Adalo
Adalo is a no-code app builder that pairs an AI assistant, Ada, with a visual multi-screen canvas. From a single project it publishes native iOS and Android apps plus a responsive web app, with a hosted relational database included.
What is Adalo?
Adalo is a no-code app builder published by Adalo, Inc. of St. Louis, Missouri. It combines an AI assistant called Ada with a visual multi-screen canvas, and its defining claim is that a single project ships to three destinations at once: a native iOS build (IPA), a native Android build (AAB) and a responsive web app served on an Adalo domain or a custom one. The company insists these are real native builds rather than web wrappers or progressive web apps.
Ada covers four named capabilities. Magic Start turns a plain-language description into a working prototype, generating screens, a relational database with collections and relationships, navigation, sample records and user authentication in what Adalo says is usually under two minutes. Magic Add extends an existing app the same way, one feature at a time. Visual AI Direction lets you point at any element on the canvas and instruct Ada about it, rather than describing its location in a chat box. X-Ray scans a finished app for broken data connections, missing navigation, design inconsistencies and performance problems before submission to the stores. Ada is included on every plan, free one included, with no token or usage metering.
Underneath sits a hosted PostgreSQL relational database, so no Firebase or Supabase setup is required, alongside 200+ drag-and-drop components, custom formulas, and/or logic, push notifications, geolocation and version history. External data can come from Google Sheets through SheetBridge, from Airtable, from Xano, or from any REST endpoint via External Collections and Custom Actions. A Collections API and a Notifications API expose the app's own data outward, and a Component Marketplace adds third-party building blocks.
Adalo dates its founding to 2018 and launched publicly in November 2019 under the name Foundry. The Adalo 3.0 infrastructure released in late 2025 is presented as three to four times faster and able to serve more than a million monthly active users. The company advertises over a million makers and three million apps created. A separate enterprise arm, Adalo Blue, offers dedicated regional infrastructure or a licence to run Adalo inside the customer's own cloud.
What it does
- Generate a complete working app from a plain-language description with Magic Start
- Add new features to an existing app by describing them in natural language with Magic Add
- Point at any element on the visual canvas and instruct Ada to change it
- Scan an app before release with X-Ray for broken data links, missing navigation and performance issues
- Design across a multi-screen drag-and-drop canvas using 200+ configurable components
- Publish the same project to the Apple App Store, Google Play and a custom web domain
- Connect external data through Google Sheets, Airtable, Xano or any REST API
When to use Adalo / When not to
A quick filter to help you decide if Adalo is the right fit.
When to use Adalo
- Startup founders who need a working mobile MVP in the app stores without hiring a developer
- Freelancers and agencies delivering client apps, supported by Adalo's Experts network and referral form
- Operations and business teams building internal tools, CRMs, inventory or customer portals, often from data already sitting in Google Sheets, Excel or Airtable
- Non-technical entrepreneurs who can describe the app they want but cannot write the code for it
- Vertical operators — fitness studios, restaurants, churches, event organisers, real estate agencies — who want a branded app built on a ready-made template
When not to use Adalo
- Teams that need to own and maintain the source code: Adalo exports none, and the app lives entirely on its infrastructure
- Products built around real-time video calling, advanced GPU rendering, physics-engine games or offline-first architectures
- Apps requiring deep HealthKit or HomeKit integration, or direct Bluetooth hardware control
- Groups wanting simultaneous co-editing: only one instance of the Adalo editor can be open at a time
- Organisations under strict compliance scrutiny, since no terms of use, GDPR statement, subprocessor list or security certification is published
How to use Adalo
A typical end-to-end flow, from setup to results.
- Create a free account on Adalo — no credit card is required and the free plan has no time limit
- Describe the app you want to Ada in plain language, being as specific as possible about screens, data and users
- Let Magic Start generate the first prototype: screens, relational database, navigation, sample data and authentication
- Review the generated data model — collections, relationships and field types — before adding anything else
- Refine the design on the visual canvas: drag, resize, and point at elements to tell Ada what to change
- Add features one at a time with Magic Add, testing each addition before moving on
- Connect external data if needed, through SheetBridge for Google Sheets, Airtable, Xano or External Collections over REST
- Preview the app on iPhone, Android, tablet and desktop form factors, and share a link so others can test it
- Run X-Ray before publishing to catch broken data connections, missing navigation links and performance problems
- Upgrade to a paid plan and publish: web first, then automated submission to the Apple App Store and Google Play
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Flat pricing with no usage-based charges: no metering of actions, users, records or storage on any plan
- One project produces native iOS and Android builds as well as a web app, unlike web-only AI builders
- Relational PostgreSQL database included, so no Firebase or Supabase to set up and pay for separately
- AI is bundled into every plan, free tier included, with no token or credit billing
- Genuinely permanent free plan with unlimited screens and unlimited test apps, 500 records per app
- Entry price of USD 36 per month for app store publishing undercuts the competitors Adalo names
- Substantial support ecosystem: App Academy, community forum, Experts network, component marketplace and a public status page
Cons
- No terms of use are published: the footer link labelled Terms and Conditions leads to the privacy policy instead
- No GDPR mention, no EU representative, no subprocessor list and no data processing agreement on the site
- No security certification is advertised — neither SOC 2, nor ISO 27001, nor HIPAA
- No code export at all, which makes the platform dependency total
- Only one Adalo editor can be open at a time, so simultaneous collaboration is impossible
- Published apps and collaborators are capped per plan (0/1/2/5 apps and 1/1/5/10 editors)
- Interface, documentation and support are English-only, with no other language announced
Pricing & Plans
Adalo offers a permanent free plan at USD 0 per month, with no time limit and no credit card required, on which apps can be built and tested but not published. The cheapest paid tier is Starter at USD 36 per month on annual billing; monthly billing costs 20% more. No plan carries usage-based charges or overage fees. Publishing to the stores additionally requires an Apple Developer account (USD 99 per year) and a Google Play developer account (USD 25 one-off), both paid to Apple and Google rather than to Adalo.
- 500 records per app
- 1 app editor
- unlimited screens and test apps
- hosted PostgreSQL database
- multi-screen canvas
- device preview and sharing
- Ada AI assistant (beta)
- 1 published app
- 1 app editor
- custom fonts
- custom domain
- web publishing
- automated app store publishing
- no Adalo branding
- 5 GB storage per team
- 2 published apps
- 5 app editors
- custom integrations
- design versions
- geolocation
- custom app actions
- app analytics
- custom formulas
- 5 published apps
- 10 app editors
- priority support
- Xano integration
- App and Collections API
- version history
- white labelling
- 125 GB storage per team
- 3-day SLA on Starter
- 2-day on Professional
- 1-day on Team
- an all-inclusive annual subscription covering Private Spaces (dedicated region-specific infrastructure
- 99% SLA
- up to 10 developers and 5 published apps) or a Site License running Adalo inside the customer's own cloud
- with a fixed quote issued within 48 hours of a 15-minute call
Data, GDPR & hosting
A consolidated view of how Adalo handles your data.
GDPR overview
The GDPR is not mentioned anywhere on Adalo's public pages — neither claimed nor denied. The privacy policy of 3 January 2026 offers one generic rights paragraph (access, correction, deletion, objection) qualified by "depending on your location", plus a separate paragraph for California residents only. Section 7 states that Adalo is based in the United States and that information may be transferred to any country where Adalo or its vendors operate, with "appropriate safeguards" that are never named: no Standard Contractual Clauses, no Data Privacy Framework certification. No Article 27 EU representative is designated, no data protection officer is named, no dedicated privacy address is published and no subprocessor list exists. European buyers should treat the framework as undocumented and request it in writing.
Who owns the data?
Adalo's privacy policy, last updated on 3 January 2026, separates the account data it collects from you as a customer from the Customer Content your app holds about its own end users. For that Customer Content, Adalo positions itself as a processor: it states that it acts solely on the customer's behalf and according to the customer's instructions, as set out in its Terms of Use and applicable data processing agreements — neither of which is published anywhere on the site. Information may be shared with hosting, analytics, payment, support and marketing vendors, disclosed for legal or safety reasons, transferred in a merger, acquisition or sale of assets, or released in aggregated and de-identified form.
Reuse rights
In practice you keep control of what you build. Adalo describes itself as processing your app's content on your instructions, and nothing in the policy claims a licence over that content or mentions using it to train AI models — although the silence on model training is itself worth noting. Adalo does use the account and usage data it collects on its own behalf: operating and securing the service, managing accounts, processing payments, providing support, analysing and improving the product, detecting fraud and meeting legal obligations. Its mobile apps may request camera, photo, storage, location and push notification permissions, all revocable from device settings. Promotional emails carry an unsubscribe link; account and service messages continue regardless.
Data retention & training
Hosting summary
Adalo names no hosting country and no hosting region. Its privacy policy states only that the company is based in the United States and that information may be transferred to, stored and processed in any country where Adalo or its service providers operate, with unspecified "appropriate safeguards" for international transfers. The relational PostgreSQL database that backs every app is hosted by Adalo itself and bundled into all plans. A DNS lookup on 9 August 2026 resolved the domain to 143.204.55.10 on Amazon's AS16509, geolocated in Zurich — that is a CloudFront edge node, not a storage location, and it says nothing about where data actually rests. At the enterprise level, Adalo Blue advertises region-specific dedicated infrastructure under Private Spaces and, under a Site License, deployment inside the customer's own managed environment. Security measures are described only in generic terms — reasonable administrative, technical and organisational measures — with no certification, audit report or subprocessor list behind them.
Things to keep in mind
Risks and trade-offs to weigh before adopting Adalo.
- Total vendor lock-in: nothing can be exported, so an app built on Adalo cannot be moved elsewhere without being rebuilt from scratch
- Your app's end-user data sits on Adalo's United States infrastructure, with no hosting country named and no subprocessor list published
- No terms of use and no GDPR statement are published, yet the app creator remains legally responsible for their own app's compliance
- No security certification is advertised, which deserves scrutiny before handling health, financial or otherwise sensitive records
- AI generation makes it easy to publish an app whose data model and permission rules you have never really examined
- Publishing depends on a single vendor's pipeline: an outage or a rejected build stalls the whole release chain
- Delegating design to Ada can quietly erode the habit of thinking through data structure, which remains the decision that determines what an app can ever do
Setup & Integrations
Technical difficulty
Getting started is deliberately easy: a web browser is the only requirement, on macOS, Windows, Linux or ChromeOS, with no download and no credit card. Describing an app to Ada replaces the first hours of configuration. The genuine difficulty is the data model — collections, relationships and permissions determine what the app can ever do, and reviewing what Ada generated is a real skill. Store publishing adds administrative friction through Apple and Google developer accounts. Building custom components is a different matter entirely and requires React, React Native and Node.
Deployment
Integrations
Behind Adalo
Fundraising
Social
Resources
All the official URLs gathered for verification and reference.
Alternatives
Tools that compete with or complement Adalo.
Frequently asked questions
Can I build an app with Adalo for free?
Does the AI cost extra?
Are Adalo apps really native, or web wrappers?
What does it cost to publish to the app stores?
Do I need to set up a separate database?
Does Adalo offer an API?
What can Ada not build?
Is there an enterprise offer?
Is Adalo GDPR compliant?
What is the minimum age and how do I reach support?
Should you pick Adalo?
Adalo occupies a specific and defensible position among app builders. Where prompt-led tools such as Lovable, Bolt or v0 generate web code that someone then has to maintain, Adalo generates an app you keep editing visually, and compiles it to genuine iOS and Android binaries as well as to the web. The relational PostgreSQL database, the authentication layer and the store submission pipeline are all included, which removes most of the assembly work that makes a first mobile release expensive.
Its commercial argument is equally clear. Building and testing costs nothing, permanently, with 500 records per app. Publishing starts at USD 36 per month on annual billing, and no plan meters actions, users, records or storage — a real difference from competitors that bill workload units or per seat. The AI is not an upsell. What does cost extra comes from Apple and Google, not from Adalo: a USD 99 yearly developer account and a USD 25 one-off registration.
The reservations are mostly about governance rather than product. Adalo publishes a privacy policy and nothing else: the footer link labelled Terms and Conditions leads back to that same privacy page, the Terms of Use it refers to are nowhere to be found, the GDPR is never mentioned, no subprocessor list or data processing agreement is available, and no security certification is advertised. Anyone building an app that will hold customer or patient data should ask for those documents before committing. Add the absence of code export, the single-editor limitation and a feature envelope that stops at real-time video, physics games and offline-first designs, and the shape of the fit becomes obvious: excellent for founders, freelancers and operations teams shipping database-driven apps quickly; harder to justify where legal scrutiny or deep native capability is the deciding factor.
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