Glide vs Softr: The Best No-Code App Builder for 2026
Quick Comparison
| Glide | Softr | |
|---|---|---|
| Best For | Teams building mobile-first internal tools or field apps directly from Google Sheets data. | Teams building gated client portals, community directories, or membership sites where different users see different data. |
| Pricing | Free tier available / $19/mo starting | Free tier available / $49/mo starting |
| Winner | Our Pick |
Tool Breakdown
Softr
For the most common reason people compare these two — building a gated client portal, member directory, or internal tool that different users should see differently — Softr's membership and authentication layer, plus support for Airtable, SQL, and REST APIs beyond just spreadsheets, make it the more flexible foundation.
- Built-in membership and authentication layer for gated, role-based access to content
- Broader data-source support than Glide — Airtable, Google Sheets, Smartsuite, SQL, and REST APIs
- Pricing counts only external app users, not internal editors or collaborators, which are unlimited on every tier
- Web-first output, not built for a native mobile-app feel the way Glide is
- Paid tiers get expensive faster once you pass a few hundred monthly app users
- Less specialized than Glide for pure mobile field-tool use cases
Glide
A no-code platform for building mobile-first apps from spreadsheet data, primarily Google Sheets, with tables scaling from thousands to millions of rows on higher tiers.
- Mobile-first output feels closer to a native app experience than a responsive web page
- Glide Big Tables scale to millions of rows on paid tiers, well beyond typical spreadsheet-app limits
- Strong data-security controls, a priority if the app handles sensitive or payment-adjacent information
- Primarily built around Google Sheets as the data source, more limited than Softr's broader integration list
- Free tier is positioned for learning and testing rather than production use
- Less suited than Softr to building gated, multi-role membership portals
Frequently Asked Questions
Which is better for building a client portal, Glide or Softr? +
Softr is the stronger choice — it's built around a membership and authentication layer specifically for gating content by signed-in user, which is the core requirement for most client portals. Glide is more focused on mobile-first internal tools and field apps.
Do Glide and Softr have free plans? +
Both have permanent free tiers. Glide's free plan is positioned for learning and testing simple apps. Softr's free plan supports up to 10 app users and 5,000 database records, enough for a small real project, not just a test.
Which tool supports more data sources? +
Softr supports more data sources — Airtable, Google Sheets, Smartsuite, SQL, and REST APIs. Glide is built primarily around Google Sheets, though its Big Tables feature scales to much larger row counts than a typical spreadsheet app.