Illa – An open-source alternative to Retool
Hey HNs: This is Vincent from the ILLA team. I'm sure you guys see tons of "Open-source" and "Alternative to Retool" these days. I won't deny Retool is a great product, and so are many open-source competitors such as Appsmith, Budibase, Tooljet etc. However, what makes ILLA so special? What advantages does ILLA have that allow users to choose ILLA instead of others? Well, I would like to answer those questions to all folks at HN one by one. First, we are similar to Retool, or Appsmith but we have many different our own features. We are a true open-source project all the folks here can check…
Illa – An open-source alternative to Retool launched on November 20, 2022 with 151 votes, #220 of 3,471 launches that month and more than 95% of that year's launches. The site was still online in September 2026, 3 years on.
In plain words
ILLA is an open-source platform for building internal tools and applications, positioning itself as an alternative to Retool. It provides a development environment where users can create custom applications with visual builders and code components. The platform is fully open-source, allowing developers to review and modify the codebase. ILLA targets developers and teams who need to build internal tools while maintaining control over their infrastructure and source code.
written from the facts on this page · September 2026
From the sources
Low-code platform allows you to build business apps, enables you to quickly create internal tools such as dashboard, crud app, admin panel, crm, cms, etc. Supports PostgreSQL, MySQL, Supabase, GraphQL, MongoDB, MSSQL, Rest API, Hugging Face, Redis, etc. Automate workflows with schedule or webhook. Open source Retool. - GitHub - illacloud/illa-builder: Low-code platform allows you to build business
In the maker’s words, at launch
Hey HNs: This is Vincent from the ILLA team. I'm sure you guys see tons of "Open-source" and "Alternative to Retool" these days. I won't deny Retool is a great product, and so are many open-source competitors such as Appsmith, Budibase, Tooljet etc. However, what makes ILLA so special? What advantages does ILLA have…
Does a similar job
all alternatives →
Retool2018 · retool.com · ▲640Hi all, founder @ Retool here. We initially launched Retool on HN five years ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14515494. The feedback was extraordinarily helpful then (e.g. we launched source control, on-prem, etc. based on HN comments), and we’re grateful for all of it. Today, we’re excited to get HN’s thoughts on one of our new products: Retool Mobile. It lets you build and deploy mobile apps in minutes, not days. The idea is there is a large class of line-of-business mobile apps, and the process of getting a simple form + button on a mobile device, in a native app,…
Retool – build internal tools faster2018 · tryretool.com · ▲592Build, deploy, and manage internal tools with Retool's unified engine. Connect to any database, API, or LLM. Leverage AI throughout your business.
Open-source alternative to Retool2022 · github.com · ▲420🔥 🔥 🔥 The Open Source Retool Alternative. Contribute to openblocks-dev/openblocks development by creating an account on GitHub.
Open-source alternative to Retool, Internal.io, etc.2021 · github.com · ▲429Open-source foundation of ToolJet AI - the enterprise app generation platform for internal tools, dashboards, business applications, workflows and AI agents. Build visually, from a prompt, or from Claude Code, Codex and Cursor over MCP 🚀 - ToolJet/ToolJet
Toola – the open-source Retool alternative2022 · github.com · ▲7The open-source Retool alternative. Low-code platform for building internal tools fast! - Toola-bakery/Toola
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Source: Show HN post ↗ · launch text quoted in part
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