ToolJet builds internal tools on an open-source platform you can run anywhere, visually, from a prompt, or from a coding agent. Helix deploys, runs, and governs the apps your people write as code with AI.
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Pick ToolJet when you want an open-source internal tool platform you can run on your own infrastructure, with a visual builder, AI app generation, a built-in database, and workflows in one product. Pick Tray Helix when your teams build apps as plain code in Claude Code, Codex, or Cursor and IT needs every one of them to reach production through one governed path, connected to your business systems. ToolJet is an AGPL-licensed internal tool builder: apps are ToolJet apps, made in its visual builder, by ToolJet AI, or by a coding agent over the ToolJet MCP server, and they run on ToolJet Cloud or your own deployment. Helix deploys the code your teams write and runs each app with a named owner, managed credentials, role-based access, an audit trail, and spend visible per app. Each app takes one path to production.
ToolJet and Tray Helix both answer the question of how a company gets internal software built and running safely. They start from different places.
ToolJet starts from the platform. It has spent years as an open-source internal tool builder: a visual canvas of components, queries against your data sources, a built-in database, and workflows, all of which you can run on ToolJet Cloud or on your own infrastructure. In 2026 it opened that platform to AI from two sides. ToolJet AI generates an app from a description, and the ToolJet MCP plugin lets Claude Code, Codex, and Cursor build ToolJet apps directly. Either way, the result is a ToolJet app that lives on the platform and stays editable in the visual builder.
Helix starts from the code. Your people already build apps in Claude Code, Codex, and Cursor, as ordinary TypeScript and React. Helix gives that code a governed path to production: one command deploys the app to Tray’s managed runtime, and governance attaches as it ships: a named owner and registry entry, role-based access, managed credentials into your systems, an audit trail, and spend visible per app, with enterprise SSO in front.
Both sell governance, so the difference comes down to track record and scope. ToolJet’s controls cover the apps built on ToolJet, and they are real. Tray has governed enterprise workloads for years: Airbnb, DoorDash, DocuSign, and Cisco run on the Tray platform, and Tray.ai is a Visionary in the 2026 Gartner Magic Quadrant for iPaaS. Helix applies that governance to whatever your teams write with their own assistants, and connects it to your business systems through native OAuth into 800+ services.
A check means yes on every plan; the notes carry plan tiers and nuance.
| Capability | Tray Helix | ToolJet |
|---|---|---|
| Building | ||
| How apps get built | Your teams write the app as code in Claude Code, Codex, or Cursor | Visual builder with 80+ components, ToolJet AI from a prompt, or a coding agent over ToolJet MCP |
| Builders keep the AI assistant they already use | Yes | Yes, through the ToolJet MCP plugin; the result is a ToolJet app, editable in the visual builder |
| Build and test locally, edit in place | helix dev runs the app locally with hot reload; the assistant tests real authenticated calls without a deploy | Browser-based builder with multiplayer editing; self-host the platform to run it locally |
| Deployment and governance | ||
| One-command deploy to a managed runtime | Yes | Apps release inside ToolJet, on ToolJet Cloud or your own deployment, with dev, staging, and production environments |
| Enterprise SSO and identity on every deployed app | Yes | SAML, OIDC, and LDAP from the Team plan; SCIM on Enterprise |
| Managed credentials into business systems | Native OAuth into 800+ services; auth aliases keep raw secrets out of code | 100+ data sources plus any REST or gRPC endpoint, with workspace constants for shared values |
| Audit trail | On every app | Team plan with 14 days of retention; unlimited on Enterprise |
| Role-based access control | Yes | Custom user groups from Team; page, component, and query-level access rules and row-level security on Enterprise |
| Built-in app services | ||
| Backend services inside the app | Database, key-value store, persistent file storage with audit logs, scheduled functions, and triggers | ToolJet Database on PostgreSQL in every workspace; workflows and agents with app, webhook, and schedule triggers on self-hosted plans |
| Visibility and cost | ||
| One pane over every app in production | Every app, deployment, and authentication org-wide: owner, connections, activity, and spend | Workspace view of ToolJet apps; super admin dashboard on self-hosted Team |
| AI and compute spend per app | Yes | AI credits pooled per workspace, allotted per builder |
| App registry with a named owner | Yes | Apps organized in ToolJet workspaces |
| Track record | ||
| Years running enterprise workloads | Runs on the Tray platform: Airbnb, DoorDash, DocuSign, and Cisco run on Tray | Open source since 2021; 25,000+ users, with customers including Orange and Unity |
ToolJet is open source in a way few platforms in this market are. The core is on GitHub under the AGPL-3.0 license with more than 40,000 stars and 600+ contributors, and the free Community Edition runs on Docker, Kubernetes, a VPC, or on-premise. Teams can read the code, run it themselves, and grow into paid plans without a migration, and Self-hosted Enterprise adds air-gapped operation, multi-instance deployments, and bring-your-own LLM keys.
It has also kept pace on AI. ToolJet AI generates an app's screens, queries, and data bindings from a description, and since September 2026 the ToolJet MCP plugin lets Claude Code, Codex, and Cursor build and edit ToolJet apps on the builder's own agent subscription, with no ToolJet AI credits consumed. Every generated app stays editable in the visual builder, so a developer and an operations lead can work on the same tool.
The governance is real. SAML, OIDC, and LDAP single sign-on, custom user groups, audit logs, and Git sync arrive on the Team plan; SCIM, unlimited audit retention, and page, component, and query-level access rules arrive on Enterprise. ToolJet undergoes SOC 2 Type II audits and is GDPR compliant. For admin panels and dashboards on a platform you control end to end, it is a strong pick.
A Helix app is ordinary TypeScript and React that your teams write in Claude Code, Codex, or Cursor, with whatever libraries they choose. The assistant builds and tests it locally with hot reload through helix dev, and helix deploy takes it to a managed runtime and a URL.
Helix's admin console shows every app across the org in one place: who owns it, where it is deployed, who can use it, which authentications it holds, what it is doing, and what it spends.
Helix apps connect to business systems through Tray's native OAuth into 800+ services. Credentials are stored encrypted and apps use auth aliases, so nothing ships hardcoded and builders never handle raw secrets.
AI and compute spend is tracked per app from the first request, so IT sees what each app costs alongside its activity, logs, and health.
Every app deploys with a named owner and an App Registry entry. This is the inventory a security review asks for.
Airbnb turned an 8-week integration project into 1 week on the Tray platform. DocuSign runs 150M tasks a month on it. Tray.ai is a Visionary in the 2026 Gartner Magic Quadrant for iPaaS, and Helix puts that platform under every app your teams ship.
Claude Code, Codex, and Cursor are not part of this comparison. They are the build surface: your teams write the app with the assistant they already use, and Tray Helix deploys, runs, and governs what they build. Choosing Helix never means changing coding assistants.
Published. From $50 per workspace a month plus $1.00 per HCU of usage, cheaper on a commitment. Billing is per workspace plus usage, never per app.
Public and per builder. On ToolJet Cloud, Free is $0 for 2 builders, 50 end users, and 10 apps; Basic is $23, Pro $79, and Team $199 per builder a month billed annually ($29, $99, and $249 billed monthly). Team carries SSO and audit logs and allows up to 100 end users; Enterprise is custom with unlimited end users and SCIM. Self-hosted offers a free Community Edition, Team at $199 per builder a month, and custom Enterprise. Extra AI credits are $1 per 100. Figures from tooljet.com/pricing, October 2026.
Weighing more than two options? Read The 11 best ToolJet alternatives in 2026, compared.
ToolJet is a platform for building and running internal tools: apps are ToolJet apps, made in its visual builder, by ToolJet AI, or by a coding agent over ToolJet MCP. Tray Helix deploys, runs, and governs apps your teams write as plain code in Claude Code, Codex, or Cursor. One command takes each app to production with a named owner, managed credentials, role-based access, an audit trail, and spend visible per app.
Yes. It undergoes SOC 2 Type II audits and is GDPR compliant, offers SAML, OIDC, and LDAP single sign-on from the Team plan, and adds SCIM, unlimited audit log retention, row-level security, and fine-grained access rules on Enterprise, with self-hosted and air-gapped options. The difference is scope. ToolJet governs the apps built on ToolJet. Helix governs the apps your teams write with their own AI coding assistants and connects them to your systems through managed auth, on a platform Airbnb, DoorDash, DocuSign, and Cisco run on.
Through the ToolJet MCP plugin, Claude Code, Codex, or Cursor builds a ToolJet app: pages, components, and queries that live in ToolJet and stay editable in its visual builder. With Helix, the assistant writes an ordinary TypeScript and React app inside a Helix project and deploys it with one command. Both are sound choices; the question is whether your apps should be ToolJet apps or plain code.
Not cleanly. A ToolJet app is built from ToolJet components and queries and runs on the ToolJet platform, so there is no supported lift into Helix. Teams that want the governed version of an app rebuild it with the AI coding assistant they already use, inside a Helix project. The Helix SDK is small and opinionated, so the assistant carries an app's key features across as ordinary code work.
ToolJet publishes per-builder pricing: on ToolJet Cloud, Basic, Pro, and Team cost $23, $79, and $199 per builder a month billed annually, with SSO on Team and SCIM on Enterprise, and end-user limits on every plan below Enterprise. Tray Helix also publishes its pricing: it starts at $50 per workspace a month plus $1.00 per HCU of usage, cheaper on a commitment. ToolJet charges per builder; Helix charges per workspace plus usage.
Yes, when your apps are being written as code with AI coding assistants. Builders keep Claude Code, Codex, or Cursor, and every app deploys in one command with a named owner, managed auth across 800+ services, an audit trail, and spend visible per app, on the Tray platform that Airbnb, DocuSign, and Cisco run on. ToolJet stays the better pick for an open-source, visually built internal tool platform you run yourself.
It depends on what your people build. If they build ToolJet apps, its Team and Enterprise plans govern that surface with SSO, user groups, access rules, and audit logs. If they write apps as code with Claude Code, Codex, or Cursor, those apps need their own governed path to production, which is what Tray Helix provides: one deploy path, one registry, one view over every app.
Facts about ToolJet last reviewed October 2026. Products change; if something here is out of date, tell us and we will fix it.
Your teams build with AI. Helix runs and governs it all.
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