Will also throw in react-admin there. React-admin is not the same space per se (it's basically a react framework, not a low/no code tool), but if I built an internal admin app in react-admin, what would you say the pros/cons are to moving to Refine?

refine's headless architecture offers developers the flexibility to implement their design using any UI framework to their apps. It also comes with built-in UI integrations for popular libraries like Material UI, Ant Design, Chakra UI, and Mantine.

With react-admin, you have no choice other than using Material UI for your app. refine's provides nearly all the features of react-admin enterprise provides as open-source.

Since refine's architecture is headless, router logic is completely detached from the business logic and UI layer. So you can use refine with React Router, NextJS, Remix, or any other framework may pop-up as long as it's React based. With react-admin, you can only use react-router and it doesn't have a real SSR support, while with refine, you can use SSR frameworks like NextJS and Remix without being limited.

React-admin lead dev here.

Short story: Refine and react-admin were in the same low-code space (targeting developers) until today, but it seems they've pivoted to no-code (targeting non developers) as they go after ReTool.

Long story: https://marmelab.com/blog/2023/07/04/react-admin-vs-refine.h...

That article is top 5% of biased articles I've read in my life. Really bad look to be honest, would have really liked a more objective comparison

Post an article biased the other direction to set a counter-balance.

Just for clarity: the author of this comment is not from our team. But if you ask for my opinion, I enjoyed reading the article. We always pursue ideas that will take 'refine' to the next level, and this piece was helpful to us.

At Refine, we try to take a fresh approach to a space with very strong existing players, as you mentioned. Our philosophy is keeping the developer-centric focus and provide the best experience possible to make boring enterprise CRUD apps fun to build.

One of the key differences is our code-first preference over no-code, which distinguish Refine from the drag-drop style workflows of Retool, Appsmith, Tooljet, Budibase etc.

Instead of offering a fixed set of pre-made components, Refine outputs a real React project with collections of helper hooks and providers. The "headless" architecture enables developers to integrate any preferred UI framework or custom design, thereby maintaining the highest level of customization and styling options.

This level of flexibility fits use-cases like complex admin panels, SAAS interfaces and B2B portals rather then single-page internal tools which require little or no customizations.