Updated Jan 26, 2023

UI Bakery
vs. Appsmith

vs.

Comparing two low-code development platforms in detail.

If you've landed on this page, it's likely that you're in the process of researching the distinctions between UI Bakery and Appsmith. Understanding the nuances of two low-code development platforms can be a complex undertaking, particularly for those new to the field. To assist you in this task, we've put together a thorough comparison of these platforms that we believe to be among the most comprehensive available online. While we've made every effort to present an unbiased analysis, if you notice any inaccuracies, please don't hesitate to bring them to our attention.

Try UI Bakery

UI library and component design

Both tools have the necessary set of components for creating internal applications. Currently, UI Bakery has a wider range of components and UI options, as well as a custom component that allows users to add any widget to the application.

UI Bakery

Component library

UI Bakery offers a wider library of components for building applications.

Appsmith
UI Bakery
Appsmith
  • UI Bakery

    57 components available.

  • There is a feature that allows for convenient searching of components and grouping them by meaning.

  • Adding of component can be by two ways: by clicking and by drag-n-dropping on a working area.

  • Custom component available.

  • Appsmith

    45 components.

  • Adding of component can be only by drag-n-dropping on a working area.

  • Custom component not available.

UI Bakery

UI component design

It goes without saying that design is always a matter of personal taste, and both applications feature as sleek and attractive design for their elements. But in this case design is like a game of chess, both sides have their pieces but some moves are more elegant and strategic than others. And we like to think of our design as the grandmaster of the game 😉

Appsmith
UI Bakery
Appsmith

UI building experience

Both tools employ the same method for creating interfaces - utilizing drag-and-drop functionality to compose components within a column-based layout system.

UI Bakery

Working area and canvas

Appsmith boasts a more fine-tuned control over dimensions due to its more frequent layout.

Appsmith
UI Bakery
Appsmith
  • UI Bakery

    UI Bakery uses 24-column layout

  • Appsmith

    Appsmith uses 64-column layout.

UI Bakery

Adding a component to a card

UI Bakery offers a more intelligent working area experience when adding components.

Appsmith
UI Bakery
Appsmith
  • UI Bakery

    If the component is too large to fit in the card, it will shift the other components and cause a scrollbar to appear.

  • Appsmith

    This point comes with challenges. To add a component to the card, you must first resize it to fit properly because the system is not flexible.

UI Bakery

Templates

Both applications provide users with templates that can be utilized to quickly start working within the application from scratch.

Appsmith
UI Bakery
Appsmith
  • UI Bakery

    UI Bakery provides 20+ templates.

  • Appsmith

    Appsmith provides 20+ templates.

Datasources

For low-code tools, the number of integrations that can be connected to them is crucial. Both applications provides at least minimum of most popular datasources and integrations.

UI Bakery

Number of datasources and integrations

UI Bakery has not as many native data source connections, though the tool has all most commonly used. 

Appsmith
UI Bakery
Appsmith
  • UI Bakery

    12 - databases
    6 - third-party services and APIs

  • Appsmith

    10 - databases
    9 - third-party services and APIs

Developer experience (Actions & logic)

The tools has similar development experience, but UI Bakery’s one is better in several aspects with are related to debugging apps and building more advanced multi-step logic. Besides, UI Bakery allows adding CRON jobs and creating webhooks through Automations features, which allows creating simple ETL workflows, alerting, etc.

UI Bakery

Development flow

In general, the tools are similar to each other, the principle of the interface is the same.
‍
- Connect your data source.
- Build an app using ready-made components.
- Use actions (or queries) to feed data from data sources to components and create logic inside app.
- Publish your app and invite users.

For flexibility, you can dive in and write JavaScript to extend the functionality of your apps and make them more customized.

Appsmith
UI Bakery
Appsmith
UI Bakery

Action steps variety

UI Bakery offers a wider selection of action steps and data handling options compared to Appsmith, and also boasts a more thoughtfully designed and user-friendly interface for working with actions, catering to a broader range of user needs.

Appsmith
UI Bakery
Appsmith
  • UI Bakery

    Multiple action steps within a single action.

  • Action folders.

  • Action scope: global and page-specific.

  • Auto-triggers for actions.

  • Logs available.

  • Performance information.

  • Scheduling back-end jobs and creating webhooks using automations.

  • BUT: Action type list might be a little bit confusing because of the large number of actions.

  • Appsmith

    Auto-triggers for actions.

  • Logs available.

  • BUT: There is no Multiple action steps, no system in the actions, all in one list, and NO Performance information.

UI Bakery

Scheduled CRON jobs and webhooks

UI Bakery allows for the creation of server-side workflow automations, utilizing one or multiple data sources such as SQL databases and HTTP APIs. These automations can be activated through webhook triggers and scheduled jobs akin to cron.

Appsmith
UI Bakery
Appsmith
  • UI Bakery

    Through Automations feature.

  • Appsmith

    Appsmith doesn't have Automations feature.

UI Bakery

Environments

UI Bakery provides more flexible ways to manage app environments.

Appsmith
UI Bakery
Appsmith
  • UI Bakery

    UI Bakery has embedded environments feature which could provide a way to maintain different app versions on a single UI Bakery instance.

  • UI Bakery allows to have multiple isolated environments by installing multiple self-hosted instances.

  • Appsmith

    Appsmith allows using multiple environments ONLY by installing multiple self-hosted instances.

UI Bakery

Performance

UI Bakery provides information about performance of published apps.

Appsmith
UI Bakery
Appsmith
  • UI Bakery

    Great performance of the builder and published apps.

  • Appsmith

    NO performance information.

UI Bakery

Custom Libraries

UI Bakery offers the capability to connect custom libraries.

Appsmith
UI Bakery
Appsmith
  • UI Bakery

    There are several embedded libraries.
    Custom libraries could be added through the App settings.

  • Appsmith

    Only embedded libraries.

Workspace management and users

Currently, UI Bakery's user management is better organized and has more advanced features than Appsmith.

UI Bakery

Roles management

Currently, UI Bakery boasts a more advanced level of roles management.

Appsmith
UI Bakery
Appsmith
  • UI Bakery

    UI Bakery has 3 standard pre-defined roles (admin, ediot, user) and also you can create additional roles with granular access to datasources and applications. Custom roles are available from Team plan.

  • Appsmith

    Appsmith has 3 standard pre-defined roles (administrator, developer, app user), they still doesn’t have granular access.

UI Bakery

Audit logs

UI Bakery offers Audit logs for more admin control.

Appsmith
UI Bakery
Appsmith
  • UI Bakery

    Audit logs are available.

  • Appsmith

    NO Audit logs.

UI Bakery

Integrations with external analytics and logging solutions

UI Bakery provides integration with different external analytical tools.

Appsmith
UI Bakery
Appsmith
  • UI Bakery

    Can be integrated with Datadog, Google Analytics 4, etc.

  • Appsmith

    NO external analytics solutions.

On-premises experience

Both tools could be installed within customer's own infrastructure. The on-prem versions are being shipped as a set of docker containers.

UI Bakery

Installation

Both apps have self-hosted versions, providing users with the option to host and manage the tools on their own servers for added security and control.

Appsmith
UI Bakery
Appsmith
  • UI Bakery

    You can try self-hosted version by copying and executing CURL to obtain a 14-days license key.
    UI Bakery is shipped as set of docker containers that can be deployed using, for instance, docker-compose, Kubernetes, etc.

  • Appsmith

    Community edition install instructions are available in documentation.In order to install and try business edition, you need to contact sales.

Releases & version control

Both apps have git version control. UI Bakery has additional snapshot history feature which could be used when Git is too much.

UI Bakery

Git version control

Both tools offer integration with Git control, allowing for streamlined version management and collaboration within teams.

Appsmith
UI Bakery
Appsmith
  • UI Bakery

    By connecting a Git repository it is possible the apps to be developed by multiple users in parallel. The changes could be then pushed to Git repo, and it is possible to do code review before merging changes to the main branch which is protected by default.

  • Appsmith

    Appsmith provides similar experience with Git version control.

UI Bakery

Integrated version control option without Git

UI Bakery allows to use a more simple version control when Git is too much.

Appsmith
UI Bakery
Appsmith
  • UI Bakery

    The feature is available.

  • Appsmith

    The feature is not available.

Onboarding process and studying materials

Appsmith as UI Bakery have detailed documentation with examples that help users to understand how to use the tools effectively and efficiently.

UI Bakery

Onboarding

Both tools provide onboarding process, yet each does so in a distinct manner. Appsmith offers a step-by-step guide while UI Bakery features a well-structured flow of screens, which guides the user through the familiarization process.

Appsmith
UI Bakery
Appsmith
  • UI Bakery

    UI Bakery doesn’t have typical onboarding flow. But the screens and the process for a user's first login to the application are designed in such a way that the user is smoothly introduced to the application and familiarized with it easily and without discomfort.

  • Appsmith

    Appsmith has a 9-step onboarding process in which it constructs a basic table and form or user can read a note with 3 main steps how to start the creation process.

UI Bakery

Studying materials

Both tools offer educational resources for learning how to use the applications, but UI Bakery takes a more personalized approach to customer support, while Appsmith places a greater emphasis on community involvement and user self-sufficiency.

Appsmith
UI Bakery
Appsmith
  • UI Bakery

    Great customers support and documentations.

  • Has videos on youtube.

  • Enterprise customers get access to a shared Slack channel when they are getting engineering help in realtime.

  • Appsmith

    Good documentation.

  • Has discord and community.

  • Tutorials in blog and videos on Yotube.

Security

Both tools offer similar level of security measures they take to ensure that customer's data source credentials do not get exposed.

UI Bakery

Security and compliance

Both tools provide data source credential encryption which is the most important for this type of platforms.

Appsmith
UI Bakery
Appsmith
  • UI Bakery

    UI Bakery has multiple strategies to ensure security including encryption of data source credentials. Full list of them could be read here: https://docs.uibakery.io/security

  • Appsmith

    Appsmith safely encrypts all your database credentials and stores them securely.

Open-source

Appsmith community is open-source, which means that you can potentially extend the system and make your own bug fixes on your own.

However, there is no guarantee that any changes made will be accepted by the core team. Furthermore, the community has the potential to discover security vulnerabilities, but once these vulnerabilities become known, they become known to everyone.

UI Bakery

Open-source

Appsmith appears to be a strong contender in this category. However, it should be noted that their business version is not open-source. Additionally, if you are looking for a low-code solution, this typically means that you do not wish to work on extending the platform.

Appsmith
UI Bakery
Appsmith

Pricing

Both of the products offer free plans with limited features and paid plans with advanced features. Appsmith’s paid plan with advanced features is available only for self-hosted version of the product.

Appsmith’s pricing model works better for startups and small businesses.

UI Bakery pricing model might be a better choice for mid-sized+ businesses. On the one hand, they already have large amounts of users, and on the other hand, they need a predictable pricing. Since Appsmith charges per number of hours end users work in their apps, the pricing may vary and may get out of control. UI Bakery has the ability to add unlimited end-users without the need of worrying about how many time they spend within the platform.

UI Bakery

Self-hosted

Both tools offer a competitive pricing models. While the Appsmith could be cheaper initially, it can become more expensive and less predictable once you start adding more users.

Appsmith
UI Bakery
Appsmith
  • UI Bakery

    Self-hosted version is only available as a part of Enterprise subscription and its price is flexible and depends on a customer use case and needs.But even the basic self-hosted subscription comes with the ability to add unlimited number of end-users. The price is not affected by the time those users spent in the app, or the number of operations they perform.
    ‍
    To calculate the pricing for a particular use case, you need to schedule a call with UI Bakery tech expert.

  • Appsmith

    There is a community self-hosted version with limited features which is free.
    ‍
    The paid version depends on how much users spend in the end-user mode of the apps built within the platform. It is priced as $0.40/per each user/per hour which is capped at $20/per each user/per month

UI Bakery

Cloud

The cloud version of Appsmith is completely free, however, the most of platform’s features can be only found in the self-hosted version.

Appsmith
UI Bakery
Appsmith
  • UI Bakery

    Free version - with basic features.
    Paid versions - with more sophisticated fearures.
    Their pricing varies from $49/month to $249/month.

  • Appsmith

    Free version with the basic features is the only available option

UI library and component d...Component libraryUI component designUI building experienceWorking area and canvasAdding a component to a card...Development modeTemplatesDatasourcesDeveloper experienceDevelopment flowAction steps varietyScheduled CRON jobs and we...EnvironmentsPerformanceCustom LibrariesWorkspace management a...Roles managementAudit logsIntegrations with external and...On-premises experienceReleases & version controlGit version controlIntegrated version control opti...Onboarding process and st...OnboardingStudying materialsSecurity and complianceOpen sourcePricingSelf-hostedCloud
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