The main difference: Fabrika isn't a tool you license per user. It's a platform in your own cloud account, and a person from Contember reviews every change before it goes live. With Power Apps, Retool or Lovable you get a tool, and who reads each change is something you arrange yourselves.
Below is a table of seven ways a company gets its own app today, from Power Apps to a one-off audit, and for each one an honest note on when it fits better than Fabrika.
Updated 28 September 2026
We checked the details about other products on their official sites on 28 September 2026. Plans and prices change; the sources are listed with each option.
Your own installation on Cloudflare or Zerops (AWS on request), registered to your company.
Nothing goes live before someone from Contember has gone through it.
Not per seat and not by the hour. You get the price in an offer after the first call.
Seven ways to get a company app, side by side on six questions that decide whether it holds up in company use: who builds it, where it runs, how you pay, how people sign in, who reviews changes and what happens if you leave.
| Option | Who builds | Where apps run | How you pay | Company sign-in (SSO) | Who reviews changes | If you leave |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Microsoft Power Apps Microsoft's low-code platform for business apps, part of Power Platform. Full comparison → | Who builds People in the company and developers, in the Power Apps editor. Your IT runs the environments and the rules. | Where apps run In Microsoft's cloud, in the environment region you pick (for example the EU). | How you pay Per user. Premium is USD 20 per user per month, paid yearly, or USD 10 per active user per app per month on pay-as-you-go. Dataverse capacity is extra. | Company sign-in (SSO) Yes, with Microsoft Entra ID. | Who reviews changes Your IT. Deployments through pipelines can require an approval (in managed environments). | If you leave You export the app as a solution (.zip) for another Power Platform environment. Dataverse data isn't in the solution. |
| Retool A platform for internal tools (admin panels, dashboards, approvals) on top of your databases and APIs, with AI. Full comparison → | Who builds People with a builder licence, typically developers or technical staff. | Where apps run In Retool's cloud, or self-hosted in your infrastructure (for example on Kubernetes). | How you pay Per user, with separate prices for builders and internal users. Enterprise is custom. | Company sign-in (SSO) SAML or OpenID Connect SSO on the Enterprise plan. | Who reviews changes Your team. Source Control with branches and pull requests (GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, Azure Repos) on Enterprise. | If you leave You export an app as JSON or Toolscript and import it into another Retool organization. |
| Superblocks Calls itself an “enterprise AI vibe coding platform” for business apps on private company data, under IT's policies. When it fits ↓ | Who builds “Anyone” in the company, according to Superblocks, within the rules IT sets. | Where apps run Superblocks Cloud, Hybrid (production data stays in your VPC), or Cloud-Prem in your AWS, GCP or Azure. | How you pay Per plan: Teams with a set number of builders, Enterprise custom. | Company sign-in (SSO) SSO and SAML on the Enterprise plan. | Who reviews changes Your team. Source control (GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, Azure DevOps) and audit logs on Enterprise. | If you leave Not described on their pricing page. Ask Superblocks. |
| Lovable and similar AI builders You describe the app in a chat and get the code of a web app. Hosting and database in Lovable Cloud. Bolt, Replit and v0 work in a similar way. Full comparison → | Who builds Anyone in the company, in a chat, without programming. | Where apps run In Lovable Cloud. On Enterprise, as a preview, also on AWS or Azure managed by Lovable. | How you pay Per workspace, by credits, not per seat. Pro from USD 25, Business from USD 50 a month. | Company sign-in (SSO) SSO into Lovable on the higher plans (Lovable's own pages say Business or Enterprise), SCIM on Enterprise. Enterprise promises apps “behind your SSO”. | Who reviews changes Enterprise adds publishing controls and a risk overview of your apps. Reading the code of each change is up to you. | If you leave You sync the code to GitHub or download it. Hosting, sign-in and moving data out of Lovable Cloud are then on you. |
| A one-off security audit A security firm or an independent developer goes through the app's code and setup and writes a report, sometimes with fixes. When it fits ↓ | Who builds Nobody builds anything new. You have the app, the audit checks it. | Where apps run Where it runs today. The audit doesn't change that. | How you pay Once, for the report, depending on scope. Some offer repeat audits too. | Company sign-in (SSO) The audit checks how sign-in is done. Putting it in place is up to you. | Who reviews changes The auditor, once, for the version they saw. Later changes aren't covered. | If you leave Nothing to leave. The app stays where it is and the report stays with you. |
| Custom development An agency or a freelancer designs and builds the app to your brief. When it fits ↓ | Who builds The supplier. | Where apps run As agreed: at the supplier, or in your cloud. | How you pay Per project or by the hour, then for maintenance. | Company sign-in (SSO) Whatever you order. | Who reviews changes The supplier, following their own process. | If you leave Depends on the contract. You get the source code, access and documentation only if it says so. |
| Contember Fabrika A platform for company apps in your own cloud account, plus the Contember team that reviews every change and runs operations. | Who builds Your person with AI, your developer or agency. We can build the first app with you. | Where apps run In your own installation on Cloudflare or Zerops, or AWS on request. The cloud account is registered to your company. | How you pay A one-off setup and monthly operations priced by the number of apps, not per seat. You get the price in an offer after the first call. You pay for servers directly to the cloud provider. | Company sign-in (SSO) Company account via OIDC (Google, Microsoft Entra, Okta), or a password. No SAML. | Who reviews changes A person from Contember, for every change, before it goes live. Changes go through Git. | If you leave Code, data, domains and the cloud account are yours. The system keeps running without us and the next person picks it up from Git. |
Details about other products are as of 28 September 2026, from their official pricing pages and documentation. They may change. The sources are listed with each option below. Tabidoo, a Czech platform, is compared on the Czech version of this page.
Each of these routes makes more sense than Fabrika somewhere. Here it is plainly, with the pages we took the details from.
When the company lives in Microsoft 365, you have IT that runs Power Platform, and the apps mainly work with Microsoft data and tools. Sign-in, permissions and environment management stay where you already have them. Expect a licence for everyone who opens an app, and apps that run only in Power Platform.
Sources, checked 28 September 2026
When you have your own developers, your data sits in databases and APIs, and you need internal tools on top of them quickly. Retool has ready-made components and can run in your own infrastructure. Expect to pay per user, with SSO and Source Control on the Enterprise plan.
Sources, checked 28 September 2026
Detailed comparison →When you're a larger company with its own IT and security team, your data lives in AWS, GCP or Azure, and it has to stay inside your own network. Superblocks is built for that scale and lets people across the company build on it under central rules.
Sources, checked 28 September 2026
When you need a prototype, want to test an idea, or need a tool for a few people. You quickly get something you can click through, and the code comes with you via GitHub. Once the company's work starts depending on the app, sign-in with company accounts, permissions, keys and the question of who reviews changes come up. Lovable Enterprise handles that in its own cloud. We take a Lovable app over into your own account, see From Lovable to production.
Sources, checked 28 September 2026
Detailed comparison →When you want to know where the app stands: before launch, before handing it to IT, or as input for leadership. An audit costs less than an ongoing service and gives you a list of things to fix. You keep running the app yourselves, though, and the report only covers the version the auditor saw. You can check the basics yourself with our production checklist.
A category of service, not a specific supplier.
When you need a larger system with complex logic, integrations or its own design, and you want someone to build all of it for you. Put the source code, access and who maintains the app into the contract. Your agency can also build on Fabrika, with us running operations and reviewing changes, see Your developers or agency.
A category of service, not a specific supplier.
Some things are simply missing today. Better you hear it here than in the middle of a security review.
We'd rather say it up front than at the end of a call.
It depends on what you want to avoid. If you live in Microsoft 365 and have IT that runs Power Platform, Power Apps is usually the most sensible choice. If you don't want to pay per seat and want the code in your own repository and the apps in your own cloud account, look at Fabrika. If you have developers and need internal tools on top of databases, look at Retool.
Partly. All three let a company build its own internal apps. Retool and Superblocks give you the tool and the governance features, and your team reviews the changes. On Fabrika, we review every change and run operations, and the apps are code in your repository, running in your own Cloudflare or Zerops account (or AWS on request).
Those tools give you the process: an approval step, branches, pull requests. Someone on your side still has to read each change and understand what it does. On Fabrika that's our job, for every change, before it goes live.
Take it over, no: a Power Apps app runs only in Power Platform, so there's no code we could run elsewhere. Build it again, yes. The existing app works as a very precise brief, and we'll go through what to do with the data on the first call.
Yes. We take the app over from GitHub into your own account, with company sign-in and reviewed changes. Whether you can keep building in Lovable afterwards is something we're testing right now; ask us. More in From Lovable to production.
If an off-the-shelf product covers the process, usually yes, and we'll tell you so. Power Apps, Retool and Lovable aren't ready-made solutions, though: someone still has to build the app in them and look after it. Compare the time of the people who will do that, and who answers for the result, not just the licence.
On Fabrika: a monthly plan by the number of apps, servers paid directly to Cloudflare or Zerops by actual usage, and AI through your own plan. You get the exact price in an offer after the first call. Power Apps and Retool charge per user, Lovable per workspace. More on Pricing.
We checked it on their official sites on 28 September 2026, and the sources are listed with each option. Prices and plans change, so always check the vendor's current pricing before you decide. If you spot something out of date, write to sales@contember.com.
Half an hour is enough. Tell us what you want to build and what you already have. If Power Apps, Retool or an audit works better for you, we'll say so.
