Quick answer
For a client portal on data you already have, Noloco is the closest switch, with Airtable and Google Sheets as data sources and seats for your clients. Knack and Tadabase put a database, users and roles at the core, and Glide and Zite suit internal apps for a team. Capacity, which we make, builds a custom portal or business app from a description or straight from Claude or ChatGPT, hosted on your own domain; login comes from Clerk or Supabase.
If you want more control, WeWeb generates an app with AI, lets you edit it visually and exports the code, and Bubble handles complex logic. For internal tools on company data, Retool and Google AppSheet.
| Tool | Best for | Paid plans from | Free plan | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Capacity | a custom portal or business app built from a description, on your own domain, when blocks are too rigid. | $25/month | Web app: no. Desktop: 1 project | No free plan on the web; login via Clerk or Supabase |
 Lovable | a custom portal or app from a chat, with login and a database through Lovable Cloud. | €25/month | Yes, 5 credits a day (up to 30 a month) | Builds web apps, not native ones |
 Noloco | client portals and operations on data you already keep in Airtable or Google Sheets. | $65/month (yearly) | Yes, 50 active clients | Records and client seats are capped per plan |
 Glide | internal business apps a team uses every day, built with AI. | $25/month | Yes, limited credits | Published apps are capped per plan |
 Knack | secure database apps and portals with users and roles, including HIPAA options. | $59/month | No, a free trial | Apps and records are capped per plan |
 Tadabase | a portal or business app described in plain English, with a database, logins and workflows built in. | $25/month | Yes, 5 credits a day | Published apps and records are capped per plan |
 Zite | internal apps and client tools for a whole team, with unlimited users on every plan. | $20/month (yearly) | Yes, 50 credits a month | Credits, records and workflow runs are capped |
 WeWeb | web apps and portals generated with AI, then edited visually, with code you can export. | €20/month (yearly) | Yes, 1M AI tokens | Hosting is priced separately |
 Bubble | portals and products with heavy logic, built visually, on web and native mobile. | $29/month (yearly) | Yes | Steeper learning curve |
 Retool | internal tools on company databases, and portals for external users on Business. | €9/builder/month (yearly) | Yes, up to 5 users | Priced per builder and per user |
 Google AppSheet | teams on Google Workspace who want apps on their Sheets, often already paid for. | $5/user/month | Free to build, up to 10 test users | Priced per user; public apps need Publisher Pro |
Why people look for a Softr alternative. The reasons that come back most often.
Few AI credits
Softr includes 5 AI credits a month on Free, 10 on Basic and 50 on Pro, so most of the building still happens by hand with its no-code blocks.
Portal features sit on Pro
Permissions and visibility, removing the Softr branding and custom code start on Pro, $99 a month billed yearly, a big step up from Basic at $19.
Apps are made of Softr's blocks
Blocks make a portal quick to assemble. When a product needs a design or logic the blocks don't cover, people look at builders that write custom code or give finer control.
Mobile means a web app
Softr's mobile option is an installable web app with push notifications, on the Business plan at $329 a month billed yearly. A native app for the stores needs another tool.
How we compared them. The same questions for every tool.
- What you get from one sentence: a portal assembled from blocks, or a custom app with its data and logic.
- Where the data lives: the tool's own database, or Airtable, Google Sheets and your company's systems.
- Logins and permissions for your clients and your team, and what each extra user costs.
- How you pay: a plan, credits, records, seats or users.
- Mobile apps, and whether you can take the app or its code with you.
- Who it's built for: business teams, operations, founders or developers.
Build from a description
01 · our product
Capacity
Best for a custom portal or business app built from a description, on your own domain, when blocks are too rigid.
Capacity turns a plain-language description into a working app: a React front end, a server and its own database, published at a capacity.studio address or on your own domain. You change it by chatting and watch each change in the preview. You choose the model (Claude Opus 5.5, Claude Sonnet 5.5, Fable 5.1, Mistral Large 4 or Kimi K3) or leave it on Auto.
Why pick Capacity over Softr
- A fixed monthly price: each plan comes with a set number of credits, and building from Claude, ChatGPT or Mistral is unlimited on every paid plan, because your own subscription writes the code while Capacity hosts the app.
- Native mobile apps: Expo projects that you submit to TestFlight and Google Play from the publish dialog, with your own store accounts.
- Hosting, a database and a custom domain are part of every paid plan, with a full version history to roll back any change.
- Capacity Desktop ($249 once, macOS) runs the same builder on your Mac with your Claude Code or ChatGPT plan, and pushes the code to your own GitHub.
Watch out for
- The web app has no free plan for building: paid plans start at $25 a month. Capacity Desktop has a free plan with one project.
- Login isn't built in: for a client portal, you add it with the Clerk extension or a Supabase connection.
- In the web app, your code downloads as a zip; pushing to your own GitHub is a Desktop feature.
- It doesn't sync with Airtable or Notion the way Softr does: the app keeps its data in its own database.
Pricing
Starter $25/month (100 credits), Growth $69/month (250 credits), Professional $129/month (500 credits), Business $299/month (1,000 credits). Every plan includes unlimited projects, custom domains and unlimited building from Claude and ChatGPT.
02
Lovable
Best for a custom portal or app from a chat, with login and a database through Lovable Cloud.
Lovable builds web apps from a chat with a live preview beside it. Lovable Cloud adds the backend, with a database, user login, file storage and server functions on a Supabase foundation, and your code syncs both ways with GitHub on every plan.
Why pick it over Softr
- The chat and the preview are the whole interface, so it feels lighter than a Replit workspace.
- Two-way GitHub sync on every plan, including Free, so a developer can take over later.
- It also works from its own desktop app, from ChatGPT and as an MCP server.
Watch out for
- Each message uses credits, and Lovable Cloud usage is billed in credits too once its monthly grant is used.
- For the App Store or Google Play, Lovable points you to a PWA or a Capacitor wrapper you set up yourself.
Pricing
Free: 5 build credits a day, up to 30 a month. Pro: €25/month for 100 monthly credits, with rollovers, top-ups and custom domains. Business: €50/month, adding a team workspace and SSO. Prices shown in euros from France.
Portal and business-app builders
03
Noloco
Best for client portals and operations on data you already keep in Airtable or Google Sheets.
Noloco calls itself the AI portal builder for teams running complex operations: one system for your team, your clients and the AI agents that help run it. You build client portals, CRMs, project trackers and dashboards with its AI, Nola, on Noloco Tables or on the Airtable and Google Sheets data you already have.
Why pick it over Softr
- Made for client portals: each client gets a branded, real-time space with as much access as they need, and no more.
- Keeps Airtable or Google Sheets as the data source instead of making you migrate.
- Unlimited team seats on the free plan, and a 14-day trial of Build with every feature.
Watch out for
- The free plan stops at 50 active clients and 2,000 records, with Noloco Tables or a CSV import as the only data sources.
- Build includes 10 team seats, 1,000 active clients and 25,000 records; more records cost $25 for each extra 25,000.
Pricing
Free: 30 AI credits a month plus 5 a day, unlimited team seats, 50 active clients, 2,000 records. Build: $79/month, or $65/month billed yearly (250 AI credits, 10 team seats, 1,000 active clients, 25,000 records, other data sources, 2FA). Enterprise: custom. Non-profits get 50% off.
Glide is an AI app builder for internal business apps: you describe the tool, and Glide builds it on its own platform with integrations and workflows, then publishes it to your team or, from Plus, to the public. You choose how hard its agent works (light, medium or heavy).
Why pick it over Softr
- Made for the internal apps teams run on, with integrations and AI features inside the apps.
- Pro adds unlimited published apps and workflows, org-level roles and building with your own agent over MCP.
- A free plan with 10 projects to try it.
Watch out for
- Published apps are capped below Pro: 2 on Basic, 5 on Plus.
- Pro, where the limits lift, starts at $125 a month for 5 team members.
Pricing
Free: limited credits, 2 team members, 10 projects. Basic: $25/month (100 credits, 2 published apps). Plus: $50/month (250 credits, 5 published apps, public apps). Pro: $125/month for 5 members (500 credits, unlimited published apps and workflows). Enterprise on request.
05
Knack
Best for secure database apps and portals with users and roles, including HIPAA options.
Knack builds secure business apps and online databases without code: custom workflows, portals and internal tools on a relational database, with AI-powered app building, users and roles, and automations through Knack Flows and its API. Its MCP server lets other AI tools use Knack as a backend.
Why pick it over Softr
- Unlimited users and roles on every plan, so a portal with many clients doesn't add seat costs.
- A relational database at the core, with record change history on Pro and above.
- HIPAA and GovCloud options on Enterprise, and a separate Knack Health offer.
Watch out for
- Starter allows 3 apps and 20,000 records, and its 25 AI credits a month go quickly if you build with AI.
- There's no free plan, only a trial, and the $19 and $49 prices are for a new customer's first three months.
Pricing
Billed monthly: Starter $59/month (3 apps, 20,000 records, 25 AI credits), Pro $130/month (unlimited apps, 50,000 records, a custom domain, 50 AI credits), Corporate from $300/month. Enterprise on request. New customers pay $19 and $49 for the first three months.
06
Tadabase
Best for a portal or business app described in plain English, with a database, logins and workflows built in.
Tadabase AI is Tadabase's new builder: you describe the app your business needs, it asks follow-up questions, then builds the database, logins, permissions, workflows, emails, PDFs and hosting on Tadabase's platform. It generates React code you own, and Claude Code connects to it in one command. Existing customers keep their original Tadabase plans.
Why pick it over Softr
- Unlimited app users on every plan, which suits portals with many clients.
- What a portal needs is already built: database, logins, permissions, workflows, emails and PDFs.
- A free plan to start, with a one-time 300-credit welcome bonus.
Watch out for
- Starter publishes 3 apps ($9 a month for each extra one) with 25,000 records per app; external sources like Airtable or HubSpot start on Business, $250 a month.
- Always-on hosting starts on Pro.
Pricing
Free: 5 credits a day plus a 300-credit welcome bonus. Starter: $25/month, or $21 billed yearly (1,000 credits a month, 3 published apps, custom domain). Pro: $50 ($42 yearly). Team: $100 ($84). Business: $250 ($210). Unlimited app users on every plan.
07
Zite
Best for internal apps and client tools for a whole team, with unlimited users on every plan.
Zite builds business apps and workflows on its own database from a description, so a team can run its operations in one place, from a prompt like "a client management app for my marketing agency", connected to the apps it already uses. Every plan, including Free, has unlimited users, apps and editors.
Why pick it over Softr
- Unlimited users on every plan, which suits tools a whole team uses.
- Apps, workflows and a database in one product.
- The Business plan lets you build with your own AI.
Watch out for
- Monthly credits cap how much you build: 50 on Free (10 messages a day), 100 on Pro, 400 on Business.
- Records and workflow runs are capped per plan: 5,000 records and 1,000 runs a month on Free.
Pricing
Free: 50 credits a month, 5,000 records, 1,000 workflow runs. Billed yearly: Pro $20/month (100 credits, 100,000 records, a custom domain), Business $75/month (400 credits, 250,000 records, your own AI). Team and Enterprise on request.
Visual builders with more control
08
WeWeb
Best for web apps and portals generated with AI, then edited visually, with code you can export.
WeWeb builds web apps with AI, then lets you change every detail in a drag-and-drop editor. Its AI, or any AI agent you prefer, creates the interfaces, databases, APIs and front-end logic; you publish on WeWeb's cloud or export the app as Vue.js code and host it yourself.
Why pick it over Softr
- No lock-in: from Essential, export the code, host it yourself and sync it with GitHub.
- No charge per app user, so a portal can grow without seat costs.
- Connects to the databases you already have without copying the data, or to WeWeb Cloud's own database.
Watch out for
- Hosting on WeWeb Cloud is a separate line: free up to 1,000 app sessions on a WeWeb subdomain, custom domains from €13 a month.
- The visual editor gives you control, and takes longer to learn than a prompt-only builder.
Pricing
Billed yearly: Free (1M AI tokens), Essential €20/month (10M tokens, code export, GitHub sync), Pro €50/month per developer (25M tokens, more seats, unlimited MCP server). WeWeb Cloud hosting is separate: free up to 1,000 sessions, then from €13/month. Prices shown in euros.
09
Bubble
Best for portals and products with heavy logic, built visually, on web and native mobile.
Bubble is the long-standing visual app builder. It now starts from an AI prompt and lets you switch between prompting and editing visually, for web, iOS and Android apps, with its own database and workflows.
Why pick it over Softr
- Deep control over data, workflows and permissions, which suits complex products.
- Web and native mobile apps from the same plan.
- Generating an app from a prompt doesn't use AI credits.
Watch out for
- It takes longer to learn than prompt-only builders.
- Usage is measured in workload units, which grow with your app's traffic.
Pricing
Free plan to build. Billed yearly: Starter $29/month, Growth $119/month, Team $349/month, each with more AI credits and workload units.
Internal tools on company data
10
Retool
Best for internal tools on company databases, and portals for external users on Business.
Retool builds internal software with AI: describe the app and its app builder returns a production-ready app with security and governance built in, or build with your own AI agent through Retool's MCP server and command-line tool. Around the apps sit workflows, its own database, mobile apps and self-hosting.
Why pick it over Softr
- Made for apps on company data, with staging and production environments from Team.
- External users and embedded apps on Business, for portals, with the first 50 external users free.
- Self-hosted and air-gapped deployments on Enterprise.
Watch out for
- Every builder and every internal user is a monthly line: on Team, €9 per builder and €5 per internal user, billed yearly.
- External users, which a client portal needs, start on Business: €46 per builder and €14 per internal user.
Pricing
Free: up to 5 users, 250 AI credits a month. Billed yearly: Team €9 per builder and €5 per internal user a month (1,000 AI credits), Business €46 per builder and €14 per internal user (3,000 AI credits, external users and embedded apps, the first 50 external users free). Enterprise: custom. Prices shown in euros from France.
11
Google AppSheet
Best for teams on Google Workspace who want apps on their Sheets, often already paid for.
AppSheet is Google's no-code app builder: apps and automations on Google Sheets, its own database, SQL databases and APIs, with forms, barcodes, signatures and photos, and integrations with Gmail, Chat and the rest of Google Workspace. With Gemini, you describe what the app should do and it builds it.
Why pick it over Softr
- AppSheet Core comes with most paid Google Workspace plans, so many teams already have it.
- Close to the spreadsheet model teams know, with automations that send email, SMS and push notifications.
- Free to build and test with up to 10 users, for as long as you like.
Watch out for
- Every signed-in user counts toward the per-user price, which adds up for a portal with many clients.
- Public apps without sign-in need a Publisher Pro subscription, and building with Gemini needs a paid Google Workspace license.
Pricing
Free to build and test with up to 10 users. Starter $5 per user per month, Core $10 (included in most paid Google Workspace plans), Enterprise Plus $20. Public apps need AppSheet Publisher Pro.
Softr and its alternatives, side by side. From each official site, October 15, 2026.
| Feature |  Softr | Capacity | Lovable | Noloco | Glide | Knack | Tadabase | Zite | WeWeb | Bubble | Retool | Google AppSheet |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Paid plans from | $19/month (yearly) | $25/month | €25/month | $65/month (yearly) | $25/month | $59/month | $25/month | $20/month (yearly) | €20/month (yearly) | $29/month (yearly) | €9/builder/month (yearly) | $5/user/month |
| Free plan | Yes | Desktop only (1 project) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Trial only | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes, up to 5 users | To build and test |
| How you pay | Plan, with a few AI credits | Monthly credits; building from Claude or ChatGPT unlimited | Monthly credits | Plan, records and seats | Credits, published apps, members | Plan, apps and records | Credits and published apps | Credits, records and workflow runs | Per developer; hosting separate | AI credits and workload units | Per builder and per user | Per user |
| Where the data lives | Its databases, Airtable, Notion | Its own database | Lovable Cloud (Postgres) | Noloco Tables, Airtable, Google Sheets | Built from a spreadsheet, a prompt or a file | Its own relational database | Its own database; external sources on Business | Its own database | WeWeb Cloud or your own databases | Its own database | Your databases and APIs, Retool Database | Sheets, AppSheet database, SQL, APIs |
| Mobile apps | Installable web app (Business) | Native (Expo, TestFlight and Google Play) | PWA or Capacitor, set up yourself | – | – | – | – | – | Responsive web apps | Yes (iOS and Android) | Retool Mobile | Mobile and web apps |
| Taking it with you | – | Zip download; GitHub push from Desktop | Two-way GitHub sync | – | – | – | React code you own | – | Vue.js export and GitHub sync from Essential | No code export | Git source control on Enterprise | – |
| Built for | Business teams: portals and internal tools | Non-technical founders, small businesses | Founders, designers, product teams | Firms running client work | Teams building internal apps | Teams that need a secure database app | Small businesses and operations teams | Teams building internal tools | Teams that want control and code export | No-code builders with complex apps | Engineering and operations teams | Google Workspace teams |
How to choose. Start from what you need, not from the ranking.
A client portal on Airtable or Google SheetsNolocoA custom portal built from a descriptionCapacity
A portal from a chat, login includedLovable
Internal apps for a teamGlide or Zite
A secure database app with HIPAA optionsKnack
Unlimited app users, logins built inTadabase
Visual control and code you can exportWeWeb
Complex logic, built visuallyBubble
Internal tools on company databasesRetool
Apps on Google Sheets and WorkspaceGoogle AppSheetWhen to stay on Softr
If your portal fits Softr's blocks, your data already lives in Airtable or Notion, and Pro's permissions cover your clients, Softr is still one of the quickest ways to put a portal online. Even its free plan has unlimited apps, databases, workflows and forms.
Questions people ask. Short answers, with the details above.
What is the best alternative to Softr?
For client portals, Noloco is the closest, with Airtable and Google Sheets as data sources. Knack and Tadabase are database-first, Glide and Zite suit internal team apps, and Capacity builds a custom portal or app from a description. WeWeb and Bubble give more control, and Retool and AppSheet fit internal tools on company data.
Is there a free Softr alternative?
Yes, with limits: Noloco, Glide, Tadabase, Zite, WeWeb, Bubble, Lovable and Retool have free plans, and AppSheet is free to build and test with up to 10 users. Knack offers a trial. The Capacity web app has no free plan; Capacity Desktop has one with a single project.
What's the best Softr alternative for a client portal?
Noloco is built for client portals, with seats for clients and Airtable or Google Sheets as data. Knack and Tadabase include unlimited app users with logins and roles, and Retool's Business plan adds external users. Capacity builds a custom portal from a description, with login through Clerk or Supabase.
Softr vs Glide: which one should I use?
Softr is built for portals and internal tools on your own data, with permissions from Pro at $99 a month billed yearly. Glide builds internal business apps from a spreadsheet, a prompt or a file; its free plan doesn't publish apps, and Basic ($25 a month) publishes two. Pick Softr for client-facing portals, Glide for a team's internal apps.
Softr vs Bubble: which is better?
Softr is quicker for a portal or internal tool on data you already have. Bubble gives more control over data, logic and design, and builds native iOS and Android apps, but takes longer to learn and bills workload units as your app grows.
Can I keep my Airtable data if I leave Softr?
Yes, with Noloco, which connects to Airtable and Google Sheets, and Tadabase on its Business plan. Retool and WeWeb connect to your own databases. Knack, Zite and Capacity keep the data in their own database.
Is there a Softr alternative with native mobile apps?
Bubble publishes native iOS and Android apps, and Capacity builds Expo apps you submit to TestFlight and Google Play. Softr itself offers an installable web app with push notifications on its Business plan.
Related comparisons
Try the alternative we build.
Describe your app in a sentence and Capacity builds it, or connect it to Claude or ChatGPT and build from the chat. Plans from $25 a month.