Retool
Dev tools
low-code mobile app builder
SHOW HN2023
226points
78comments
#236of 3,109 in 2023
Top 8%of 2023 by points
How HN took it
CuriousMostly questions and neutral comments
11 positive, 25 neutral or asking, 0 mixed, 8 critical, out of 44 comments about the project. Thread score +0.09.
Execution: 4 for, 4 againstIdea: 3 for, 2 againstPerformance: 0 for, 1 againstDocs: 0 for, 1 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Useful for field and camera/scanner use cases in existing Retool workflows.
From 1 comment
Ive used retool for 5 years now and the new addition of Retool Mobile has been extremely useful for us in the past few months. The scanner and the camera components are…
C_NOXS on HN
Developer experience and staging/OTA workflow appreciated.
From 2 comments
I've been playing around with SwiftUI recently and the developer experience and tooling make me miss my VSCode set up with copilot With this it looks like I could keep the same…
0xferruccio on HNTotally agree that developing in many no-code tools is frustrating since you can’t use the development workflows you’re used to in your own IDE. Retool Mobile was built as an…
shawiz on HN
Objections
Missing native components such as maps; custom components still in progress.
From 2 comments
Look at the sparse amount of native components that comes with them. Need a native map view, or maybe AR? Overlay them with your own custom markers? Go native or at least React…
manmal on HNWe are working on custom components for Retool Mobile. With custom components, we hope to give folks the ability to paint whatever component they need on the Retool canvas but…
shawiz on HN
Not suited to consumer apps and no clear code-structure or reuse story.
From 2 comments
It's true that a lot of adjacent tools in this space are built for non-developers. But if you try Retool, I think you'll notice that it's definitely not "no code" - any…
kwhinnery on HNCan you write well structured and reusuable code on retool? Can I write it in vscode, maybe even in typescript and deploy it up? Most implementations of the "escape hatch" I've…
cjonas on HN
Apple App Store policy may block it.
From 1 comment
I wonder how long before Apple blocks this. They seem to be pretty hostile to these types of apps and even limited Expo's ability to load projects on iOS if you weren't the…
matlin on HN
Requests
Map component.
From 1 comment
Well done team! Cant' wait for a map component!
splitrocket on HN
Native desktop app support, especially Windows.
From 1 comment
When will retool be able to do this for native desktop apps? Especially for Windows. Otherwise, you are leaving 2+ billion active devices off the table
sirjaz on HN
Offline apps and push notifications.
From 1 comment
Hi 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…
dvdhsu on HN
Questions
How does it differ from Capacitor/Ionic or React Native?
From 1 comment
I’m trying to understand, and forgive me, maybe the core Retool product explains this better—how is this different from something like Capacitor/Ionic or React Native?
blitz_skull on HN
Is on-prem deployment supported?
From 2 comments
Hi! Retool on-prem user here ... is this going to be available for us too? Seems like we get everything fairly delayed which is a real bummer :/
zbruhnke on HNMike, Mobile Eng Lead @ Retool, here. We support on-prem if you're on a version newer than 2.100 (which has been out for a few months). If you can reach out to your AE, tommy at…
mikelikespie on HN
Alternatives named
Airplane
From 2 comments
I cofounded Airplane.dev which you may want to look at. Everything you build in Airplane is normal JS/Python/React etc code that you can store in your codebase, version control,…
raviparikh on HNAs the founder of one of the open-source alternative [1] to Retool, I thought of doing PWA for our apps to be fit for mobile but this is next level. Congrats to the whole retool…
rubenfiszel on HN
Forest Admin
From 1 comment
Disclaimer: I'm the founder of https://www.forestadmin.com. I couldn't agree more with this statement. The issue isn't that internal tool builders lack a feature to do it, I…
seyz on HN
Budibase
From 1 comment
Pretty cool concept. Budibase takes a different approach, where the web app you build is responsive without the need to rebuild it for different devices. That being said, it's…
foxbee on HN
Windmill
From 1 comment
As the founder of one of the open-source alternative [1] to Retool, I thought of doing PWA for our apps to be fit for mobile but this is next level. Congrats to the whole retool…
rubenfiszel on HN
React Native
From 2 comments
Totally agree that developing in many no-code tools is frustrating since you can’t use the development workflows you’re used to in your own IDE. Retool Mobile was built as an…
shawiz on HNLook at the sparse amount of native components that comes with them. Need a native map view, or maybe AR? Overlay them with your own custom markers? Go native or at least React…
manmal on HN
AppSheet
From 1 comment
AppSheet do it too and they are owned by Google now, if Apple lets Google do it, I’d think Retool are fine?
majikandy on HN