ActiveAdmin
Better knownThe long-standing Rails admin framework, mounted at /admin
No ratings yet# Gemfile
gem "activeadmin"ActiveAdmin vs Motor Admin
Both replace Retool. ActiveAdmin is the better-known of the two (9,600 stars), while Motor Admin also stands in for Metabase Cloud.
Low-code admin panel and business intelligence, mounted in your app
No ratings yet# Gemfile
gem "motor-admin"
# config/routes.rb
mount Motor::Admin, at: "/motor_admin"What ActiveAdmin does
ActiveAdmin has been the default answer to "we need an admin" in Rails for over a decade, and it is still maintained. A DSL for registering resources Filters, scopes, batch actions and CSV export Custom pages and dashboard sections Authorization adapters for CanCan and Pundit The DSL is powerful and opinionated. Deviating from it costs more than it does in Administrate, where you are editing ordinary generated views.
Read the full ActiveAdmin listing →
Why you might pick it
- It also replaces Forest Admin.
- It has substantially more adoption — 9,600 stars against 1,500.
- Its licence is MIT, which may matter more than the feature list.
What Motor Admin does
Motor Admin gives you an admin panel that non-developers can reshape from the browser, plus SQL-backed reports and dashboards, all mounted in your app. Auto-generated CRUD for every model Column, filter and form customisation saved to the database SQL queries, dashboards and alerts Custom forms that POST to your own endpoints AGPL-3.0, with a commercial option. If AGPL is a problem where you work, resolve that before building on it.
Read the full Motor Admin listing →
Why you might pick it
- It also replaces Metabase Cloud.
- Its licence is AGPL-3.0 or commercial, which may matter more than the feature list.
Side by side
Rows where the two differ are marked.
| ActiveAdmin | Motor Admin | |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Admin and internal tools | Admin and internal tools |
| Replaces (differs) | Forest Admin, Retool | Metabase Cloud, Retool |
| License (differs) | MIT | AGPL-3.0 or commercial |
| GitHub stars (differs) | 9600 | 1500 |
| Gem (differs) | activeadmin | motor-admin |
| Mounts at (differs) | /admin | /motor_admin |
| Member rating | — | — |
What each one gets off your invoice
Questions
- What is the difference between ActiveAdmin and Motor Admin?
- Both replace Retool. ActiveAdmin is the better-known of the two (9,600 stars), while Motor Admin also stands in for Metabase Cloud.
- Can I mount both ActiveAdmin and Motor Admin in the same Rails app?
- Technically yes — engines mount at different paths — but they overlap, so running both usually means two sets of tables doing one job. Pick one.
- Do ActiveAdmin and Motor Admin replace the same SaaS product?
- Both are listed as replacements for Retool.