Budibase pricing starts at $23/month on Pro and scales to $359/month on Business, with custom Enterprise plans for larger teams. After breaking down every tier and add-on cost, here’s how the total adds up.
Budibase pricing plans: at a glance
Budibase uses usage-based pricing. An "action" is anything your app does, such as sending an email, updating a record, or running an automation step. Your monthly bill depends on how many actions your apps and automations run each month.
Each of the four cloud plans includes a set number of actions. Hit the cap, and your automations stop firing until you upgrade or the next month resets. Monthly billing runs about 20% higher than annual billing.
Beyond these four cloud plans, Budibase also offers a fully open-source self-hosted option. It's free to run on your own infrastructure indefinitely. The catch: you handle hosting and support yourself.
Budibase pricing plans breakdown
Pro plan: $23/month
The Pro plan is Budibase’s entry tier and covers most of what a single builder needs to ship a working app. You get 5,000 actions per month, 2,000 Budibase AI credits, and one workspace.
What’s included:
- 1 creator (builder) seat
- End users: $6/user/month, paid from the first user (billed monthly)
- 5,000 actions per month
- 2,000 Budibase AI credits
- 1 day of logs retention
- Unlimited agents and synchronous automations
- Budibase Cloud hosting
Best for: A solo ops person or small-business owner running a single internal tool with light automation volume.
Pros
- Cheapest paid entry point at $23/month.
- Includes AI credits and unlimited agents.
- 14-day free trial.
Cons
- Locked at one creator (you can’t add more on Pro).
- Only 1 workspace and 1 day of logs.
- 5,000 actions is a hard limit. Once you hit it, your automations stop until you upgrade or the next month resets.
Premium plan: $59/month
Premium quadruples your action limit to 20,000 and unlocks the security and branding features most teams expect from a business tool. This is the first plan where Budibase starts feeling like a real team product.
What’s included:
- 1 creator (can add more for $60/creator/month)
- End users: $6/user/month, paid from the first user (billed monthly)
- 20,000 actions per month
- 10,000 Budibase AI credits
- 7 days of logs retention
- 10 workspaces
- Custom branding
- Backups and restores
- SSO
Best for: Small teams that need SSO and custom branding without jumping to the $359/month Business plan.
Pros
- SSO and custom branding at a reasonable price.
- Backups and restores included.
- 10x the workspace count of Pro.
Cons
- Still capped at 1 creator unless you pay $60/seat/month.
- 7-day log retention is tight if you need to debug older issues.
- 20,000 actions run out fast on active automations.
Business plan: $359/month
Business is the biggest pricing jump in Budibase’s lineup, but it’s also where the platform starts to scale. You get 250,000 actions, 50,000 AI credits, three creators, unlimited workspaces, and enforced SSO.
What’s included:
- 3 creators included, then $60/creator/month
- End users: $6/user/month, paid from the first user (billed monthly)
- 250,000 actions per month
- 50,000 Budibase AI credits
- 30 days of logs retention
- Unlimited workspaces
- Environment variables
- Enforced SSO and user groups
- Email support
- Self-host on-premise option
Best for: Teams running several production apps with high automation volume that need separate testing environments.
Pros
- Big jump in actions and AI credits for the price.
- Enforced SSO and user groups for real org governance.
- Self-host on-premise option included.
Cons
- $359/month is a steep step up from $59 Premium.
- Audit logs are still gated behind Enterprise.
- 30-day log retention may not satisfy compliance teams.
Enterprise plan: Custom pricing
Enterprise unlocks Budibase's heaviest compliance and admin features. You get 365 days of log retention, audit logs, Active Directory and SCIM provisioning, and priority support with SLAs.
What’s included:
- Flexible creators and end users
- Custom actions volume
- 365 days of logs retention
- Audit logs
- Active Directory and SCIM
- Custom actions
- Priority support and SLAs
- Air-gapped deployment add-on
- Onboarding and training add-on
Best for: Companies with audit requirements or regulated-industry teams, plus anyone who needs air-gapped or fully managed deployment.
Pros
- Audit logs and 365-day retention for compliance.
- Active Directory and SCIM for managed user provisioning.
- Air-gapped option for high-security environments.
Cons
- Custom pricing means you go through sales to get a number.
- No public pricing transparency until you talk to someone.
- Likely overkill for teams under 100 employees.
Budibase add-on costs to watch
The plan price is only part of the story. Budibase’s add-on model can swing your monthly bill more than the base tier itself, especially if your app grows past the included user counts.
The math gets uncomfortable fast on Business. Add 20 more end users and five more creators, and you’re paying $359 + $120 (end users) + $300 (creators) = $779/month before any overage charges. That’s worth modeling out before you commit.
Which Budibase plan should you choose?
Choose Pro if you:
- Want to test Budibase with a single app.
- Have one builder and a couple of end users.
- Run light automations that won’t hit 5,000 actions.
Choose Premium if you:
- Need SSO or custom branding for a small team.
- Want backups and restore included.
- Run more than one workspace, but don’t need enforced SSO.
Choose Business if you:
- Have multiple builders working on multiple apps.
- Need enforced SSO, user groups, and environment variables.
- Want the option to self-host on your own infrastructure.
Choose Enterprise if you:
- Have audit logging or compliance requirements.
- Use Active Directory or SCIM for user management.
- Need air-gapped deployment or priority SLAs.
Is Budibase worth the cost?
Budibase is worth it if your team runs heavy automation workloads. The usage-based model rewards teams who have already mapped out their automation volume and prefer hard monthly limits over surprise overages.
Where it gets expensive is the per-creator pricing once you outgrow one or three builders, and the per-end-user cost if your app gets adopted across a department.
Budibase is worth it if you:
- Run high-volume automations with predictable monthly action counts.
- Have a small builder team and don’t need to add many creators.
- Want self-hosting included rather than paying extra for it.
- Are already comfortable with the technical side of internal tool building.
Skip Budibase if you:
- Want flat per-month pricing without per-seat add-ons.
- Need a tool that scales widely across non-technical end users.
- Want AI to build the app from a description, rather than wiring it up yourself in a low-code builder.
- Want to share apps with clients or partners without paying per end user as adoption grows.
Budibase alternatives and pricing comparison
If Budibase’s per-creator and per-end-user pricing doesn’t fit how your team works, here’s how the main alternatives compare on monthly-billed pricing.
Each tool sits in a slightly different lane. Budibase charges by usage. Appsmith and Retool charge per user, so the bill grows with your team. Zite charges a flat monthly rate, regardless of how many people use the apps you build.
Zite vs Budibase: Which should you choose?
Zite is the closest match to Budibase for non-technical teams who want predictable pricing without per-user add-ons.
The end-user math is the sharpest difference. Share a Budibase app with a 50-person team, and you're paying 50 × $6 = $300/month in end-user fees alone, on top of the base plan.
The same app on Zite costs nothing extra for those 50 users. Every plan, including the free tier, has unlimited users. A 10-person team and a 500-person team pay the same.
Zite's AI-first build approach is the other practical difference. You describe what you want, and Zite generates the database, views, and workflow logic without you wiring up bindings or configuring a builder.
Budibase is visual and powerful, but it's still a builder you have to learn and operate.
The visual workflow editor in Zite is a supporting benefit. When an ops person needs to trace what an app is doing months after it was built, the logic shows up as a flowchart they can read. The database is editable in the same way.
Zite also includes built-in permissions and roles. Apps are internal-only by default, and you can publish to the web when you want to share with clients or partners.
For teams running client portals, dashboards, or internal CRMs on top of existing Airtable or Google Sheets data, Zite hits the tipping point fast. Flat pricing plus built-in access control makes it easy to roll out across non-technical teams.
Zite is better for: Non-technical teams who want flat pricing, unlimited users, and AI-built apps with readable workflow logic.
Budibase is better for: Technical teams running high-volume automation who want hard monthly limits and a self-hosted option.
Use both if: Your engineers run back-office automations on Budibase, and your ops team needs a flat-priced builder for portals and dashboards.
My bottom line on Budibase pricing
Budibase's pricing model is clear about what it is. You pay for actions, and you get hard monthly limits. No surprise overages. Teams that already know their automation volume tend to do well with this model.
The math works out fine on Pro and Premium for a small builder team. The pricing gets expensive once you add creators or scale end users, and the jump from $59 Premium to $359 Business is the biggest mental hurdle.
If your team fits the action-heavy, small-builder profile, Budibase is a reasonable buy.
If you need flat pricing that doesn't change as adoption grows, it's worth running the numbers against a flat-priced alternative like Zite before you commit.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does Budibase cost per month?
Budibase costs $23/month for Pro, $59/month for Premium, and $359/month for Business on a monthly billing. Enterprise pricing is custom and requires a sales conversation. Annual billing drops these prices to $19, $49, and $299, respectively.
Does Budibase have a free plan?
Yes, Budibase has a free plan in the form of a fully open-source self-hosted version you can run on your own infrastructure indefinitely. You handle hosting and support yourself. There’s also a 14-day free trial on the paid cloud plans.
What are Budibase actions, and why do they matter?
Budibase actions are units of work your apps, agents, and automations perform, including AI agent tool calls, automation node executions, and row creates, updates, or deletes. Custom SQL queries and API requests don’t count. Actions are hard monthly limits, so you upgrade or stop running once you hit your cap.
How much do Budibase add-ons cost?
Budibase add-ons cost $6/user/month for end users and $60/creator/month for additional creators. End users are billed from the first user on every cloud plan, since cloud tiers do not include a pool. Creator add-ons are available on Premium and Business plans.
Is Budibase cheaper than its alternatives?
Budibase is cheaper than some alternatives at $23/month for Pro, but per-creator and per-user add-ons can push costs above flat-priced options like Zite at $19/month with unlimited users. Per-user platforms like Appsmith and Retool can come out cheaper or more expensive, depending on team size.
