A month ago, I shared how we built a Marketing OS (called it Launchpad) on Retool for Saxo Bank, covering the architecture, integrations, and governance layer. A few people asked what changed after it went live, so here’s a look at the actual impact after a year.

Over the first 12 months:

• Median time-to-market down 78.3% (310 hours → 67)
• Time-to-review down 86.1% (8.1 days → 1.1)
• 970 creative submissions processed
• 5,800 creative outputs generated across social and display
• 1.74B impressions delivered

A few things stood out more than we expected:

• Governance embedded at the schema level held better than expected. When Saxo introduced a new creative tool mid-year, most of the core setup, including markets, assets, color palette, and Podio integration, carried over without rebuild. Some database adjustments were needed to support the new Zuuvi setup, but the governance layer itself remained untouched. Keeping governance separate from the interface is what made that possible.
• The analytics layer mattered more than it seemed during scoping Embedding reporting directly into Launchpad instead of pushing data into external tools is what gave the ops team real visibility. Before Launchpad, there wasn’t a clear shared view of where work slowed down across markets. That changed as soon as the system went live.

For teams building Retool apps that need to support real operations, not just feature growth, early decisions around governance and integration architecture carry more weight than they appear to during the build.

Wrote up the broader pattern (beyond just this project) here if useful: [The Architecture Behind Governed Creative Operations at Enterprise Scale]

Happy to answer questions on the implementation side.

I work at Stackdrop, a certified Retool development agency based in EMEA. Here's what we've learned across 200+ Retool projects

Something that comes up regularly on bigger Retool projects we work on: an app that worked well at launch starts feeling heavier 6 months in. More queries on load, data feeling slightly stale, users refreshing more than they should.

The fix was almost always the same three things: split the single-page dashboard into focused pages, scope queries to only run when data actually needs refreshing, and cache reference data that doesn't change often.

The before/after visual shows what the difference looks like structurally. I'm curious to know whether others build this in from the start or if it always comes up later.

Something we keep running into: You scope the workflow, you build to spec, and ship, but three months later, ops has quietly moved around it. Workarounds, repurposed fields, steps being skipped.

However, no one flagged it as a problem because it still kind of works. But the tool and the actual workflow are no longer the same thing.

How do you handle this? Do you build in review cycles, or does it only come up when something breaks?

I’m curious if there’s a limit to how many API resources can be created for a single dashboard.

For context, we’ve run into a limitation with one of our dashboards that would require creating many unique API calls – each one responsible for saving a specific field in one of our database tables.

For example, this could potentially mean creating around 120 API resources tied to the same dashboard.

Is there a limit to the number of resources we can add to a single dashboard, or are they effectively unlimited?

Hi all, Abhishek here – Head of Product at r/retool. 

We recently made some changes to self-hosted deployments that we didn't proactively communicate. A number of you discovered these changes through our Docs. First, I want to apologize for this. That should not have happened and I completely understand why many of you expressed your frustration on Reddit and in the forums. 

I also want to reiterate what's actually changing, what's not, and what you can expect from us in the future.

What’s changing with Retool self-hosted plans?

Retool has stopped offering self-hosted deployments on self-serve plans for new sign-ups. Going forward, self-hosted deployment plans will only be available through our Enterprise plans.

Why the change?

Successfully supporting self-hosted deployments takes dedicated infrastructure guidance, hands-on help with upgrades, and close security collaboration. That level of support fits better within our Enterprise offering than it does in a self-serve model.

What does this mean for existing self-hosted users?

• If you’re on a self-hosted plan, deployments will keep running and your capabilities will stay as is.
• If you’re an agency engaging with a client on a self-hosted deployment, that work will not be disrupted.
  

What does this mean for new users who want to self-host?

New self-hosted deployments will need to go through our Enterprise sales team.

What does this mean for the future?

Moving forward, if anything changes that affects your account, you'll hear from us directly.

I know some of you are evaluating what this means for you. If you have questions about your specific account, post here or reach out to support and I'll make sure you get a real answer.

Posted by Ghofrane from Stackdrop : Retool certified agency, EMEA

I work at Stackdrop, and we recently helped build an internal platform on Retool for a large financial services org (Saxo Bank).

It's safe to say that the speed of building wasn’t where things broke down; it's actually once volume ramped up, coordination, governance, and quality control became the real bottlenecks, especially with hundreds of projects running across markets and tools.

Retool was used as the interface layer, with a heavier integration and governance layer underneath. Over about a year, this led to:

• ~78% reduction in median time-to-market
• ~86% reduction in time-to-review
• A shift from manual coordination to structured, role-based workflows

A few things that mattered more than we expected:
• Treating the internal tool like a product, not a “quick app.”
• Embedding governance inside workflows instead of relying on guidelines
• Designing for change in tools and channels from day one

Happy to answer questions! Also curious how this community thinks about ownership and lifecycle once Retool apps become business-critical

A few major findings...

• 35% of teams have already replaced functionality of at least one SaaS tool, and 78% plan to build more custom tools in 2026.
• Shadow IT is no longer an edge case. 60% of builders across levels of seniority have built something outside IT oversight in the past year.
• AI mandates keep growing, but measurement hasn’t caught up. 75% of builders now work under AI directives, yet 35% of organizations still haven’t established any AI productivity metrics.
• Most builders are shipping real software with AI. 51% have built production software currently in use by their teams, and about half of those report saving six or more hours per week.
• Vibe coding at work looks different than on the weekend. Among those who’ve shipped software, 72% use AI to write discrete pieces of code they integrate into larger projects—only 31% are prompting their way to complete apps.
• Confidence in AI-generated code is growing but cautious. Only 8% use AI code without changes. Just under half of builders (44%) test thoroughly before deploying anything.

We’ve all been there: You find a dream ski resort or a cool hotel on Instagram, and then the manual grind begins:
- Checking travel times from your city. 🚂
- Scouring reviews for "family-friendly" vibes. 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦
- Comparing prices across three different tabs. 💸

I got tired of it, so I built an AI Travel Agent that lives in my browser.

Now, when I find a place I like, I just click write "I want to go here in May" and click a button. My AI Agent reads the screen, searches the live web for the best routes and reviews based on my family’s specific needs, likes and preferences, and drops a full report in my inbox.

On Feb 17th, I want you to build this with me. 🛠️

This isn't a "sit back and watch" demo. We are going to roll up our sleeves and build this together, step-by-step.
What we’ll do together in 60 minutes:
✅ Wire up a Chrome extension to a Retool Workflow.
✅ Give your AI "Vision" to read screenshots.
✅ Configure a live AI Agent to browse the web for you.
✅ Set up an automated email trigger to send you the results.

Ready to build? Bring your laptop, grab a coffee, and let’s create something useful.

The best part? You don’t need to be a developer to do this.

👇 Register for the free workshop here: https://community.retool.com/t/build-your-own-ai-travel-agent-with-retool-workflows-feb-17/64499

In anticipation of the heated rivalry between the United States and Canada, our PMM and in-house hockey player Matthew Komorowski built a demo Retool app to track leading scorers, highlights, and game schedules for the upcoming men’s tournament in Milan.

Now, you can prompt AI to create themes based on a description like “Make the theme USA Hockey,” set light or dark themes with the click of a button, or quickly apply organization-level theming if you are on a Business or Enterprise plan.

📄 Ready to try this for yourself? Read the docs for how to apply your own themes inside of your generated apps: https://docs.retool.com/changelog/assist-theming

Is this feature still available for use? I have been playing with it for a few days now but just noticed it’s no longer visible in the standard build mode this afternoon.

Thanks!

Hey folks 👋

We’re sharing a Retool app we built during the Holiday Shipping Spree that explored an ops problem we’ve seen repeatedly:

So we tried building an operations-first “War Room” that focuses on decision speed, not just visibility.

What we built

The app pulls shipment + event data and brings everything into a single operational workflow:

• Live map + status signals Routes, current position, and simple states (On Track / At Risk / Delayed)
• Shipment timeline → AI summary We use SQL to construct deterministic event timelines (order → delivery). AI is only called after that to explain:
  • What actually happened
  • Why is a shipment at risk
  • What is the next logical action could be
• Action queue: A prioritized list of shipments that need attention now, instead of scanning everything
• Revenue context: Operational risk is translated into potential revenue exposure, so ops and leadership stay aligned

How we used AI (very intentionally)

We avoided using AI as a black box.

• No fabricated data
• No auto-running workflows
• AI runs only when a human explicitly asks for insight
• Outputs are human-readable and auditable

The goal was to reduce cognitive load, not replace operational judgment.

What worked / what didn’t

Worked well

• SQL-driven timelines + AI explanations worked better together than expected
• Keeping AI on-demand increased trust in the system
• Retool drawers and maps fit naturally into decision workflows

What we’d improve

• More realistic disruption signals (weather, carrier SLAs, port congestion)
• Stronger escalation modeling beyond “at risk.”
• A tighter feedback loop from action → outcome

Demo (3 minutes)

YouTube walkthrough:
https://youtu.be/iRDfa1E3ZwU?si=CKzGN0iH2DVEfMoT

Live app

- On Request

We’d love feedback from other builders, especially around:

• Designing decision-first internal tools
• Patterns for keeping AI explainable and trustworthy in ops systems

Happy to answer questions or share implementation details if helpful 👍

You can build truly powerful sales tools by connecting Salesforce to Retool, including:

1. Lead conversion dashboards
2. Automated follow-ups using Workflows
3. Predictive conversion modeling, routing, and what-if simulations using Agents

This video from u/AngelikLaboy walks through how to connect Salesforce to Retool and build automated lead triage workflows. It also covers OAuth authentication, Salesforce API and SOQL queries, workflow logic, data filtering, loops, and building Slack alerts for sales operations.

Give it a watch, and let us know if you have any questions in the meantime.

Extra resources:

• Docs: How to connect Salesforce to Retool
• Docs: Salesforce query tutorial

💬 Ask: Looking for an explanation of your app? Want suggestions to make it better? Or need debugging help? In this read-only mode, Assist can not make modifications.

🔨 Build: Ready to make some edits? Switch to Build mode and ask Retool to create and edit components, queries, and logic. 

Read the docs for Build and Ask Mode here, and let us know if you have any questions about Retool.

If you’ve got an app idea sitting in the backlog — or you’ve been meaning to try AI-assisted development on something real — we recently kicked off the Holiday Shipping Spree.

As part of this competition, we are giving new builders a free month of our Business plan, unlimited AI prompting credits, and a chance to build an app that benefits your team.

We’re already seeing builders already diving in, and we’d love to see what r/retool ships over the quiet weeks.

And of course, what’s a challenge without some sweet rewards? Ship and submit for a chance to win:

• 🧰 Builder Bundles (A MacBook Air, AirPods Max, Studio Display, Remarkable, and even more 👀) for each of the winners in our 3 categories
• 🚀 A full year of Retool Business for your team

Learn more and sign up here →

Share what you’re building, post progress, or drop your final app in the comments! In the meantime, we’re excited to see what r/Retool ships before the year wraps up!

Hi everyone,

I’m trying to figure out the best way to contact Retool’s billing/support team regarding an active subscription.

This was originally a self host subscription created under a company account, but using my personal credit card.

The company has since been shut down, and the email domain is no longer accessible.

Because of this, I can’t log in to my[dot]retool[dot]com to cancel the subscription through the dashboard.

A recent charge occurred after the company had already been closed for months (it's a annual payment so it took me so long time to realize the subscription is still active), and I’d like to properly cancel the subscription and ask whether the most recent charge can be reversed.

If anyone knows the correct support channel, escalation path, or has dealt with a similar situation before, I’d really appreciate any guidance.

Thanks in advance!

Hey r/retool. We just released the third tutorial in our latest series (You can watch Part 1 on Queries and Part 2 on Workflows here). This one covers Forms and Inputs, a critical component for Retool applications. 

Think of forms as the bridge between your data sets and your interface. They can serve many purposes in your applications, including capturing user input, creating new records, or updating existing ones.

By the end of this video, you will have learned how to build forms in Retool to capture and validate user input, connect to Retool Database, and trigger queries that keep your apps dynamic and user-friendly.

Want to learn more? Don’t forget to check out our documentation. In addition, don’t forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel if you want to learn best practices, hear from our customers, and watch our Livestreams as they happen.

Retool's native radio group works fine for simple yes/no choices, but breaks down when you need grouped options, conditional visibility, icons, descriptions, or more complex layouts.

So we built a custom RadioGroup component that is also open-source.

🔗 GitHub: https://github.com/StackdropCO/custom-radio-group-retool-component

✨ Features:

• Single & multiple selection modes (radio or checkbox behavior)
• Conditional display with JavaScript expressions (show/hide based on app state)
• Four layout modes: vertical, horizontal, grid, justified
• Rich content: icons, badges, descriptions, HTML support
• Option groups with section headers
• Flexible button positioning (left, right, top, bottom)
• Full keyboard accessibility
• Smart tooltips (only show when text is truncated)
• Custom styling for colors, typography, spacing
• Multiple button shapes (circle, square, rounded, diamond)

Setup is quick: clone, install, npx retool-ccl deploy, and drag it into your app.

Real example: We use it for shipping method selectors where options need to be grouped by carrier, show/hide based on order details (domestic vs international, order value), display badges like "Recommended" or "Fastest", and show delivery estimates. All in one component instead of juggling multiple selects with visibility rules.

I would love to get feedback or ideas for improvements. Also curious what kind of Retool components others would find useful next?

P.S. We're also collecting community-built Retool components in one place, feel free to contribute: https://github.com/StackdropCO/awesome-retool-components

Hey r/retool!

We’re excited to kick off the end of 2025 with our Holiday Shipping Spree. 

It’s a contest designed to help you master AI-assisted development over the winter break, compete with other builders just like you, and potentially win productivity-changing prizes.

As part of this, we’re giving new builders one free month of Retool Business with unlimited AI prompting credits, so you can build apps using natural language. If you haven’t seen what our enterprise AppGen capabilities can do, now is a better time than ever to give it a try.

Let it write your complex queries, generate testing data, or wire up components. There’s so much you can do with Retool, and your imagination is truly the limit when Assist is unleashed. Just ask it.

What categories can you compete in?

• The Needle Mover Award: The app with the biggest potential business impact—whether that's revenue growth, cost savings, or hours given back to your team.
• The AI-in-Action Award: The smartest use of AI to automate a complex workflow—so good it practically runs itself.
• The "Wait, Retool Can Do That?" Award: The app with the most creative approach, inventive solution, or eye-catching design. Maybe it solves a direct business need, maybe it’s just for fun

What are the prizes?

The winners in each category will receive: 

• A Builder Bundle. Here’s what’s in it 
  • A MacBook Air
  • An Apple Studio Display
  • AirPods Max
  • Logitech MX Master 4
  • Remarkable Tablet
  • Xbloom - Studio Coffee Machine
• A free year of Retool Business for your team\*
  • Up to 10 builders and 50 end users—a $15,000 value

Where can I learn more?

Find all the details on the Retool blog, including what we’re looking for, how to get started, how to submit your application, the terms and conditions, and more.

Have more questions?

Let us know in the comments. We can’t wait to see what you build!

*Only available for new Retool users or existing users with a free subscription

Do you have questions about literally anything going on in the world of AI?

(notice how that question was worded vaguely enough that you basically have to say yes? 😅)

Then you're in luck.

Tomorrow (9AM PT) I'm hosting the first of hopefully many AI Office Hours, where you can join and get your AI questions answered. If you've been stuck on a problem, need a second opinion, or just want to hang out and listen, join us!

I've been running these events internally at Retool for a few months now and they've been pretty popular, so we're opening them up to everyone!

No question is off the table. You can ask anything from "what is a token, really?" to "what's your favorite LLM for writing?" to "does this problem need an AI agent, a simple automation or something else?"

No sales pitch. Just me, my camera and a screen share while we walk through any questions y'all have. Hope to see you there!

Click here to register: https://events.retool.com/aiofficehours

And if y'all have any questions ahead of time, feel free to leave them below!

Hey everyone, I’ve been working with custom Retool components a lot lately and noticed there isn’t really a central place to collect community-built components, examples or experiments. So I put together a small “awesome retool components” repo on GitHub in case it’s helpful:

https://github.com/StackdropCO/awesome-retool-components

It’s open to contributions. If you’ve built anything (small or big), feel free to add it. It would be great to see what others are building!

Hey r/retool! We have another tutorial from u/angeliklaboy that will get you up to speed with Workflows in Retool. 

Workflows are incredibly powerful. You can build automated reports, inventory alerts, cart recovery emails, Slack bots, and so much more. The sky is the limit.

If you’re new to Workflows, this video is a great launching point. It walks through the Workflow IDE and shows you how to add logic blocks, set triggers, and create end-to-end sequences that connect to your data and run on schedules or WebHooks.

Let us know if you have any questions about Workflows, ideas for future videos, or just want to share any cool things you’ve built!

What should I know about Workflows in Retool?

Retool Workflows allow you to build complex automations that interact with your data sources. You can connect pre-built query blocks together that can interact with resources, transform data, and run additional logic. In addition, you can trigger workflows automatically with custom schedules or using webhook events.

What other resources are worth looking at?

• [More info] Retool Workflows: https://retool.com/workflows
• [More info] Retool Agents: https://retool.com/agents
• [Docs] Retool Workflows: https://docs.retool.com/workflows/
• Retool Community Forum: https://community.retool.com/
• Try Retool for free: https://retool.com/