Your business runs on a platform that can reprice or close at any time.
Saltcorn is MIT-licensed. The source, the data and the server are yours — there is no decision anyone else can make that takes your application away.
Comparison · Saltcorn vs Bubble
All-in-one web and mobile applications, built on a platform you host yourself and keep. MIT-licensed, quicker to learn, and never someone else's to switch off.
Your business runs on a platform that can reprice or close at any time.
Saltcorn is MIT-licensed. The source, the data and the server are yours — there is no decision anyone else can make that takes your application away.
Months spent learning a tool as intricate as the code it replaced.
Saltcorn is closer to a spreadsheet: define tables, pick views, wire up actions. Most people build something real on day one.
On-premises or behind the firewall? A cloud-only platform is simply out.
Run Saltcorn on your own hardware, in your own cloud tenancy, or on ours. Same software either way, with no telemetry.
| Feature | Saltcorn | Bubble |
|---|---|---|
| Platform type | All-in-one — database, UI, workflows | All-in-one |
| Licensing | Open source, MIT | Proprietary and closed |
| Learning curve | About as steep as a spreadsheet | Weeks to months before you are productive |
| Data model | PostgreSQL you can query, back up and take with you | The vendor's own datastore |
| Deployment | Cloud, on-premises, or behind the firewall | Vendor cloud only |
| Mobile apps | Build straight to the App Store and Play Store | Third-party wrappers, paid separately |
| Telemetry | None — nothing phones home | Usage measured by the vendor |
| What it costs | Server hosting, and nothing else | Tiered plans plus metered workload |
List prices, billed annually — before workload charges, which rise with every action your app performs.
$0
100 rows or 10 million, one workflow or ten thousand: the licence fee does not change. You rent a server, not a quota.
MIT licence. No tiers, no metering, no renewal.
Saltcorn and everything you build on it are yours under the MIT licence — running on a platform whose source you can read, fork and keep.
Self-host with zero telemetry, inside your own network. Regulated and on-premises requirements are met by where it runs, not by a promise.
Build the same application as a native iOS and Android app from the admin interface — no third-party wrapper, no extra subscription.
“Very easy to get started — easier than Bubble.”A Saltcorn user, on the switch
That is what users tell us: "very easy to get started, easier than Bubble." You describe your tables, choose views over them and connect actions — the platform does not ask you to think like a programmer first.
Yes. Saltcorn workflows are built in a graphical editor and run durably: they can wait for a human, run for days, and pick themselves up after an error instead of losing the run.
Install it on any Linux server — a small application is happy on a cheap VPS — or use Docker, your own cloud tenancy, or our hosting. Whichever you pick, the environment stays under your control.
Spin up Saltcorn and have a working application — database, screens and workflows — the same day.
The Saltcorn team can rebuild your application, move the data and hand back something you own.