Most Softr alternatives build the same thing Softr does, a web portal, so choose on how your users get to it.
Here is the short version. Most Softr alternatives are the same shape as Softr: a logged-in web app sitting on a database. Softr builds portals and internal tools, and its own help doc for the mobile feature says the phone version is a Progressive Web App that users add to their home screen from a browser. That doc also says a Softr PWA still needs internet access, so it is not available offline. Glide and Noloco document the same approach on their own sites. If you are leaving Softr because you want something people download from a store, swapping portal tools will not get you there. That split is what we built our best no-code mobile app builder guide around.
So the answer depends on one thing. If you need a client portal on Airtable or a spreadsheet, stay on the web and trial Glide, Noloco and Airtable's own Interface Designer, which Airtable says is available to all its users. If you need a store listing, you are shopping in a different category, and Adalo and Newly are in that one. Every figure below came from the vendor's own pricing or documentation page, opened on 1 October 2026. Where a vendor does not publish something, this page says so rather than filling the gap.
Jump to the four alternativesThe short version
The question is not which tool is better, it is which shape you are buying.
Softr's pricing page counts two things: builders, meaning people who can open Softr Studio, and app users, meaning people who log in to what you built. That is the giveaway. These products are priced for a known audience behind a login, not for a public download. Glide prices on team members and published apps, Noloco on team seats and active clients, Airtable per seat. A consumer app has no seat count, which is why nothing in this category is sold that way.
The case for staying in the category is strong and worth saying plainly. A web portal needs no app review, no release build and no version your users have to update. Glide's own documentation makes a version of that argument for its product, saying its apps are much easier to share and update than regular App or Play Store apps. The same logic covers Softr. If what you have is twenty screens of your own data behind a login, a store listing adds work and takes away your ability to ship a fix in a minute.
What Softr actually builds, in Softr's own words
Softr's homepage describes the product as secure portals and internal tools, with a database, workflow automation and granular permissions built in. It connects to Airtable, Google Sheets, Notion, HubSpot, monday.com, Supabase and more, and it now ships Softr Databases of its own, which it positions as a replacement for Airtable and Google Sheets. The pricing page lists Free, Basic at $19 a month, Pro at $99 and Business at $329 on monthly billing, with two months off if you pay yearly, and a custom Enterprise tier. The free plan allows up to 3 builders, 5 app users and 5,000 database records.
The mobile part is where people get the wrong idea. Softr's help doc, titled How to Create a Mobile App from a Softr App, says the feature is a PWA, that users install it by adding it to their home screen, and that they will still need internet access, so the app is not available offline. The doc lists the browser and operating system pairs it supports, including iOS with Safari and Android with Chrome. One thing to check before you pay: the pricing page lists the installable mobile app (PWA) under the Business plan at $329 a month, while the help doc says it is available on the Professional plan and above. The two Softr pages do not agree today.
So the first fork has nothing to do with features. It is about how people arrive. If your users are clients, contractors or staff who open a link and sign in, Softr's shape is right and your alternatives are other portal builders. If your users are strangers who search a store, no portal tool in this comparison produces the thing you are picturing, and reading more feature lists will not change that.
Softr help docs, How to Create a Mobile App from a Softr App
Four alternatives, and the reader each one is for
Glide is the closest like-for-like swap. Its pricing page lists Free, Basic at $25 a month, Plus at $50, Pro at $125 and a custom Enterprise plan, with included credits that scale by tier and published app limits of none on Free, two on Basic, five on Plus and unlimited on Pro. Glide's own documentation is blunt about what you get: Glide apps live on the web, you share them with a link, and installing on a phone means adding the app to the home screen. Pick Glide if you want the same shape with a different editor, more credits or a spreadsheet-first start. If it is on your list for other reasons too, we looked at its own rivals in glide alternatives.
Noloco goes after the same job with an agency flavour and calls itself an AI portal builder for complex operations. Its pricing page lists Free, a Build plan at $79 a month billed monthly or $65 a month billed yearly, and a custom Enterprise tier, with a 14-day free trial on every plan. Build includes 10 team seats, then $6 for each extra activated seat on monthly billing, 1,000 active clients and 25,000 records, then $25 for each additional 25,000. Its own mobile page says the app becomes a Progressive Web App, the same route Softr takes. Pick Noloco when the number of client logins is what breaks your Softr bill.
Airtable Interfaces deserves a look before you buy any front end at all, if your data is already in Airtable. Airtable's Interface Designer page says the feature is available for all Airtable users and builds custom interfaces from your existing bases with drag-and-drop elements. Airtable's plans are per seat: Free, Team at $20 per user per month billed annually, Business at $45 per user per month billed annually, and a custom Enterprise Scale tier. The catch is external people. Airtable's Portals page says guest access needs the Portals add-on, and Airtable does not publish the add-on price on its pricing page. That unpublished number is often the reason a separate portal tool wins.
Adalo is the one here that leaves the web. Its App Store Publishing page says you build once and publish to the Apple App Store, Google Play and web from a single project, and describes the output as real native iOS IPA and Android AAB builds rather than web wrappers. Its pricing page shows Free, Starter at $36 a month, Professional at $52 and Team at $160, all quoted billed annually, with a toggle noting that monthly billing costs 20 percent more. The free plan gives 500 records per app, one editor and a hosted Postgres database. Pick Adalo when a store listing is the requirement and a drag-and-drop canvas suits how you work.
Three questions
Which shape are you buying
The answer is decided by how people reach the app, not by the feature list.
How do people get to it?
Where does the data live today?
Does it have to work with no connection?
Airtable Interfaces, then Glide or Noloco
Airtable says Interface Designer is available for all Airtable users, so the free try is already in your account. Guest access needs the paid Portals add-on, and that is where a dedicated portal tool starts to pay.
If it has to be in the App Store, you are shopping in a different category
Portal builders and app builders are not really competitors, and the clearest statement of why comes from Glide. Its publishing documentation says Glide apps live on the web, which makes them much easier to share and update than regular App or Play Store apps. That is a real advantage, not a hedge. No review queue, no release build, no users stuck on last month's version. It is also precisely what you give up the day you need a listing.
A store listing means an account with Apple and with Google, and a review step before anything reaches the public. We have not reprinted the fees on this page. The only figures we found today sat on a builder's marketing page rather than on Apple's or Google's own, and store fees change. Look them up at the source before you budget for them.
Newly sits on the other side of that line. You describe the app in plain English and it writes a real React Native and TypeScript project you own, runs it on cloud iOS and Android simulators while it builds, then uploads to App Store Connect and TestFlight and publishes to Google Play internal testing, with a standalone production APK as well. It does not press submit for review; you do that yourself. New apps start local-first, keeping their data on the phone with no accounts and no server, and the agent adds Newly Backend only when the app needs sign-in, shared data, syncing or payments. It is $25 a month and there is no free plan.
Here is when not to pick it. If your app is forty clients looking at their own invoices, a React Native project is more machinery than the job needs, and Softr or Noloco will be live sooner and cost less. The same goes for an internal tool that nobody outside the company will ever open. That trade-off runs through best app builder for small business as well, and it points the same way.
What the swap really costs, and the data question under it
Compare the units, not the headline price. Softr charges per builder and per app user, and splits app users into team users who share a builder's email domain and client users who do not. Glide charges on credits, team members and published apps. Noloco charges on team seats, active clients and records. Adalo charges on published apps and editors. Airtable charges per seat, with a separate add-on for guests. Which one is cheapest depends entirely on which of those you are heavy on, so put your own counts into each pricing page before you decide anything.
The migration cost is usually the data, not the screens. If your records live in Airtable or Google Sheets, every tool on this page connects to them, so moving means rebuilding pages, permissions and workflows rather than moving anything. For a small portal that is a weekend. If your records have moved into Softr Databases, check the export route first, because that is the part that turns a weekend into a month.
One more note for anyone who got here from a spreadsheet. A lot of these projects begin as one messy sheet that four people edit at once, and the right first step is often not a portal at all. We wrote up what carries over, what breaks and what to clean up first when starting from a spreadsheet.
What each tool ships, taken from its own pages
| Tool | What it builds, per its own pages | How it reaches a phone | Entry paid plan, from its pricing page | Where the data sits |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Softr | Portals and internal tools with a built-in database | Browser link, or add to home screen as a PWA | $19 a month, Basic, billed monthly | Softr Databases, Airtable, Sheets, Notion and more |
| Glide | Apps for desktop and mobile on GlideOS | Browser link, or add to home screen | $25 a month, Basic | Google Sheets, Excel, Airtable and other connected sources |
| Noloco | An AI portal builder for complex operations | Browser link, installed as a PWA | $79 a month, Build, billed monthly | Noloco Tables, Airtable, Sheets, Postgres, Supabase and more |
| Adalo | Native iOS IPA and Android AAB builds from one project | Apple App Store and Google Play | $36 a month, Starter, billed annually | Adalo's hosted Postgres database |
| Newly | A React Native and TypeScript project you own | TestFlight, Google Play internal testing, standalone APK | One paid plan, no free tier | On the phone first, Newly Backend when needed |
If the answer turns out to be a real app
Work out the smallest thing that genuinely has to live on a phone instead of in a browser tab. Offline access, the camera, a sensor, or simply an icon people can find by searching a store. If none of that is on your list, stop reading comparisons and go build the portal, because you could be finished this week and the reversal is cheap.
If it is on your list, Newly is the route we build. Describe the app, watch it run on cloud iOS and Android simulators while the agent writes it, then ship it to TestFlight and to Google Play internal testing. The code is yours either way: a ZIP from project Settings, two-way GitHub sync under Deploy, or the newly CLI. Apps start local-first and stay that way until they really need accounts or shared data, which keeps the first version small.
Questions people ask when they start looking past Softr
It depends on what you are replacing. For the same job, a logged-in portal on your data, Glide and Noloco are the closest matches, and Airtable Interface Designer is worth trying first if your data already sits in Airtable, because Airtable says it is available for all Airtable users. If you actually want an app people download, Adalo and Newly are in a different category and both produce store builds.
Decide the shape first, then build the thing
Write one sentence about how your first ten users will open this. If the answer is a link you send them, pick a portal tool from the table and start today. If the answer is a store search, describe the app in plain English and get a project you own.
Start building