Head to head
Softr vs Glide (2026)
The two tie on the overall rating, so this pairing is decided entirely on axes: Softr leads 4 of the ten, Glide leads 5.
Softr
The fastest way to put a usable front end on a spreadsheet
3.8out of 5
Excellent at one job and honest about it. If your data is already in Airtable and you need a gated portal your clients can log into, Softr gets you there faster than anything else in the index, with permissions that behave. It is also more programmable than we previously published: a REST API and an MCP server are available from the entry paid tier, with the vendor's own caveat that certain endpoints may be limited to higher plans. The commercial shape is the thing to understand before you commit. Softr meters two seat axes at once, builders and app users, on top of record and action caps, so a portal gets more expensive precisely as its audience grows. And there is no code export at all: no source to take away and no migration path off the platform, which is why code ownership sits at 2.1. AI credits are 5 a month on Free and 10 on Basic, which makes the AI co-builder a demo rather than a working method at those tiers. Rent it for a portal. Do not build a product on it.
- Price from
- USD 19 / month, billed monthly
- Best for
- Client portals, membership directories and internal views over data that already lives in Airtable
- Ratings
- 26
Glide
GlideOS: internal tools shaped like phone apps, built by people who are not developers
3.8out of 5
This review is of GlideOS, the product sold at glideapps.com/pricing today, and that distinction matters more than it sounds. The vendor's own FAQ says GlideOS "is a standalone product, completely separate from the original Glide platform (Glide Classic)", with "its own plans and pricing", requiring "a separate subscription", and "not accessible through the Glide Classic platform". Glide Classic still exists on its own separate plans, which we have not captured as of 20 August 2026, so if you are already running a Classic app, nothing on this page describes your bill. GlideOS itself is very good at a specific and common job: it takes operational mess and produces a fast, good-looking app your warehouse staff will actually use, more reliably than most of the index at 4.3. Note how it meters, because it is not what we used to publish: storage, projects and credits, not rows. Rows were a Glide Classic concept. The API needs the same care: the Glide Tables API works only with built-in Glide Tables and Big Tables, and the vendor excludes external sources such as Google Sheets, Airtable, SQL and Excel, so the data source is the real gate rather than the plan tier. Since connecting an existing spreadsheet is the archetypal Glide use case, that matters. There is no MCP server. There is no code export either. Judge it as an internal tools platform, on the SEO and GEO axis marked not applicable because nothing it builds is a public crawlable page, and it is a genuine buy.
- Price from
- USD 25 / month, billed monthly
- Best for
- Field teams, inspections, inventory and any internal process currently living in a shared spreadsheet
- Ratings
- 23
What each one looks like
Axis by axis
The leader on each axis is set in bold. The weight column is what that axis contributes to the overall rating, so a win on reliability counts for more than five times a win on code ownership.
| Axis | Weight | Softr | Glide | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reliability | 16% | 4.1 | 4.3 | Glide |
| Integrations | 16% | 4.2 | 4.0 | Softr |
| SEO and GEO | 13% | n/a | n/a | Not compared, axis does not apply |
| Design quality | 12% | 3.9 | 4.2 | Glide |
| Agent performance | 10% | 3.2 | 3.4 | Glide |
| Speed | 9% | 3.7 | 4.1 | Glide |
| Value | 9% | 3.9 | 3.5 | Softr |
| Scalability | 7% | 3.1 | 3.2 | Glide |
| API and MCP access | 5% | 3.9 | 3.0 | Softr |
| Code ownership | 3% | 2.1 | 2.0 | Softr |
| Overall, weighted | 100% | 3.8 | 3.8 | Tied |
Axis definitions and the full weighting are on how we review. Both tools last verified 20 August 2026.
Where the capabilities differ
| Capability | Softr | Glide |
|---|---|---|
| Full-stack backend | No, front end over a data source | No, app layer over a data source |
| Database included | Yes, or connect Airtable and Sheets | Glide Tables and Big Tables, or connect Google Sheets, Excel, Airtable and SQL as external sources |
| Auth included | Yes, with user groups and gated pages | Yes, with row owners |
| Code export | No, none at all, and no migration path off the platform | No |
| GitHub sync | No | No |
| One-click deploy | Yes | Yes |
| Custom domain | Yes, paid plans | Yes, paid plans |
| Mobile or native output | Responsive web and PWA | PWA, installable on phones |
| Team collaboration | Yes | Yes |
| Public API or MCP server | Yes, REST API and MCP server from the entry paid tier, with the vendor noting certain endpoints may be limited to higher plans | Glide Tables API, and only for built-in Glide Tables and Big Tables. External sources such as Google Sheets, Airtable, SQL and Excel are excluded, and there is no MCP server |
| Self-hosting the output | No | No |
Shaded rows are the ones where the two differ.
What each one costs
Softr
Apps, databases, workflows and forms are unlimited on every tier including Free. What Free limits is builders (3), app users (5), database records (5K) and workflow actions (500 a month). Paid plans from USD 19 a month.
Basic plan.
| Plan | Price |
|---|---|
| Free | Free |
| Basic | USD 19 |
| Professional | Not captured |
Glide
GlideOS sells a Free plan with limited credits, then Basic at USD 25 a month, Plus at USD 50 a month, Pro at USD 125 a month and a quote-based Enterprise tier. Credits are the metered unit, and the published app allowance runs 0, 2, 5 and then unlimited.
GlideOS Basic plan. Plus is USD 50 a month, Pro is USD 125 a month, and Enterprise is quote based. GlideOS is a separate subscription from Glide Classic and is not accessible through it.
| Plan | Price |
|---|---|
| Free | Free |
| Basic | USD 25 |
| Plus | USD 50 |
| Pro | USD 125 |
| Enterprise | On request |
Prices are shown in the currency each vendor publishes, never converted. Sorting by price groups the currencies and orders within each one, so it is not an exact cross-currency comparison.
We list the plans we could verify on the vendor's own pricing page. Where a plan exists but its price was not published in a form we could capture, the row says so rather than carrying a number we cannot source.
Which one should you choose
Pick Softr if your project looks like client portals, membership directories and internal views over data that already lives in airtable. Its strongest axes in this pairing are integrations, value, api and mcp access. Avoid it for products with their own data model, or anything that has to scale past a few thousand active users.
Pick Glide if your project looks like field teams, inspections, inventory and any internal process currently living in a shared spreadsheet. Its strongest axes here are reliability, design quality, agent performance. Avoid it for public-facing products, anything that needs to rank in search, or anything you might want to export.
And the dissenting notes, which we publish rather than average away: on Softr, One panellist argued the value score is too low given how much consulting work a Softr portal displaces. The majority held the mark because the free plan stops at three builders, five app users and 5K records, so a real deployment is on a paid tier immediately. On Glide, Two panellists argued that reviewing GlideOS while Glide Classic remains on sale gives buyers half a picture, and that we should either capture Classic's plans or say plainly that we have not. The second is what this page now does.
Frequently asked
- Is Softr better than Glide?
- The two tools tie on our weighted overall rating at 3.8 out of five. Softr leads 4 axes and Glide leads 5, so the decision should come from the axes you care about.
- Which is cheaper, Softr or Glide?
- Softr starts at USD 19 / month, billed monthly and Glide starts at USD 25 / month, billed monthly. Each figure is the vendor's own published price and currency, not converted, so compare the pricing models rather than the two numbers: Softr bills as apps, databases, workflows and forms are unlimited on every tier including free. what free limits is builders (3), app users (5), database records (5k) and workflow actions (500 a month). paid plans from usd 19 a month. and Glide bills as glideos sells a free plan with limited credits, then basic at usd 25 a month, plus at usd 50 a month, pro at usd 125 a month and a quote-based enterprise tier. credits are the metered unit, and the published app allowance runs 0, 2, 5 and then unlimited..
- Can I move a project from Softr to Glide?
- Only as far as code export allows. On the code ownership axis Softr scores 2.1 and Glide scores 2.0 out of five, which reflects how much of the running application you can take with you and whether it still works once moved.
- Which one is better for search visibility?
- The SEO and GEO axis, which we weight at 13 percent, does not apply to both tools here. Softr builds software that sits behind a login or ships to an app store, so there are no public crawlable pages to test and the axis is left out of its overall rating. That is true of both tools, so search visibility is not the axis to decide this pairing on.