Softr alternatives when what you need is a public website, not a portal
Softr is built for business apps on your data: client portals, internal tools and CRMs with logins and permissions. Some people end up using it for a public website with no logins at all, and that's when Softr alternatives are worth a look. If your users sign in and see their own records, Softr is doing the job it was designed for.
What Softr is designed for
Softr's AI app generator page describes generating the pages, database, permissions and workflows for an app from a prompt. Its examples are client and vendor portals, internal tools, CRMs, inventory systems, intranets and knowledge bases. Apps can run on Softr's own databases or on data in Airtable, Google Sheets, HubSpot, Supabase, Notion, PostgreSQL and others, and every app includes sign-in, user groups and permissions.
How the plans are shaped
Softr's pricing page, as of 24 October 2026, shows Free, Basic at $19, Pro at $99 and Business at $329 a month. The page has a monthly and a yearly toggle (yearly gives two months off) and doesn't label which figures are shown by default, so check before you buy. Plans are measured in builders, app users, database records and workflow actions. A custom domain starts on Basic; removing Softr branding starts on Pro, along with Google sign-in and granular permissions.
Those limits make sense for a portal, where each person who signs in is an app user. For a public site that nobody signs in to, you're mostly paying for the custom domain and the branding removal.
Why people look elsewhere for a website
The main reason is fit. A public site needs pages that load quickly, read well and say clearly what the business does: a home page, services, prices, a contact form. Softr is organised around records and the people who sign in to see them: its plans count app users, database records and workflow actions. You can build a marketing site with it, but you're using an app builder for a brochure, and paying the Pro tier to remove the branding from it.
The common answer isn't to leave Softr entirely. Split the two jobs: keep the portal on Softr, perhaps at app.yourdomain.com, and move the public site to a website builder at the main address, linking across with a sign-in button.
Before you move the public pages
- Decide what stays. List which pages need a sign-in (they stay in Softr) and which are public (they move).
- Data. If your data lives in Airtable or Google Sheets, it stays where it is. If it lives in Softr's own databases, check how you'll export those tables before changing plan.
- Forms. Note where each public form writes its entries, so the new form can write to the same base or sheet.
- Domain. Plan the subdomain split before you change DNS, so the portal keeps working throughout.
Four options for the public site
| Option | Suits | Trade-off |
|---|---|---|
| Carrd | A single landing page for the portal; Pro plans are billed yearly | One-page sites only |
| Framer | A designed marketing site with a CMS; see its pricing page | You design the pages yourself |
| Squarespace | A public site that also sells or takes memberships; plans here | A second platform and bill alongside Softr |
| Anticode | A multi-page public site drafted from a description, with forms sending to Airtable or Sheets | No logins, permissions or live data views |
Where Anticode fits
Anticode builds the public half. You describe the business and what the portal is for; the Architect asks up to three questions and shows a plan, and the site can have separate Services, About, Pricing, FAQ and Contact pages. The result is plain HTML and CSS with no scripts on published pages. A button can link to your Softr sign-in page.
For the data side, contact, booking and newsletter forms save submissions and can send each one to Airtable, Google Sheets, Notion or HubSpot, so a new enquiry can land in the same base your portal reads. For listings that change (team members, case studies, locations), CMS collections hold typed entries edited in the dashboard, each served at its own page. See form connectors and CMS collections.
What Anticode doesn't do that Softr does
- No visitor accounts. Published sites have no sign-in, user groups or permissions; real accounts exist only in the Next.js export you host yourself.
- No live data. Pages don't read from Airtable or Sheets; CMS collections are edited in Anticode's dashboard, and form entries are sent out once each, without retries.
- No workflows. There's no automation engine; site functions can call your own endpoint or run a small formula on a form post.
- Limited form fields. The built-in forms have set fields; a custom form tied to a site function takes up to 30 plain-text fields. No form takes file uploads.
- English only. The builder and its sites are in English.
When to keep everything on Softr
If your users sign in, see their own records and act on them, Softr is the right tool, and it gives you sign-in options, permissions and data sources that a website builder doesn't. If your public site is a page or two and the branding doesn't bother you, keeping one tool and one bill is simpler too. Move the public site when it matters on its own: when it's how new clients find you. Compare the two in Anticode vs Softr.
Questions people ask
Which Softr plan removes the Softr branding?
Softr's pricing page lists branding removal from the Pro plan up, as of 24 October 2026. A custom domain starts on Basic.
Can I keep my Softr portal and move only the website?
Yes. Put the portal on a subdomain, build the public site elsewhere at the main domain, and link to the portal's sign-in page.
Are there apps like Softr that also build public websites?
Most website builders don't do logins and permissions, and most app builders aren't designed for marketing pages. Using one of each is often the cleaner setup.
Sources
- Softr AI app generator, checked
- Softr pricing, checked
- Carrd Pro plans, checked
- Framer pricing, checked
- Squarespace pricing, checked