DISCLAIMER: This page is for information only. It is not legal, financial or procurement advice and does not replace your own due diligence. Licenses, ownership, features and certifications can change: confirm what your decision rests on with the official sources.
🩺 Vitals
- 🟢 Last active: 2026-11-04
- 📦 Latest release: v3.20.253-lts (2026-11-03)
- 🐞 Open issues: 924
- 🌟 Stars: 41.2k
What do these metrics mean?
- Last active: when code was last pushed, as of our last check. The dot is green when that was recent, grey otherwise. A long gap can mean a tool is finished and stable, not only unmaintained.
- Latest release: the most recent stable version the maintainers published as a release on the forge. Some healthy projects publish only tags, or publish their versions elsewhere.
- Open issues: unresolved reports and requests. A high number is normal for a popular project and is not a warning on its own.
- Stars: how many people bookmarked the project on its forge. A rough popularity signal, not a measure of quality.
🏗️ Profile
- Official: tooljet.com
- Source: github.com/ToolJet/ToolJet
- License: AGPL-3.0-only (core; paid edition under its own terms)
- Deployment: Docker Container | Kubernetes (K8s)
- Jurisdiction: United States 🇺🇸 (ToolJet Solutions, Inc.)
- Compliance (SaaS): ToolJet Cloud security and compliance page
- Compliance (Self-Hosted): Self-Hosted (User Managed)
- Complexity: Moderate (3/5) - The app container also runs Redis, which the free build requires, beside PostgreSQL and a PostgREST service for ToolJet's built-in database
- Maintenance: Moderate (3/5) - Database migrations run at every start; backups cover two databases, the application's and its built-in database's, and each long-term release gets fixes for at least 18 months
- User Management: Low (2/5) - Multi-user sign-in with three fixed workspace roles; custom groups, SSO and audit logs come only in the paid tiers, and TLS is left to your proxy
What the scores mean: Reading the Scores
1. The Executive Summary
What is it? ToolJet is a low-code platform for building internal tools: admin panels, dashboards and operational apps that run on a team's existing databases, APIs and SaaS systems. It serves engineering and operations teams who build back-office apps for their own staff. The paid edition adds AI app generation from prompts, workflows on a schedule or webhook, separate development, staging and production environments with Git sync, white-labelling, and embedding apps in other portals.
The Strategic Verdict:
- 🔴 For teams that need single sign-on or an audit trail: Caution. The free build has neither, and its setup sends the first administrator's name and email to the vendor with no setting to stop it (User Management, The Compliance Shift).
- 🟢 For teams building internal tools on their own infrastructure: Strong Buy. Apps run on your servers against your existing databases and APIs, under a network copyleft license with no license fee for the core (License Risk, Cost of Ownership).
2. Cost of Ownership
| Cost Component | ToolJet (Self-Hosted) |
|---|---|
| Pricing Model | No license fee for the core; paid edition for some features |
| Adoption | Manual migration (rebuild Retool apps, queries and event handlers) |
| Operations | Single VM, several services (app, PostgreSQL, Redis); plus your team's time to run it (Maintenance, in the Profile) |
| Support | From the vendor: ToolJet Cloud, a managed service, and paid support for self-hosted installs (enterprise support); elsewhere, a paid service provider |
| Exit | App export (JSON, every version); leaves out the rows of ToolJet's built-in database (schemas only) |
What each row covers: Total Cost of Ownership
3. Risk Assessment
- Jurisdiction: ToolJet Solutions, Inc., the project's vendor, is registered in the United States, under US law. The vendor runs ToolJet Cloud, a hosted service where your data can live, and does not disclose who hosts it. Data in ToolJet Cloud is within reach of the US CLOUD Act wherever it is stored, since its operator is based in the US. A self-hosted install sends usage data to the vendor unless the operator switches it off. US law can compel the recipient to hand over that usage data.
- The Compliance Shift: At setup the server sends the first administrator's name, email and workspace name to the vendor, and no setting stops it. Self-hosting moves the security and compliance duties of running the software to the operator (the operator's compliance checklist). Any audit of ToolJet Cloud (such as SOC 2 or ISO 27001) covers the vendor's own systems, never your install.
- License Risk: ToolJet is under AGPL-3.0-only, an OSI-approved network copyleft license (what it allows and requires). The project moved to these terms from GPL-3.0-only in 2021. The vendor holds the rights to relicense contributed code through a contributor agreement, so future versions can move to other terms without contributors' consent.
4. Market Landscape
🏢 Proprietary Incumbents
- Retool: Retool is a builder for internal apps connected to a company's own data.
Data held by: Retool Inc., United States 🇺🇸, subject to the US CLOUD Act for the data it holds, wherever it is stored. A self-managed install keeps the data with the customer.
Why teams leave: Its self-hosted install still reports licence checks and usage, with users' email addresses, to Retool.
Exit: App export as JSON or Toolscript, proprietary format, partial export (resources and their credentials) - Mendix: Mendix is a low-code platform for building enterprise applications.
Data held by: Siemens Industry Software Netherlands B.V., Netherlands 🇳🇱 (controlled by Siemens AG, Germany), under EU law and the GDPR. A self-managed install keeps the data with the customer.
Why teams leave: Run on a customer's own servers, it still keeps the apps' model files in Mendix's online services by default.
Exit: Backup download (PostgreSQL dump and files); app model as a package (.mpk), proprietary format
🤝 Open-Source Alternatives
- Appsmith: Open-source platform for building internal tools, dashboards, and automated workflows. A self-hostable 'High-Code Low-Code' alternative to Retool. SSO and audit logs require the Enterprise edition.
- Budibase: The open-source low-code platform for building secure internal tools. A self-hostable alternative to Retool and Microsoft PowerApps from an ISO 27001-certified vendor.