Questions from a new user

App Building
1

Hi there,
I am new to retool and want to ask some questions.

  1. What does retool generate code look like? Is it messy or editable?
  2. How large is the generated package size?
  3. Are they hosted in retool website or can be hosted in localhost?
  4. Can I borrow other ui packages like antd or material ui into retool and how to do it?
  5. Can I integrate with retool with an already built project?
2

Hi @Simon123! Welcome to Retool and our community!

For questions 1-2, Retool does not generate code, it is a WYSIWYG-style editor for building internal tools.

For question 3, Retool can be either hosted in a Retool website or in localhost, depending on your needs.

For question 4, you could do so in custom components (only available on certain plan levels), but generally Retool components are intended to replace this. You are not writing code to build Retool apps, you are dragging and dropping your interface, and maybe writing a bit of glue logic to transform input data to send to your backend storage of choice

For your last question, Retool is not generating embeddable code, and it is hosted separate from your existing project. That said, you can embed entire Retool apps (docs here: https://docs.retool.com/docs/embedding-retool)

3

I am curious: why is there an explicit focus on "for internal tools"? Can't one use Retool to prototype tools for any audience? Is there some kind of end user license agreement which prohibits an architect from sketching out concepts in Retool with the goal of building better external and commercial tools?

4

Hi @lonniev! You can certainly use Retool for other use cases, but our pricing is generally setup for internal tools. Retool apps can only be accessed by other people using paid seats in your Retool organization unless you pay for the Pro or Enterprise level plans which offer public apps. In the case of public apps, these are publicly accessible applications so we don't recommend putting any sensitive information or dangerous functionality in these apps. We also don't support authentication in public apps.