We Ditched Appsmith for Retool 2.0 and Budibase 3, Reducing Development Time by 50%

For 18 months, our engineering team relied on Appsmith to build internal tools for operations, sales, and customer support. While Appsmith served us well early on, we hit a wall as our tooling needs scaled: slow load times for complex dashboards, limited native integrations with our custom data sources, and a steep learning curve for non-technical team members contributing to app builds.

After a 6-week evaluation of low-code alternatives, we migrated our entire internal tool stack to a hybrid setup using Retool 2.0 for complex, data-heavy applications and Budibase 3 for rapid, lightweight tool deployment. The result? We cut average development time per internal tool by 50%, reduced maintenance overhead by 40%, and improved end-user adoption by 65%.

Why We Outgrew Appsmith

Appsmith’s open-source model and free tier made it an easy choice for our early-stage team. But as we grew to 12 internal tools supporting 80+ end users, three core pain points became untenable:

• Performance bottlenecks: Dashboards pulling data from 5+ sources took 8-12 seconds to load, leading to frequent support tickets from frustrated users.
• Rigid integration limits: We had to write custom JavaScript queries for every non-standard API connection, adding 10-15 hours per tool to our dev timeline.
• Collaboration gaps: Appsmith’s version control and role-based access features lagged behind our needs, leading to merge conflicts and accidental overwrites of production tools.

Evaluating Retool 2.0 and Budibase 3

We tested 7 low-code platforms before narrowing down to Retool 2.0 and Budibase 3. We chose a hybrid approach instead of a single tool because each platform filled distinct gaps:

• Retool 2.0: Best-in-class for complex, data-dense applications. Its new drag-and-drop query builder, pre-built integrations for our PostgreSQL, Snowflake, and custom REST APIs, and granular permissioning made it a fit for our finance and operations dashboards.
• Budibase 3: Unmatched for rapid deployment of simple tools like request portals, approval workflows, and data entry forms. Its new AI-assisted app generation and mobile-responsive templates cut build time for lightweight tools from 2 weeks to 3 days.

Our Migration Process

We completed the full migration in 8 weeks with zero downtime for end users. Our process broke into three phases:

1. Audit and prioritization: We categorized our 12 existing Appsmith tools by complexity, migrating high-traffic, simple tools to Budibase first, followed by complex dashboards to Retool.
2. Parallel builds: We built new versions of each tool in Retool/Budibase alongside existing Appsmith instances, running user acceptance testing with 10 beta users per tool before cutover.
3. Decommission: We retired Appsmith instances only after 2 weeks of error-free usage in the new platform, exporting all Appsmith code to a cold storage archive for compliance.

Quantifying the 50% Development Time Reduction

Before the switch, our average internal tool took 40 hours to build (from scoping to production). Post-migration, that average dropped to 20 hours. Here’s how we achieved that:

• Retool’s pre-built integrations eliminated 12 hours of custom JS coding per complex tool.
• Budibase’s template library and AI app generation cut 10 hours of UI/UX design per simple tool.
• Both platforms’ improved collaboration features reduced code review and merge conflict resolution time by 8 hours per tool on average.

We also saw secondary wins: bug reports for internal tools dropped by 35%, and non-technical team members (like our operations lead) now build 20% of new tools without engineering support.

Lessons Learned

Our migration wasn’t without hiccups. We initially tried to force all tools into Retool, which led to over-engineering simple request forms. Adopting a hybrid approach was the single biggest factor in our success. We also recommend running a 2-week proof of concept with your top 3 platform choices using a real internal tool use case, rather than relying on demo environments.

Is This Switch Right for You?

If your team is outgrowing Appsmith and building 5+ internal tools per quarter, a Retool 2.0 + Budibase 3 setup is worth evaluating. It’s particularly valuable if you have a mix of complex data tools and lightweight workflow apps, or if you want to empower non-technical team members to contribute to tool building.

We haven’t looked back since decommissioning Appsmith. The 50% reduction in development time has let our engineering team focus on core product work instead of internal tooling, and our end users are happier with faster, more reliable tools.