Administrate
Better knownA Rails admin dashboard framework you own and override
No ratings yet# Gemfile
gem "administrate"Administrate vs Motor Admin
Both replace Retool. Administrate is the better-known of the two (5,800 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 Administrate does
Administrate generates admin controllers and views that you then edit like any other Rails code. The generated code is yours. A dashboard class per model describing fields and their types Index, show, new and edit screens Search and filtering Every view overridable, because they are generated into your app Administrate generates code into your repository; Madmin keeps more of itself inside the gem. Pick generated-and-editable, or configured-and-compact.
Read the full Administrate listing →
Why you might pick it
- It also replaces Forest Admin.
- It has substantially more adoption — 5,800 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.
| Administrate | 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) | 5800 | 1500 |
| Gem (differs) | administrate | motor-admin |
| Mounts at (differs) | /admin | /motor_admin |
| Member rating | — | — |
What each one gets off your invoice
Questions
- What is the difference between Administrate and Motor Admin?
- Both replace Retool. Administrate is the better-known of the two (5,800 stars), while Motor Admin also stands in for Metabase Cloud.
- Can I mount both Administrate 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 Administrate and Motor Admin replace the same SaaS product?
- Both are listed as replacements for Retool.