Top 5 Low-Code AI Platforms for Building Intelligent Business Apps in 2025

While Artificial intelligence (AI) adoption drives innovation and growth, certain industries now require AI integration just to remain competitive in the market. However, developing and implementing AI solutions that can effectively scale and integrate with existing business systems traditionally demands extensive planning, technical expertise, and substantial resources. This is where low-code AI platforms emerge as a great solution, simplifying how businesses incorporate artificial intelligence into their operations.

This article explores the top 5 low-code AI platforms available in 2025, providing insights into how businesses can leverage these tools to build intelligent applications.

Low-code development is a modern software creation approach that emphasizes visual interfaces and pre-built components instead of traditional coding methods.

The growing adoption of low-code platforms is driven by their intuitive visual interfaces, ready-made templates, and straightforward deployment options. These platforms attract businesses of all sizes with their built-in security features, integration capabilities, and scalability.

Low-code development has transformed app creation. Citizen developers with basic technical knowledge can now build functional business applications, while professional developers benefit from faster development cycles, simpler maintenance, and more time to focus on complex challenges.

The integration of AI capabilities into low-code platforms represents a significant leap forward. Organizations can now implement sophisticated AI solutions without requiring extensive expertise in machine learning or data science.

The integration of low-code AI platforms into business applications offers numerous advantages:

• Accelerated development: Reduce development time from months to weeks—or even days

• Cost-effectiveness: Lower development and maintenance costs compared to traditional coding

• Democratization of AI: Enable citizen developers to create sophisticated AI-powered applications

• Scalability: Easily expand applications as business needs grow

• Integration capabilities: Connect seamlessly with existing systems and databases

• Customization flexibility: Balance simplicity with customization, allowing businesses to tailor AI solutions while maintaining ease of use

• Rapid iteration: Enable quick prototyping and refinement of AI applications based on user feedback and market demands

• Reduced dependency on developers: Reduce reliance on specialized AI developers by enabling existing teams to build and maintain AI applications

Let's explore the leading low-code AI platforms. Each platform combines powerful AI capabilities with intuitive interfaces, enabling businesses to create sophisticated AI-powered applications without requiring extensive coding expertise.

About Appsmith

Appsmith is an open-source low-code platform that enables easy building and deployment of custom business applications. Built by developers for developers, it simplifies the creation of AI-powered applications such as chatbots, document analysis tools, predictive analytics dashboards, and intelligent workflow automation systems.

Over 10,000 teams worldwide—including GSK, Funding Societies, Dropbox, Strapi, and AWS—use Appsmith to build their custom business apps to prototype, ship, and scale faster.

Appsmith is ideal for enterprises looking to leverage low-code AI and scale with enterprise features. It connects seamlessly with popular LLMs including OpenAI, Google AI, and Anthropic, offering 18+ integrations, 45+ drag-and-drop widgets, and a built-in JS editor.

Key Appsmith features:

• Appsmith AI: Quickly create custom interfaces, interact with any LLM, and connect to a broad range of data sources to develop highly functional AI apps tailored for your business.

• AI Assistant: Automates tasks, answers questions, and provides guidance through natural language conversations. It helps with data analysis, content creation, problem-solving, and workflow automation. (Coming soon!)

• Self-host and open-source: Deploy and run AI applications on your own infrastructure, maintaining complete control over sensitive data and AI model training. No vendor lock-in, own and secure your AI development process.

• Broad datasource connectivity: Seamlessly integrate with various data sources, including databases, SaaS tools, and REST/GraphQL APIs, enabling secure access to internal data. Bring additional context into AI actions. Store embeddings in a vector database to support semantic search and recommendations.

• Git integration for CI/CD: Sync applications with Git repositories to collaborate, manage versions, and merge updates. Designate development, staging, and production environment branches, and deploy changes automatically from designated branches.

• Drag-and-Drop UI building: Use an array of pre-built widgets to quickly assemble responsive user interfaces, with the flexibility to create custom widgets using JS/HTML/CSS.

• Comprehensive JavaScript customization: Manage variables, functions, and logic within a centralized JavaScript IDE, featuring built-in autocomplete, multi-line editing, debugging, and linting.

• Enterprise-scale security and governance: Implement role-based access controls, SAML and OIDC SSO for secure authentication, SCIM-based user provisioning, and audit logging to meet enterprise security requirements.

• Workflows: Automate complex, human-in-the-loop workflows end-to-end with flexible code-based logic and easy data and human interactions.

Pricing:

• Free Open-Source Edition

• Business: $40/user/month

• Enterprise: $2,500/month, for 100 users

About OutSystems

OutSystems is an AI-powered low-code platform that enables organizations to rapidly build, deploy, and maintain enterprise-grade applications, with a particular focus on business and IT solutions.

With built-in DevOps capabilities and seamless integration with preferred deployment tools, OutSystems helps organizations deliver solutions quickly and efficiently. Trusted by numerous enterprises worldwide, the platform accelerates digital transformation and enables innovative solution delivery.

Key OutSystems features:

• AI integration: Enhance application functionality and user experience through powerful AI capabilities.

• AI Mentor System (Paid): Streamline development with AI-powered mentors that guide developers through the software lifecycle, automating tasks and ensuring quality outcomes.

• Full-stack development: Create front-end and back-end components seamlessly within a unified platform.

• Extensibility: Integrate custom code and existing systems to meet specific business needs.

• Security: Rely on built-in security features that ensure industry standard compliance and data protection.

• DevOps support: Streamline application lifecycle management with integrated continuous integration and delivery tools.

Pricing:

• Free trial available

• Developer Cloud: Starting at $36,300 (USD) / year

Looking for OutSystems alternatives? Check out our guide to find platforms with better usability, integrations, and cost-effectiveness.

About Mendix

Mendix is a leading low-code application development platform that empowers organizations to rapidly design, build, deploy, and manage enterprise-grade applications. By abstracting and automating each step of the application lifecycle, Mendix enables both professional developers and business users to collaborate effectively, delivering solutions that drive digital transformation.

Key Mendix features:

• Development environment: Mendix provides an integrated suite of tools supporting the entire application lifecycle—from ideation and development to deployment and operations.

• AI-powered assistance: The platform incorporates AI capabilities, such as Maia, an AI assistant that offers real-time recommendations and automates routine tasks.

• Integration capabilities: Mendix facilitates easy integration with various systems and data sources, including REST APIs, SOAP, OData, and JDBC.

• Cloud-native architecture: Supporting deployment across public, private, and hybrid clouds, as well as on-premises environments.

• Collaborative IDEs: Mendix offers both web-based and desktop IDEs tailored for different user skill levels.

Pricing:

• Free edition available

• Basic: €52.50/month

• Standard: €900/month

• Premium: Custom pricing

Explore Mendix alternatives in our comprehensive guide to discover platforms that offer better flexibility, modern features, and competitive pricing for your development needs.

About Appian

Appian is a low-code platform for process automation that enables organizations to design, automate, and optimize complex business processes. Through its integration of low-code development with advanced AI capabilities, Appian enables rapid application development and intelligent automation, driving transformative process changes across industries.

Key Appian features:

• Low-code visual interface: Appian's interface enables users to build applications with minimal coding, fostering collaboration between IT and business teams.

• Process automation: The platform orchestrates workflows, robotic process automation (RPA), AI, intelligent document processing (IDP), and API integrations.

• Integrations: Appian consolidates data from multiple sources into a unified interface.

• Cross-platform user experience: Users can create consistent experiences across web and mobile platforms for both customers and employees.

• Appian generative AI: Includes AI Prompt Builder for process automation, Generative Interface Design for PDF digitization, Data Fabric Insights with AI Copilot for data exploration, and Enterprise Copilot for intelligent document analysis.

Pricing:

• Appian does not publicly disclose their pricing information.

About Retool

Retool is a low-code developer-centric platform designed to expedite the creation of custom internal applications. It offers a suite of tools that enable integration with various data sources, flexible user interface design, and the incorporation of custom code.

Key Retool features:

• Integrations: Retool supports connections to over 70 data sources, including databases like PostgreSQL and MySQL, as well as APIs and popular SaaS applications.

• Customizable UI components: Retool provides a library of over 100 pre-built, extensible React components, allowing developers to design tailored user interfaces.

• Code flexibility: Retool enables developers to write custom code using JavaScript, Python, and other languages, offering granular control over application logic and functionality.

• Debugging tools: Integrated debugging features, such as stack trace viewing and query run visualization, assist developers in efficiently identifying and resolving issues.

• Version control and deployment: The platform integrates with Git for version control, allowing for branching, reviewing, and merging changes. It also supports deployment across various environments, including on-premises and cloud-based infrastructures.

• Retool AI: This suite of features empowers developers to build AI-powered applications and workflows rapidly. It includes pre-built AI actions for tasks such as text summarization and image classification, with out-of-the-box support for models like OpenAI's GPT-4 and GPT-3.5-turbo.

Pricing:

• Free edition available

• Team: $12/month per standard user + $7/month per end user

• Business: $65/month per standard user + $18/month per end user

• Enterprise: Custom pricing

Their pricing changes if it is paid annually.

Advantages

• Faster time to market - simplifies the AI application development process and enables quick prototyping.

• Lower development costs - Compared to traditional development approaches by minimizing the need for specialized developers, reducing development time, and lowering infrastructure costs.

• Lower technical barrier to entry - democratizes AI for all users, regardless of technical knowledge.

• Increased agility and flexibility - adapt quickly to changing business needs and modify AI applications on the fly without extensive redevelopment.

• AI-assisted features - leverage built-in AI capabilities to automate tasks, enhance decision-making, and improve user experiences.

Disadvantages:

• Limited customization - restricted flexibility in implementing complex, custom functionality compared to traditional development approaches.

• Potential vendor lock-in - dependency on platform-specific features and tools can make it difficult to switch providers.

• Scalability challenges - may face performance bottlenecks when handling large-scale operations or high user loads.

• Cost considerations - premium features and enterprise-level capabilities often come with significant pricing tiers.

• Security and compliance concerns - handling sensitive data and meeting regulatory requirements can be challenging when using third-party AI services and cloud services.

Choosing the right low-code AI platform is a critical decision that requires careful consideration of multiple factors. To help businesses make an informed choice, we've created a comprehensive guide on how to select the perfect low-code platform that aligns with their development teams, end-users, and business objectives.

But here we lay out several crucial aspects to evaluate when selecting it comes to low-code AI platform:

• AI capabilities: Evaluate the depth and breadth of AI features, including model integration options, pre-built AI components, and customization flexibility.

• Integration with existing systems: Ensure the platform offers robust integration capabilities through APIs and connectors.

• Development experience: Consider the platform's learning curve, available documentation, and support resources for your development team. Specially for AI use cases that can be complex and require extensive testing and iteration.

• Cost and licensing: Evaluate total cost of ownership, including initial investment, subscription models, and potential hidden costs for advanced features and scaling.

• Security and compliance: Assess data protection measures, compliance certifications, and security protocols to ensure they meet your industry requirements.

• Deployment options: Consider whether you need cloud-based, on-premises, or hybrid deployment capabilities.

• Long-term viability: Research the platform's roadmap, vendor stability, community engagement, and open-source status to ensure long-term support, development flexibility, and independence from vendor lock-in.

Appsmith stands out as the go-to choice for many organizations by allowing complete control over data and applications through self-hosted components—a crucial feature for managing sensitive data and AI models effectively.

Data privacy forms the cornerstone of Appsmith's architecture. Organizations can integrate self-hosted Large Language Models to keep sensitive information secure within their infrastructure. This capability is especially valuable for organizations in regulated sectors or those handling confidential information.

Appsmith's open-source foundation offers significant advantages: freedom from vendor lock-in, complete access to source code, and full platform customization. Its transparent pricing structure—including a free open-source edition and business subscriptions starting at $40/user/month—enables organizations to scale their AI implementations cost-effectively.

Appsmith's versatility shines through its comprehensive integration capabilities with databases, APIs, and AI services, enabling seamless connections with existing infrastructure for AI-powered application development. The platform strikes an ideal balance between low-code accessibility and advanced functionality through JavaScript capabilities.

Low-code AI platforms are transforming how businesses implement artificial intelligence solutions, making AI more accessible and actionable for organizations of all sizes. If you'd like to explore Appsmith to determine if it's the best choice for your business, you can deploy it in the cloud or self-host. Contact us to discuss your specific requirements or schedule a demo with our team.