The Budibase alternative with the backend built in

TL;DR

Budibase is an open-source low-code platform for internal tools: you connect PostgreSQL, MySQL, MSSQL, MongoDB, Google Sheets or a REST API, or create tables in its built-in Budibase DB, drag screens and forms together, add automations with row, webhook, schedule and email triggers, and give users roles. It is free to self-host, and the cloud plans start cheap. Where it gets thin is underneath the screens: Budibase DB is a document store on CouchDB rather than a relational database, there is no generated API for your data model, roles work per screen rather than per record or field, and cloud plans count creators, end users and every automation action. pylo is a backend platform with the admin UI on top: entities and relations with a typed GraphQL API, permissions in the data layer, flows, forms, events and MCP, with unlimited users on every plan. If you want an open-source tool builder on databases you already run, Budibase is a strong choice. If you would otherwise have to build the database, the API and the permission layer first, pylo gives you all of it from day one.

What is pylo?

pylo is a Backend-as-a-Service platform from Germany that you can use to build the operating system for your company. You model entities, fields and relations in the admin panel or through the API, and pylo generates a typed GraphQL API immediately. The same permission model governs data, the admin UI, forms, flows, dashboards and the MCP server. With pylo flows you build automations on top of your own data model and connect the tools you already use. The admin UI, forms and document templates mean operations teams work with the data without a developer in between, and the Next.js, React, Node and Expo SDKs are there for the apps you build yourself.

What is Budibase?

Budibase is an open-source low-code platform, made in Europe and positioned for agents, workflows and internal tools. You build apps from a component library on top of data sources such as PostgreSQL, MySQL, MSSQL, Oracle, Snowflake, MongoDB, Redis, Google Sheets, REST and OpenAPI, or on Budibase DB, the built-in table store with text, number, options, date, attachment, relationship, formula, JSON and barcode columns. Automations run on row created, updated or deleted, on demand, on a webhook, on a schedule or when an email arrives, with JavaScript steps and branching. AI agents answer questions and handle requests in Slack, Discord and Microsoft Teams. Budibase can be self-hosted with Docker or Kubernetes under an open-source licence, or used on Budibase Cloud, which is hosted in Ireland.

At a glance

A relational backend instead of a document store under the screens

Budibase's strongest position is on top of a database you already run. Point it at Postgres, build screens on the tables and you have an internal tool in an afternoon. When there is no database yet, Budibase DB steps in. It is convenient, and it has relationship columns and formulas, but it is a document store on CouchDB: no custom queries, row caps per cloud plan, and the model is shaped for the screens you build in Budibase rather than for other software to use.

In pylo the data model is the product. You add an entity, a field or a relation in the admin panel and the typed GraphQL API updates at once, without migrations or redeployments. Field types include relations, enums, JSON, public or private files, rich text, dates, booleans and number and text formatters, with validation built in. Relations work across your whole workspace, you filter across them and group aggregations by any field, API requests are unlimited on every plan, and the database is built to handle millions of records. Your admin UI, your forms, your flows, your website and your other systems all work on the same records.

Permissions that follow the data everywhere

Budibase has tenant roles for admins, creators and end users, workspace roles that inherit from each other, and screen access levels. That decides who may open which screen. What a user may see inside the data is a filter you add to each table component, and a public form is built by letting a public screen call an automation so that nobody can read the table directly. Every new screen is one more place where a filter can be missing, and automations run with their own rights.

pylo puts the rules into the data layer. Tenants are separated at the row level, and inside a tenant any entity can act as the requester (ARO) and any entity as the requested object (ACO), with hierarchies and field-level rules. Every path into the data is GraphQL, so the same rules apply to the API, the admin panel, forms, flows, dashboards and MCP. A regional manager sees their region's records, a supplier sees their own orders and a field stays hidden for everyone who may not read it, wherever they access the data from.

pylo flows instead of metered automation actions

Budibase automations are a real strength: row triggers with filters, webhooks, schedules, an email listener, row actions from a table, branching, loops and JavaScript steps. On Budibase Cloud every automation node, every saved or deleted row and every agent tool call counts as an action, with hard limits of 5,000 to 250,000 per month depending on the plan, and logs are kept for one to thirty days. Changes made directly in an external database do not fire row triggers.

In pylo you build automations in a visual workflow engine called pylo flows. Any event on your data can start a flow, whether it came from the admin UI, a form, the API or another flow, and so can a cron schedule or an incoming webhook. Flows include retries, custom rate limiting, error handling and full event logs, everything is statically typed, and pylo ships integrations for email sending and a range of third-party systems. For anything else you write a flow action in TypeScript. Flow actions are one of pylo's three meters, but there is no hard stop: usage beyond the included amount is billed, not blocked.

Admin views and forms built on the same permissions

Budibase's screen builder is more flexible than pylo's admin UI, with a component library, multi-step forms and custom branding. The flip side is that every screen is something a creator builds and maintains, and when a table changes, the screens change with it. pylo's admin UI is there from the moment you create an entity. You compose list and detail views from predefined components, decide who sees what and show or hide fields depending on a record's state. The views use the same permission model as the API, so nobody sees data through a view that they could not read anyway.

pylo forms are public or authenticated web forms with hidden fields, conditional rendering, validation rules and direct mapping to your entities, including relations. One form can run as several instances with their own time window, submission limits and users, and a matching key such as an email address updates the existing record instead of creating a duplicate. For the screens your team uses all day, you build your own app on the Next.js SDK with the same permissions.

Events and dashboards built in with pylo analytics

Budibase shows charts on the current state of your data and keeps automation logs for a limited time on cloud plans. History, for example how long a request sat in each status, has to be tracked in your own tables. Every create, update and delete in pylo emits an event with the full before and after state, stored on every plan, which you can combine with external events you bring in through the API. You build dashboards on records and events together, with the same permissions as the rest of pylo.

AI and MCP with guardrails

Budibase's agents run in Slack, Discord and Teams, answer questions and handle requests such as access approvals, with AI credits per plan or your own LLM key. pylo's MCP server is ready to connect, for developers who use agentic coding and for team members who want to ask questions about their records from Claude, ChatGPT or any other client. The AI gets exactly the connected user's read permissions, nothing else. pylo never applies an AI's writes directly: they arrive as proposals that a human accepts or declines inside pylo.

Pricing

Self-hosted Budibase is free, and if you have someone to run, update and back up the servers, that is hard to beat. On Budibase Cloud the price grows with creators, end users and actions: a team of 40 people using one app on Premium is $49 plus $200 in end-user seats before any extra creator. pylo bills per workspace with unlimited users, and every plan includes hosting, the backend, flows, the admin UI, forms, analytics and personal onboarding. Plans differ only in included usage for records, flow actions and file storage.

Hosting, compliance and reliability

All pylo content data, data models and databases live in data centres in Germany. Our subprocessor list is public and names every non-EU parent company openly. A GDPR data processing agreement is part of the terms, and we never use customer data to train AI models. Paid plans come with a 99.5% availability SLA, hourly encrypted backups kept for 30 days at a separate German location, and support from the team that builds the product.

Budibase is made in Europe, holds ISO 27001 and hosts Budibase Cloud in Ireland on SOC 1, SOC 2 and ISO 27001 certified data centres. Self-hosted Budibase runs wherever you put it, which also means backups, updates and uptime are your job. Backups and restore are part of the Premium plan and above on cloud.

Where Budibase is the better choice

We would rather tell you than have you find out later:

• You want open source and the option to self-host for free, on your own servers or air-gapped.

• Your data already lives in Postgres, MySQL, MSSQL, Snowflake or Google Sheets and should stay there, with Budibase as the tool on top.

• You want a drag-and-drop screen builder with a large component library and custom branding, instead of configurable admin views.

If you need an open-source tool builder on databases you already run, Budibase is a very good choice. pylo is for teams that need the backend underneath and want everyone to use it.

Where pylo is a great Budibase alternative

We think these are the main reasons to pick pylo over Budibase:

• A relational backend, not a document store. Entities with relations, enums, files and validation, millions of records, and a typed GraphQL API generated from your model.

• Unlimited creators and users. Everyone who builds, administers or uses your tools logs in without a seat on the bill, including suppliers and customers.

• Permissions in the data layer, down to the field. One rule set with hierarchies for API, admin UI, forms, flows, dashboards and MCP, instead of filters on every screen.

• Flows without a hard stop. Event, cron and webhook triggers with retries, rate limiting, typed actions and full logs, and custom actions in plain TypeScript.

• Forms that write into your data model. Public or authenticated, mapped to entities and relations, with several instances per form and a matching key that updates existing records, no automation workaround needed.

• Admin UI from day one. List and detail views exist the moment you create an entity, with state-based field visibility and the same permissions as the API.

• Analytics you don't have to instrument. Every change is an event with before and after state, kept on every plan, and dashboards sit next to the data.

• AI access that's safe for production. MCP runs with the connected user's exact read permissions, and every write goes through human approval as a proposal.

• Hosted in Germany, run for you. No servers to update or back up: pylo hosts every record, file and event in Germany on every plan, with a 99.5% SLA from the first paid plan, hourly backups with 30-day retention and personal support from the people who build the product.

FAQs - Questions and answers about pylo

• Can I use Budibase on top of pylo? Budibase connects to REST and OpenAPI data sources, and pylo's GraphQL API can be called through a REST data source with an API key whose permissions you define in pylo. Many teams use pylo's admin UI directly instead.

• Is pylo open source like Budibase? No, but you can export all data at any time as CSV or JSON or through the API. The data models, flow definitions and generated SDK code are yours to keep, even after you leave.

• Can I self-host pylo? pylo is a hosted platform. Every plan, including the free one, runs in data centres in Germany, with backups, updates and monitoring done by us.

• Does pylo have a visual screen builder? pylo's admin UI is highly configurable: you compose list and detail views from predefined components, rules, decide on sorting or filtered views and decide who sees what. For a fully custom UI you build on the Next.js SDK or the typed GraphQL API.

• Where exactly is my data? Content data is in data centres in Germany and backups are kept at a different German location.

• Can I get access now? pylo is currently in private beta. Request access and we will set up your first entities with you on a call and onboard you personally for your first project.