Appsmith has carved out a strong name for itself in the internal tools space with its open-source foundation, developer-friendly interface, and flexible deployment options. 

Whether you’re a startup building your first admin panel or a large enterprise managing hundreds of internal apps, Appsmith promises speed, customization, and control. But how does its pricing model hold up when you go beyond the surface?

In this blog, we’ll take a closer look at Appsmith’s pricing structure, from its free open-source plan to its advanced enterprise offering. We’ll break down what each tier includes, who it’s best suited for, and how it compares with other low-code platforms in terms of value, scalability, and support. 

If you’re evaluating Appsmith for your team, this review will help you make a well-informed decision without the fine-print guesswork.

Let’s get started.

Appsmith is a well-known low-code platform designed to help teams build internal tools quickly and efficiently. It provides flexible deployment options, including both cloud-hosted and self-managed setups.

Its open-source nature makes it an appealing option, but the pricing varies significantly, starting from a free tier for up to 5 users, moving to $15 per user per month for teams of up to 99, and an enterprise package priced at $2,500 per month for 100 users or more.

But does it deliver enough value for these costs?

Keep reading to explore:

• The details of Appsmith’s pricing plans and the features included at each level
• The expenses associated with the self-hosted option
• How Appsmith’s pricing stacks up against other platforms for building internal tools

Appsmith offers three distinct pricing options:

• Free plan: No cost, supporting up to 5 users
• Business plan: $15 per month per user
• Enterprise plan: Fixed rate of $2,500 per month, covering 100 users

Let’s take a detailed look at these plans.

Ideal for individual developers and small teams
Cost: $0

• Supports up to 5 users on the cloud
• Includes 5 workspaces
• Version control integrated with Git (up to 3 repositories)
• Google Single Sign-On (SSO) is enabled
• Access control with 3 standard user roles
• Ability to create public apps
• Community-based support

Designed for teams seeking greater customization and collaboration
Price: $15 per user/month

Includes all features from the Free plan, plus:

• Supports up to 99 users
• Unlimited environments, Git repositories, and workspaces
• Advanced workflow automation
• Reusable packages for faster development
• Access to premium integrations
• Customizable roles and access controls
• Detailed audit logs for tracking changes
• Option to remove “Powered by Appsmith” branding
• Dedicated email and chat support

Built for organizations requiring advanced security, scalability, and premium support
Price: $2,500 per month (for 100 users)

Includes all Business plan features, plus:

• SAML and OIDC single sign-on (SSO)
• User provisioning and group synchronization via SCIM
• Continuous integration and deployment (CI/CD) support
• Private app embedding with shared login capabilities
• Airgapped edition available*
• Managed hosting options*
• Dedicated cloud hosting on isolated servers
• Custom integration development
• Priority support with service-level agreements (SLAs)

Appsmith’s enterprise plan begins at a base rate of $2,500 per month for 100 users, effectively costing $25 per user per month when fully utilized. Pricing can be customized for teams with more than 100 users.

Regarding billing, business plans are charged monthly at the end of the billing cycle using the credit card on file. In contrast, enterprise plans usually follow an annual billing schedule based on your contract.

As your team grows, so will your need for additional features, user capacity, and support. The best-fit plan will depend on factors like your team size, hosting requirements, security priorities, and budget.

The table below highlights the core differences between each pricing tier:

Picking a plan isn’t just about cost; it’s about matching your team’s needs today and where you’re headed next. Here’s a breakdown of key factors to help you decide when it’s time to move beyond the free tier:

If you’re a solo developer or working in a very small team, the free plan with its 5-user cap might be all you need. But as your team grows, especially with more developers contributing, the Business Plan scales with you, supporting up to 99 users along with added workspaces and Git repositories.

Self-hosting is supported across all plans, making it easy for teams that want control over their infrastructure. But if you’re looking for fully managed cloud hosting (like on AWS or Azure), that’s only available in the Enterprise plan. Cloud hosting for Business is on the roadmap but not live yet.

The free plan covers the basics for building and deploying internal tools. Move to Business, and you unlock workflow automation and reusable packages, which are huge time-savers for development teams. Enterprise takes it up further with CI/CD integrations, enabling streamlined deployment pipelines for larger organizations.

Basic access control with Google SSO might work for early-stage teams, but growing companies often need more visibility and governance. The business plan adds audit logs and custom roles for tighter access control. The enterprise plan also brings enterprise-grade authentication (SAML/OIDC), SCIM-based user provisioning, and even air-gapped deployment for highly sensitive environments.

When you’re just getting started, community support is a great resource. But for production apps, faster response times matter. Business users get email and chat support, while Enterprise clients benefit from dedicated support teams and guaranteed SLAs.

Still seeing that “Powered by Appsmith” tag? If you want a more polished, white-labeled experience, you’ll need to upgrade—removal of platform branding begins with the Business plan.

Note: Start with Free to explore the platform. Move to Business when your team grows, or your apps get more complex. Choose Enterprise if you’re managing sensitive data, need managed hosting, or want enterprise-grade control and support.

Self-hosting Appsmith offers greater control, flexibility, and security, which is especially appealing to teams with strict infrastructure requirements. While the platform itself is open-source and free to use, the real cost comes from what it takes to run and maintain it.

To get started, Appsmith recommends a minimum setup of 2 vCPUs and 4GB of RAM. On a provider like DigitalOcean, that translates to roughly $42/month just for hosting infrastructure. And that doesn’t include your time spent on setup, maintenance, backups, and monitoring.

But infrastructure is only part of the equation. If your team needs critical features like SSO, audit logs, or role-based access controls, you’ll need to upgrade to the Business Plan at $15 per user/month, on top of your hosting and DevOps costs. Essentially, you’re paying twice: once for infrastructure and again for advanced functionality.

On the other hand, Appsmith’s cloud-hosted plans simplify things by bundling hosting, security, and management under one roof. The catch? Only the Free Plan includes cloud hosting, and it’s capped at 5 users. The Business Plan currently doesn’t support cloud hosting, which means your only real upgrade path for a managed solution is the Enterprise Plan, a jump to $2,500/month.

So if you’re scaling beyond 5 users and want to avoid the high upfront cost of Enterprise, self-hosting becomes the only viable option, but it comes with added complexity and cost responsibilities.

When evaluating Appsmith, it helps to see how it compares with other top low-code platforms in the internal tooling space. While there are many alternatives, Superblocks, Retool, and ToolJet are among the closest in terms of functionality and use cases.

Below is a quick side-by-side comparison to help you weigh pricing, hosting, and core capabilities:

While Appsmith offers a solid open-source foundation and essential features for internal tools development, many businesses are choosing ToolJet as their go-to platform, and for good reason. Here’s why:

ToolJet goes beyond the basics with built-in AI blocks and automation features, enabling teams to integrate AI into internal apps without extra setup or third-party services. Whether it’s generating summaries and predictions or automating workflows, ToolJet is built with the future in mind.

Like Appsmith, ToolJet is open-source and self-hostable. However, users often report that ToolJet’s self-hosting setup is faster, better documented, and more developer-friendly, making it easier for teams to get up and running without friction.

ToolJet offers custom roles and granular access control starting from its Team plan, while Appsmith restricts this to higher tiers. This means smaller teams can enforce tighter security without jumping to enterprise pricing.

ToolJet provides flexible pricing across all tiers, including cloud-hosted and self-hosted deployments. Unlike Appsmith, where cloud hosting is limited and enterprise pricing is a large upfront jump, ToolJet offers a more scalable upgrade path that grows with your team.

ToolJet’s support team and open-source community are known for being highly responsive, often resolving issues faster than traditional ticket-based systems. This is especially valuable for teams working on tight internal deadlines.

ToolJet offers app versioning and change tracking out of the box, helping dev teams roll back changes or audit updates easily. While Appsmith includes Git integration, ToolJet’s built-in version control is more intuitive for non-Git users.

With a clean UI, pre-built templates, and drag-and-drop components, ToolJet is easier for cross-functional teams to adopt. Business analysts and operations teams can contribute without heavy developer involvement, something that’s not always seamless with Appsmith.

If you’re an entrepreneur building your first product, a scaling startup, or an enterprise with complex needs, ToolJet combines open-source flexibility, AI-powered innovation, and enterprise-ready security to give you an edge over Appsmith.

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