Softr turns Airtable, Google Sheets and its own database into client portals and internal tools without code. pylo gives you the backend and the admin UI in one system: data model, typed API, permissions, flows, forms and analytics, with unlimited users, hosted in Germany.

TL;DR

Softr is one of the fastest ways to build a client portal or an internal tool without code: you pick blocks such as lists, tables, forms and charts, connect them to Airtable, Google Sheets, a SQL database or Softr's own database, and give your users a login. The apps look good, the builder is easy to learn and an AI co-builder helps you get started. The limits sit in the layers below the app: the data often stays in a spreadsheet or Airtable base with their own limits, permissions are defined per page, block and user group in the app, and every plan caps the number of team and client users. pylo is a backend platform with the admin UI on top: your own entities and relations with a typed GraphQL API, permissions down to the record in the data layer, flows, forms and analytics, with unlimited users on every plan. If you want a polished portal on top of data you already have, Softr is a great choice. If the portal is the front of a business process that needs a real backend, pylo gives you both in one system.

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 and forms 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 and portals you build yourself.

What is Softr?

Softr is a no-code platform from Berlin for building business apps such as client portals, partner portals, internal tools and CRMs. Apps are composed from blocks, including lists, tables, kanban boards, calendars, charts, forms and detail pages, and connected to data sources such as Airtable, Google Sheets, HubSpot, SQL databases or Softr Databases, its own relational database. Users log in with email, magic links or Google, and visibility is controlled per page and block through user groups and conditional filters. Softr Workflows automate steps on triggers, an AI co-builder generates apps and databases from a prompt, and Softr hosts its own data on AWS in Germany.

At a glance

An app on top of your data versus the backend underneath

Softr is at its best as a layer on top of data you already have. Many Softr apps sit on an Airtable base or a Google Sheet, which means the app inherits their limits: records per base, API rate limits, relations that only work inside one base and data that other software reaches through yet another API. Softr Databases remove part of that, with linked records and up to 1M records per workspace on Business, but the data model is still built for the apps you compose in Softr.

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, API requests are unlimited on every plan, and the portal, your internal tools, your website and other systems all work on the same records.

Permissions that follow the data everywhere

In Softr, what a user sees is defined in the app: which user group may open a page, which blocks are visible and which conditional filters restrict a list to the logged-in user's records. That works well for one portal, but every new page and block needs the same rules again, and the data source underneath has its own permissions, so a workflow or another tool that reads the base directly is not bound by the app's filters.

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 client sees their own projects, a partner sees the orders of their region, wherever they access the data from.

Unlimited users instead of team and client seats

Softr counts users. The Free plan allows 5 app users, Basic 5 team and 5 client users, Pro up to 50 team and 250 client users and Business up to 100 team and 500 client users, with extra users and builders billed on top. A client portal that grows to a thousand customers moves to Enterprise. pylo has no user limit on any plan, so your whole team, your clients and your partners can log in with email and password, Microsoft or Google SSO, without the bill changing.

pylo flows instead of capped workflows

Softr Workflows automate steps such as sending emails, updating records or calling webhooks when something happens in an app, and each plan has a monthly execution limit, after which workflows pause. 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 for anything pylo does not ship you write a flow action in TypeScript.

Admin views, forms and your own portal

Softr's blocks and templates make good-looking portals faster than anything you would build yourself, and we won't pretend pylo's admin UI is a portal builder. 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. pylo forms are public or authenticated, with hidden fields, conditional rendering, validation rules, direct mapping to your entities including relations, several instances per form and a matching key that updates existing records. For a fully branded customer portal, you build your own frontend on the Next.js SDK with the same permissions, or let an AI coding assistant build it on the typed API.

Events and dashboards built in with pylo analytics

Softr's chart blocks show the current state of the connected data inside an app. History, for example how long a request stayed in each status, has to be tracked in the data source. Every create, update and delete in pylo emits an event with the full before and after state, 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

Softr's AI co-builder generates apps and databases from a prompt, and Softr adds AI agents to apps. 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

Softr starts cheap, and for a small portal with a few dozen users it stays affordable. The price grows with builders, team users, client users, workflow executions and records, and if the data lives in a tool like Airtable, the seats come on top.

pylo bills per workspace with unlimited users, and every plan includes 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.

Softr is a German company too. It hosts its own data on AWS in Germany, is SOC 2 Type II compliant and offers a DPA. Data in connected sources stays with those providers and follows their hosting and terms, so where your data lives depends on the source behind each app.

Where Softr is the better choice

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

• You want a polished client portal or member area in an afternoon, with ready-made blocks, templates and custom domains, and without writing a frontend.

• Your data already lives in a tool and should stay there, with Softr as the app on top.

• Your portals have a known, limited number of users that fits the plan.

If you need a good-looking app on top of existing data, Softr is excellent. pylo is for teams whose portal or internal tool is the front of a business process that needs a real backend.

Where pylo is a great Softr alternative

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

• The backend and the admin UI in one system. Data model, typed API, permissions, flows, admin views, forms, events and MCP are one product, with no spreadsheet or Airtable base underneath.

• A typed API for everything you build. GraphQL generated from your model, unlimited requests on every plan, and schema changes live immediately for your portal, website and other systems.

• Permissions in the data layer. One rule set with hierarchies and field-level access for API, admin UI, forms, flows, dashboards and MCP, instead of filters on every page and block.

• Unlimited users. Team members, clients and partners log in without seat caps or per-user add-ons.

• Automation without a monthly cap. Event, cron and webhook triggers with retries, rate limiting, typed actions and full logs, and custom actions in plain TypeScript.

• Forms built on your data model. Mapped to entities and relations, with several instances per form and a matching key that updates existing records.

• Analytics you don't have to instrument. Every change is an event with before and after state, 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.

• All data in Germany, in one place. pylo hosts every record, file and event in Germany on every plan, without a third-party data source in the US underneath. You get 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

• Is pylo a portal builder like Softr? Not in the same way. pylo's admin UI is built for teams working with data, with configurable views and permissions. For a branded customer portal you build your own frontend on the Next.js SDK or the typed GraphQL API, which an AI coding assistant can do quickly because the API is fully typed.

• Can I use Softr on top of pylo? Softr connects to sources such as SQL databases and REST APIs; check Softr's current data source options for a GraphQL or custom API connection. Many teams use pylo's admin UI internally and build the customer-facing part on the SDK.

• Can external users log in to pylo? Yes, with email and password, Microsoft or Google SSO, and users are unlimited on every plan. Record-level permissions decide what each user sees.

• Is pylo open source? 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.

• 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.