These three price on completely different units, so a straight per-seat comparison is misleading. Retool splits builders from internal users. Appsmith charges a flat per-user rate. Budibase blends creators, end users, actions and more into one number. Run your actual team shape through each before believing any headline figure.
| Free tier | Paid entry | Model | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Budibase | self-host: unlimited users/apps/automations | ~$5–15/user/mo cloud | per-user, or free self-hosted |
| Retool | up to 5 users, 5 GB data, 500 automation runs/mo | Team: $12/builder + $7/internal user (monthly) | builders vs users split |
| Appsmith | self-host Community Edition, free forever | Business: $15/user/mo (cap 99 users) | flat per-user |
Where the split model helps Retool: a 50-person deployment that's mostly viewers — people who use the tools but don't build them — can come out around $275/month on Retool versus roughly $750 on Appsmith, because you're only paying the full builder rate for the handful of people actually creating apps.
Where it doesn't: Appsmith's flat rate is simpler to predict and budget, and its Community Edition self-hosts free forever with no user cap. Budibase goes further — its open-source self-hosted plan lists unlimited users, apps, automations and agents, which for a team willing to run it on their own box makes the licensing cost genuinely zero.
At 10 users, all three are cheap enough that the decision should be about fit, not price. At 50+, the question is your ratio of builders to viewers: heavily lopsided toward viewers, Retool's split pricing wins; roughly even, Appsmith's flat rate is more predictable; willing to self-host, Budibase or Appsmith Community drop the bill to infrastructure cost.