Blog posts & tutorials

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Discover how to improve your internal tools through our expert insights and internal tool tutorials. Our blog features UX & UI design tips, customer stories, and platform guides to help you create better internal tools for your business. Learn how to optimize your tools and increase productivity with our in-depth internal tool analysis and best practices.

Internal Tool Guides

What is Retool and what is it good for?

Retool helps developers build powerful internal tools, fast. This is a full guide to the platform, its pros and cons, and what you should and shouldn't use it for.

Internal Tool Guides

Why should you migrate from Airtable or Google Sheets to a SQL database?

Airtable and Google Sheets are great no-code options for small datasets, but they have their limitations. We discuss what the main ones are, and why a SQL database might be a better option.

Internal Tool Guides

What is Retool Database and what is it good for?

Retool database is the newest addition to the Retool development suite. Built on PostgreSQL, it's a database with the power of SQL but an interface as simple as a spreadsheet. In this post, we discuss its best use cases.

Tutorials

How to build a MongoDB admin panel in under an hour

In this tutorial, we’ll build a practical MongoDB GUI using simple drag-and-drop components and basic JavaScript, in less than an hour! This frontend is great for many use cases, including company data dashboards, customer order panels and more.

UX/UI guides

How to create great multi-page applications in Retool

Retool has just had a boost in speed and power, so switching between applications much more seamless and performant. In this article, we discuss how to make great multi-page applications with optimal performance and effective UI.

UX/UI guides

5 Great Sidebar Layouts in Retool, UX/UI tricks, and more

We love the new sidebar frame in Retool. In this article, we discuss functionality and limitations, provide a couple of different layout ideas, as well as some UI tips and tricks for using the sidebar in internal apps. 

Customer Stories

How Red Roots used Retool Mobile to create the perfect on-the-go receipt tracker 

In this study, we’ll look at how Red Roots Capital experimented with (clunky) SaaS software, before landing on a custom solution in Retool - built by Bold Tech - where they can not only track and file receipts for their accounting team, but they can do this on the go from a custom-made mobile app. ‍

Internal Tool Guides

The three best ways to build internal tools in 2023 

With the rapid growth of low-code platforms and advanced developer tools, there is a spectrum of ways to create internal apps beyond custom coding from scratch. In this article, we’ll break these options down for you, including examples of software, and the pros and cons of using each.

Internal Tool Guides

Internal tools: a worthy investment? When to start building your internal infrastructure

Internal tools are often overlooked in the development space, but great internal infrastructure can often be the key to unlock greater productivity and rapid growth. So why aren’t people investing in better internal apps?

Internal Tool Guides

Internal Tools: The Ultimate Build vs Buy Guide (2023)

Build vs Buy is a grand debate in internal tooling, where SaaS products are often brilliant, they're sometimes too generalized to fulfill all companies’ needs. We run through some of your options, how to decide when to build or buy, and the pros and cons of each option.

Internal Tool Guides

Internal tools 101: How to build for scale in 2023

Effective internal tools are essential for start-up growth in 2023, but how do you calculate ROI on your internal tool, and how do you plan and develop these tools best?

Customer Stories

‘Bilt’ on Retool: A Bold Tech Client Case Study

Over the past 18 months Bold Tech has worked with Bilt to build internal admin dashboards and tools on Retool. Using on a mixture of PostgreSQL, Redis Cache, and other APIs, here are some of their apps.

Customer Stories

50 apps in 50 days: How Blue Valet turbo-charged their migration from Chartio to Retool‍

When Chartio announced it was being deprecated in March 2022, Blue Valet & Bold Tech had a mammoth task of migrating 50 internal apps to Retool in just a matter of weeks. Here is how we did it.

Tutorials

How to create a collapsible side container in Retool for filters, extra data, charts and more!

In this tutorial, we run through a Bold Tech favorite hack: collapsible side containers. Perfect for making extra space for filters, extra data, charts, and more!

UX/UI guides

What are the best layouts for your Retool internal tools and dashboards?

In this tutorial we will walk you through some different possible CRUD layouts in Retool, what they are good and not-so-good for, and give you some of our best tips and tricks for layout best (and worst) practices.

Tutorials

Tracking & Reporting Bugs in Retool Using Asana

Looking to create a sleek, automated system for users to report query failures in Retool? Follow this tutorial to create automatic bug reports and link them to your Asana board.

Tutorials

Using Google Drive in Retool: Configuring OAuth, Viewing & Creating New Files

In this article, we walk through how to connect the Google Drive API to your Retool environment, pull your files into an application, and create new ones.

UX/UI guides

9 great ways to improve your forms in Retool - make that CRUD less… cruddy

Most Retool apps are based on some kind of CRUD interface, and we think that with form inputs, a little goes a long way in turning an unfriendly UI into an optimized, beautiful user experience. Here’s a couple of simple tips to help make this happen.

Tutorials

Retool Table Filter Tutorial for SQL Beginners

Using Retool’s “Query JSON with SQL” query, we create a filter panel that streamlines the experience for the end user. We will focus on setting up a filter container with a bespoke UI to help your users sort and find data in tables more effectively and with fewer clicks - a perfect exercise for beginners trying Retool! 

Tutorials

Generating Retool PDF Reports in Minutes for Free using Hybiscus

Hybiscus and Retool are a dream team, providing beautiful and dynamic PDF reports in a matter of minutes. In this tutorial, I’ll walk through how to sign up for Hybiscus, set up a Hybiscus Resource in Retool, connect it to an application and get started making some stunning, automated reports.

Tutorials

How to Make an Image Carousel and Selector Component in Retool

One of the most commonly requested components in the Retool community is an image carousel. Well, good news! Using the pagination component, we can now make a carousel-style component in Retool, here's how.

Tutorials

The ListView Component: Uploading & Organizing PDFs to an S3 Bucket

In this tutorial we’ll be looking at how to use one to create a dynamic document uploader, giving you the option to preview, rename files and save them to an Amazon s3 bucket. We’ll also be explaining some of the basics around the concept of the magical ‘i’, and how to use it when developing ListView elements in your apps

UX/UI guides

Release Manager/ Versioning Explained: How to Develop Together Best in Retool

The Release Manager (or versioning) in Retool is a super useful feature for splitting up your work into shippable units and version-controlling your apps. Nevertheless, it can cause a bit of confusion. In this post, we will clear up how the release manager system works, and how best to work with versioning in a team to avoid any crucial mishaps.

UX/UI guides

6 amazing ways to make your buttons more UI-friendly (in Retool)

In the first instalment of Bold Tech’s UI sessions, we are tackling busy component enemy no.1: the button, to bring you some top tips for making better use of this powerful component, as well as some handy and innovative tricks to improve your UI even more.

Tutorials

Charting using PlotlyJS in Retool: Second Y-axis, Changing Date Formats, Filtering Chart Data by Date

In this tutorial we will cover three topics that are often necessary in charts but can be somewhat challenging to navigate using the Retool Plotly interface.

Tutorials

Creating User-Defined Settings in Retool: Dynamic Apps Based on Individual Users

Have a Retool app for your company with key functionality but no one can make their mind up exactly how it should look? In this tutorial, we’ll show you how to create a settings modal that will allow each user to customize their interface to suit their own preferences.

Tutorials

Creating User-Defined Settings in Retool: Accessibility Settings & More

Accessibility is an essential part of UI design, and dev teams are often thinking about how to let users apply their own preferences to the apps they use. This tutorial will walk through how to build a user-defined accessibility setting system using Retool and Google Sheets.

Tutorials

Retool's Nifty API Generator: Generate Fake API Data for your Staging App

Retool's API Generator is a speedy way of creating varied dummy data through a REST API and can be used to fill gaps whilst waiting for backend changes, create mock apps and even create a staging environment. This tutorial will show you how.

Tutorials

Building Internal Docusign Workflows in Retool

DocuSign is a brilliant way to electronically sign and manage key documents between different users and devices, here's how to integrate it into your Retool app.

Tutorials

Creating PDFs in Retool

PDFs are used for just about everything in business these days - contracts, invoicing, eSignatures, record keeping, you name it. So, for many companies looking for Retool apps, PDF end products are essential. Here are a three options to generate PDFs within Retool.