Retool replaced a pain point (devs don’t want to code internal apps) that is now being brought back with a solution like this.

For example, complicated business logic form validation that requires calls to the database or external api.

We tried it. Retool ended being much more complicated and restrictive than our Next.js internal tool app. We went back.

I even remember reading on the official retool documentation website saying you should probably not use it if your internal tool is fairly complex. It was honest.

With Retool, I tried building a form where if I change one input, the other input needs to conditionally change. I struggled a little with figuring this out, more than I should have. I also find it unwieldy to do any complex state management with a low-code builder (as in the case above), so it was a no-no for me.

At the same time, I understand that this feels like "writing code all over again".

The reason we don't believe so is because there's a hidden cost (cognitive effort) associated with picking the right component library, the right framework, etc.

Eventually, you won't be writing too much code either way for CRUD because of AI.

Let's say you want to edit some of the styling. Instead of writing some TailwindCSS, you will just ask our AI to say "move this graph to the right of the table" and it will just do it. We're opinionated to the point of having our own CSS rule engine, to make sure that the padding is always the same when adding new elements on to the screen, so the goal is for you to not write code as far as possible.

Have a look at https://v0.dev, it paints a good picture of what we're trying to do with this.