Budibase

Budibase is the low-code platform for people who hate low-code platforms. It ships with a built-in database, so you can prototype a CRUD app in minutes without connecting external data sources first. That's its killer feature for fast internal tools.

Appsmith is the developer-focused alternative — more flexible, more code-oriented, fully open source. Retool is the commercial king with the most polish but costs $10-50/user/month. For simple forms and workflows, NocoDB or Baserow might be all you need.

Use Budibase if you're a solo founder or small IT team building admin panels, dashboards, or approval workflows. The drag-and-drop builder actually works without fighting it.

The catch: the license is "Other" (AGPL-like with commercial restrictions), not pure open source. The built-in database is great for prototypes but you'll outgrow it quickly. And at $5-15/user/month for the cloud tier, costs add up once your team grows. Self-host to keep it free.