Since its launch in 2017, Retool has made a name for itself as one of the best low-code tools for building browser-based internal line-of-business applications. The well-funded startup's services are currently used by thousands of companies, including Amazon, OpenAI, Pinterest, Plaid, Snowflake, Taco Bell, and Volvo. Now, the company is broadening its focus from internal apps to external apps as well. Dubbed “Retool for External Apps,” the new service is now generally available and aims to empower any business to quickly and efficiently build secure, high-performing apps for a much wider audience than ever before.
Retool CEO and co-founder David Hsu told me that External has already seen a number of companies start using it in preview, including large companies like Orangetheory, which has provided the Retool app to over 1,600 studio managers, as well as a number of startups that are using the service to build MVPs while exploring product-market fit.
For the most part, we're not talking about consumer applications – consumer applications can be built, and people do, but Retool's focus is on business applications, not the next generation of social networks.
“The basic idea behind Retool is that all of our internal tools essentially have the same building blocks. They're all made up of buttons, forms, tables, etc. Basically, what's really cool we've found by applying Retool to external business software is that external business software is also remarkably similar, especially with external software that's more operational,” Hsu says.
Today, most software written for business users, whether internal or external, is a basic CRUD app that reads and writes to a database. The way the data is presented may differ, but the overall functionality doesn't vary much between apps. However, the vast majority of developers around the world are working to build these very apps from the same building blocks.
“What's really remarkable is that, as with our internal tools, the way people are building these CRUD apps today is very primitive,” Hsu says. “You basically build them from scratch using React. It's kind of mind-blowing that people are doing this every day. … I realized that a lot of the knowledge I gained from internal software can also be applied to external software.”
However, building for an external audience is a bit different in that branding, performance, overall look and feel, etc. matter a lot more. But even then, users of your internal apps expect those apps to work just like consumer apps, even if there's still a little bit of leeway for form over function.
Security is something that cannot be overlooked when building external apps, so Retool added the necessary building blocks to provide authentication and authorization capabilities. Hsu also noted that for external apps, most developers tend to use APIs rather than databases, in part because APIs offer more control over how data is accessed.
It's also worth noting that Retool now allows businesses to embed the new Retool app into their existing apps using their existing React and newly released JavaScript SDK. Retool has also added functionality to enable invitation and onboarding flows, including the ability to send custom emails from users' email provider of choice.
“Delivering great software to external users requires developers to consider user-facing features that are often not as important when the tool is only used internally. This includes customizing how users onboard and navigate the application. Login, password reset flows, and granular permission settings all make security considerations paramount,” said Antony Bello, senior product manager at Retool. “Retool for External Apps prioritizes design flexibility and customization, making it easy for customers to build white-label apps for external users without sacrificing security or user experience.”
Early on, Retool's mission was to “change the way software is built.” As Hsu pointed out, people wondered, “So what? Is it better? Is it worse?” Earlier this year, the company changed its mission to focus on “good software for everyone.” Along with that, it also published its definition of what constitutes good software (performance, reliability, security, etc.). In fact, Hsu said Retool wants to make the framework more performant than React. He thinks that's quite possible, since Retool can focus on smaller use cases.