Quickly building an MVP (Minimum Viable Product) can be challenging, especially when you’re aiming to deliver a polished, professional product. That’s where Retool Portal comes in.
While in the past Retool was exclusively dedicated to internal tools, there has been a big change in its structure and pricing, allowing you to build a client facing MVP as well.
Let’s break down how you can use Retool Portal to build an MVP that scales.
Retool for client facing applications?
With Retool Portal, Retool has expanded beyond internal tools, allowing you to build client-facing apps. The new scalable pricing model for external users makes it affordable to serve clients directly, and after 500 users, additional users are free—making it easier to scale as your business grows.
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What is Retool Portal?
Retool Portal is a platform that allows you to create external-facing apps using the power of Retool. This is perfect for MVPs where you want to allow customers or clients to interact with your app, gather feedback, and iterate quickly. Retool Portal handles much of the heavy lifting by offering pre-built components, easy integrations with data sources, and flexible user management.
Check out this video on how it works, directly from Retool:
Why Use Retool Portal for Your MVP?
- Fast Development: Retool comes with pre-built UI components—like tables, forms, and charts—so you don’t have to code them from scratch. You can connect these components to your existing data sources, whether it’s a database, API, or third-party service, allowing you to quickly build your app’s functionality.
- Scalability with external users: One of Retool Portal’s standout features is how it handles external users. This is important for MVPs where you want your customers or clients to interact with your app. While external users aren’t free under 500, they are priced significantly lower than developer licenses, making it more affordable to scale as your user base grows. Even better, once you surpass 500 users, additional external users are completely free, which means as your MVP gains traction, your costs won’t skyrocket.
- White Labeling: When you’re building an MVP, you want it to look professional, even if it’s still in the early stages. Retool Portal lets you white-label your app, meaning you can customize the app’s branding to match your company. You can add your logo, color schemes, and even use a custom login page, so your users will feel like they’re using a polished product from the start.
Isolating User Data with the current_user Field
If your MVP involves multiple users or clients, it’s crucial that each one can only see their own data. Retool has a built-in feature called the current_user field, which makes data isolation simple. For example, if you’re building a dashboard for different clients, each client will only see their specific information when they log in. This feature ensures data privacy without the need for complex logic or separate instances for each user.
Why Retool Portal is Perfect for MVPs
- Speed: You can build your app quickly using Retool’s drag-and-drop interface and ready-made components.
- Cost-Effective for Scaling: External users are more affordable than developer licenses, and after 500 users, they are free, allowing you to scale without worrying about high costs.
- Professional Look: With white-labeling options, you can present a polished and branded MVP right from the start.
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Data Privacy: The
current_userfield ensures that each user only sees the data they are supposed to see, enhancing security and user experience.
Retool Portal provides everything you need to create a scalable, professional MVP quickly. Ready to launch your MVP and get real feedback from your users? Let’s get started!
How much does retool charge per user?
You can learn more about how much Retool charges per user in our article here
Can I use Retool Embed for my MVP?
Yes, Retool embed is a great new feature that was released, allowing you to seamlessly integrate between your existing front-end platform and your Retool app. We will cover this in great details in a later article.
Is retool performant?
Retool has grown to be quite a performant system, learn more here
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