We have a client looking to build a lighter mobile version of an existing app. This is pretty exciting as it will be our first mobile app in Retool.
I am already leaning towards a responsive web app as I've read it can render faster and be easier for the user (follow link vs install app).
What has been your experience either way? Are there any gotchas or pros/cons when making this decision? How do development and testing times compare between the two options? How does the offline experience differ?
Feel free to share any insights, and I’ll be happy to share our journey once the project is underway!
From my experience, if you don't need some specific feature you can only get with mobile, I'd recommend just building a Retool web app with a mobile view. Retool mobile is much more limited especially with regards to UI/UX.
Thanks for kicking off this discussion - I'm interested to hear from our community
There's certainly pros & cons to each option! I agree that it depends on your use case & the features you'll need. As Travis alludes to, web apps have a larger component library and more UI options in general. However, one thing to consider is that "offline mode" is a Retool Mobile specific feature - Offline mode | Retool Docs (not available on web apps for mobile browsers)
I am not sure about trends, but I can ask internally.
Retool ships a new cloud web app version multiple times a week. Typically, we aim to deploy new mobile version to the app/play store each week or every other week, but it can be less often than that. The difference in cadence is because it takes more time for Apple/Google to review apps.
Additionally, I believe it takes ~7 days for mobile app version updates go out to every user on auto update, or they can manually update the app version. These timelines are just for the Retool updates, bug fixes, etc. Changes you make to the mobile app will still reflect when the app is refreshed.
Apologies for the delay in circling back here! I asked internally but don't have much to share in terms of trends. My best advice is still to go off of your use case (i.e. does it work for your end users to download the Retool app, do you need certain features from Retool Mobile or vice versa, etc)
We've worked on similar client projects at TechnBrains, and in our experience, a responsive web app is usually the better choice when users are mostly online, as it's faster to develop, test, and deploy while eliminating the need for app installs. We'd only recommend a mobile app if offline access, push notifications, or other native device features are essential. Ultimately, mapping the key user workflows and offline requirements upfront makes the decision much easier.
@Travis_Witt This is an old thread, but I am finding out that the mobile experience is not that great as far as building. I'm really struggling with building a native mobile app that has feature parity with our already existing web app. I'm seriously thinking about ditching the mobile app and going with a PWA.
I've been meaning to come back to this thread and share a few more thoughts after building both Retool Mobile and Web apps.
I'd agree with @decent_protection24 that, unless you specifically need offline access or native device capabilities, I'd lean toward a responsive Retool Web app. The web platform gives you more flexibility for UI/UX, development is generally faster, and features like Assist can make building and iterating much easier.
That said, Retool Mobile absolutely has its place. We have a client whose field workers regularly operate outside cellular coverage, so offline mode was a requirement rather than a nice-to-have. In that case, Mobile was the right choice and has worked well.
There is a learning curve with Mobile. Some components behave differently, layouts take a bit more effort to get looking the way you want, and you don't have Assist available. However, once you understand those differences, it's a capable platform for field-focused apps.
One final point: even without Assist, you can still lean on your favorite LLM throughout development. It just means a little more manual work and experimentation compared to the web experience.
H @Shawn_Optipath - I've used Claude through our Team subscription with a Retool mobile skill that I've developed, and it's helped but it would be so much easier if it had access to our environment. I have some familiarity with MCPs so maybe that will help??
I've been using ChatGPT with a dedicated Retool project instead of a Claude skill, and I suspect it's a pretty similar idea. Having that ongoing project context has been really helpful as the apps have grown.
I still haven't experimented with Retool's MCP server, but it's definitely on my list this summer. It'll be interesting to see how much it improves the development experience.
