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Ask HN: Anybody used Retool for production, user-facing app?

50 points bootstrpppin | 3 comments | 14 Nov 24 00:26 UTC | HN request time: 0.401s | source

Bootstrapped founder here.

I'm planning to build a SaaS product loosely in the B2B logistics space - it needs to be relatively low cost to build/maintain, look slick and be extensible.

It would be customer facing, meaning each customer would need a login/account (or perhaps many, if a whole team is using our product).

I've looked at Retool and it looks quite epic but it looks like it's designed primarily for internal apps.

Has anybody used, or attempted to use Retool for a production, user-facing app?

Would really appreciate advice, war stories or recommendations.

1. ezekg ◴[19 Nov 24 18:49 UTC] No.42186825[source]▶
I've literally been saying it for years: somebody needs to build Retool for user-facing apps. Being an API provider, so many of my customers want this type of service to build a user-facing portal based of specific requirements that don't align with any multi-tenant offering i.e. something we can offer turn-key. Very often, they end up being it in-house in React. I've even pointed customers to Retool but they come back disappointed re: pricing after talking with their sales team. Retool's current pricing makes anything user-facing unviable.
replies(2): >>42187215 #>>42187748 #
2. bootstrpppin ◴[19 Nov 24 19:33 UTC] No.42187215[source]▶
Thanks ezekg.

Their pricing pretty much kills any chance of margin for a typical SaaS company with a free tier.

Frustrating, because Retool is 80% towards being a perfect low/no code builder for complex-ish user-facing apps.

3. gervwyk ◴[19 Nov 24 20:27 UTC] No.42187748[source]▶
We have. Check out lowdefy.com