agents.
- Choose Adminmate if you need an admin panel on top of your own database, ready in minutes, where your data stays on your servers, for free.
Building vs generating
With Retool, you build each screen: drag a table, write the query that feeds it, add a form, write the query that saves it, add buttons, wire the permissions. It’s flexible, and you can build almost anything. But an admin panel for 20 models means building and maintaining 20 sets of screens.
With Adminmate, you list your Sequelize or Mongoose models and the back-office is generated: data explorer, search, filters, relationships, forms, CSV export, activity log. You then add what’s specific to your business in code — segments, custom actions, custom charts — and adjust the display from the interface.
Where your data goes
On Retool Cloud, you connect your database to Retool: the queries run from Retool’s servers, so your data goes through them. Keeping everything in your own infrastructure requires self-hosting, available on the Enterprise plan.
With Adminmate, the Data API runs in your infrastructure, next to your database, and the browsers of your team talk to it directly. The content of your database never goes through our servers, on every plan — since there is only one, and it’s free.
Pricing
Retool charges per user, with different prices for builders and for internal users:
| Retool plan | Builder | Internal user | Notable limits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | — | — | Up to 5 users, production environment only |
| Team | €9/month (annual) | €5/month (annual) | No audit logs, basic permissions |
| Business | €46/month (annual) | €14/month (annual) | Audit logs, rich permissions, unlimited environments |
| Enterprise | Custom | Custom | Self-hosting, SSO, granular roles |
For a team of 2 developers and 15 support and ops people that needs permissions and audit logs (Business plan), that’s about 2 × €46 + 15 × €14 = €302 per month, billed annually. Adminmate is free, with permissions and the activity log included.
Features
| Retool | Adminmate | |
|---|---|---|
| Admin panel generated from your models | ❌ (built screen by screen) | ✅ |
| Custom UI, any layout | ✅ | Partial (layouts, overview pages, dashboards) |
| Data sources | Databases, REST/GraphQL APIs, SaaS integrations | Your database, through your models |
| Custom actions | ✅ (queries, JavaScript) | ✅ (your own JavaScript functions) |
| Workflows, scheduled jobs | ✅ | ❌ |
| Team permissions | Rich permissions on Business | ✅ (environments, models, fields, actions, segments) |
| Audit log | Business plan | ✅ |
| Data stays in your infrastructure | Self-hosted (Enterprise) | ✅ |
| Backend requirement | None | Node.js (Express) |
| Price | Per user | Free |
When Retool is the better choice
- Your internal tools combine many sources: several databases, third-party APIs, SaaS tools.
- You need fully custom screens, mobile apps or automated workflows.
- Your backend is not in Node.js, or you don’t want to touch your backend code at all.
When Adminmate is the better choice
- You need an admin panel on top of your own database, quickly, without building screens.
- Your backend runs on Node.js with Sequelize or Mongoose models, and you want your actions to reuse your existing code.
- Data privacy matters: you don’t want your production data to go through a third party.
- You want to give access to the whole company without per-seat pricing.
Using both
The two tools also work well together: Adminmate as the everyday back-office for your support and ops teams, and Retool for the few specific internal apps that need to combine several external services.
Create your free Adminmate account and get your admin panel running in a few minutes with the installation guide.