Budibase: Open Source Alternative to Retool

What is Budibase?

What it is

Budibase is an open-source low-code platform for building internal tools, data apps, and AI-powered agents that automate operational workflows. It lives in the low-code/no-code ecosystem and serves as a self-hostable alternative to proprietary platforms like Retool.

It solves the problem of fragmented tooling by unifying request handling, workflow automation, and AI agent execution into a single platform. Teams no longer need to stitch together separate tools for CRUD operations, approvals, notifications, and AI integrations—Budibase handles all layers, from data modeling to agent-driven action, with built-in security and user management.

Key capabilities

Build full CRUD applications with drag-and-drop UI builder and data modeling
Create AI agents that understand natural language requests and execute multi-step workflows (e.g., create records, route approvals, update apps)
Integrate with external databases, APIs, and AI models via connectors
Self-host using Docker, Kubernetes, or Digital Ocean with full control over infrastructure
Manage users, groups, roles, theming, and SMTP centrally via admin portal
Expose and extend functionality using a public REST API for programmatic app and user management
Deploy as a single ARM-compatible Docker image or via Docker Compose, Portainer, or K8s manifests

Who uses it and how

Engineering teams deploy Budibase to replace custom internal tools, reducing boilerplate and accelerating delivery of operational apps
IT departments use Budibase agents to automate employee requests (e.g., onboarding, equipment checks) without manual intervention
Business units build data apps connected to internal databases to track KPIs, manage approvals, and report issues in real time

Getting started

Deploy via Docker (budibase/budibase) or Kubernetes using official Helm charts; alternatively, sign up for Budibase Cloud at https://budibase.com. Full hosting guides and API docs are at https://docs.budibase.com.

When to use it — and when not to

Choose Budibase when you need a self-hostable, open-source platform for low-code app and agent development with strong AI integration and centralized admin controls. Avoid it if you require managed infrastructure without self-hosting overhead, or if strict compliance mandates exclude open-source platforms despite their transparency. Self-hosting requires managing PostgreSQL (or compatible DB), object storage (for attachments), and SMTP for notifications—though Budibase provides defaults and integrations for all.

project readme (upstream, from github) — read inline

Budibase

AI Agents that run your operations

Budibase is an open-source operations platform that saves engineers 100s of hours building Agents, Apps and Automations, securely.

🤖 🎨 🚀

Budibase agent ui

Get started - we host (Budibase Cloud) · Get started - you host (Docker, K8s, DO) · Docs · Feature request · Report a bug · Support: Discussions

✨ Features

Run your operations on one platform

Handle requests, automate workflows, manage processes, and connect your business systems - without stitching together multiple tools.

Employees ask questions, request approvals, and report issues every day. Budibase agents understand these requests and handle the work automatically.

Operations your team can run with AI agents

Employees ask questions, request approvals, and report issues every day. Budibase agents understand these requests and handle the work automatically.

Budibase chat deploy

Agents that take action

Budibase agents don’t just answer questions. They run workflows across your business - creating records, routing approvals, updating apps, and notifying teams automatically.

Budibase agent actions

Connect the tools your business runs on

Integrate with databases, AI models, and business apps so agents and automations can take action across your operations.

Deploy with confidence and security

Budibase is open-source and is made to scale. With Budibase, you can self-host on your own infrastructure and globally manage users, onboarding, SMTP, apps, groups, theming and more. You can also provide users/groups with a portal and disseminate user management to the group manager.

Budibase Public API

As with anything that we build in Budibase, our public API is simple to use, flexible, and introduces new extensibility. To summarize, the Budibase API enables:

Budibase as a backend
Interoperability

Docs

You can learn more about the Budibase API at the following places:

General documentation: Learn how to get your API key, how to use spec, and how to use Postman
Interactive API documentation : Learn how to interact with the API

🏁 Get started

Deploy Budibase using Docker, Kubernetes, and Digital Ocean on your existing infrastructure. Or use Budibase Cloud if you don't need to self-host and would like to get started quickly.

Get started with self-hosting Budibase

Get started with Budibase Cloud

🎓 Learning Budibase

The Budibase documentation lives here.

💬 Community

If you have a question or would like to talk with other Budibase users and join our community, please hop over to Github discussions

❗ Code of conduct

Budibase is dedicated to providing everyone a welcoming, diverse, and harassment-free experience. We expect everyone in the Budibase community to abide by our Code of Conduct. Please read it.

🙌 Contributing to Budibase

From opening a bug report to creating a pull request: every contribution is appreciated and welcomed. If you're planning to implement a new feature or change the API, please create an issue first. This way, we can ensure your work is not in vain. Environment setup instructions are available here.

Not Sure Where to Start?

A good place to start contributing is by looking for the good first issue tag.

How the repository is organized

Budibase is a monorepo managed by lerna. Lerna manages the building and publishing of the budibase packages. At a high level, here are the packages that make up Budibase.

packages/builder - contains code for the budibase builder client-side svelte application.
packages/client - A module that runs in the browser responsible for reading JSON definition and creating living, breathing web apps from it.
packages/server - The budibase server. This Koa app is responsible for serving the JS for the builder and budibase apps, as well as providing the API for interaction with the database and file system.

For more information, see CONTRIBUTING.md

📝 License

Budibase is open-source, licensed as GPL v3. The client and component libraries are licensed as MPL - so the apps you build can be licensed however you like. Budibase paid features are licensed under the Business Source License,

⭐ Stargazers over time

If you are having issues between updates of the builder, please use the guide here to clear down your environment.

Contributors ✨

Thanks goes to these wonderful people (emoji key):

Made with contrib.rocks.

Frequently asked questions

Is Budibase free to use?

Budibase is open source. There is no licence fee and no seat count — you can self-host it or, where the project offers one, pay a vendor for a managed version instead.

What does Budibase do?

Build powerful web apps without complex coding

What is Budibase written in?

Budibase is primarily written in TypeScript. Its source is publicly available at https://github.com/budibase/budibase, and it has 28,289 GitHub stars.

What is a good open source alternative to Retool?

Budibase is one of the open source options listed as an alternative to Retool. Compare licences, stars and activity side by side on the Budibase profile.