What is Refine used for?

Refine is a headless React framework for creating internal tools, back-office admin panels, dashboards and B2B apps, with pluggable data, auth and UI integrations. It is a good fit for back-office admin panels, internal dashboards over existing APIs and B2B portals built with React.

Is Refine open source?

Yes. Refine is open source under the MIT licence. Its source code is on GitHub at refinedev/refine and is written mainly in TypeScript.

Yes. Refine is open source, so the software itself is free to use. Paid plans are also available, starting at $0.99 per month.

Can I self-host Refine?

Yes. Refine can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure; there is no official hosted version.

What is Refine an alternative to?

Refine is an open-source alternative to Retool, Superblocks, Appian and OutSystems. Other open-source alternatives to Retool include Appsmith, ToolJet and Lowdefy.

Is Refine actively maintained?

Yes. The most recent commit to Refine was on 10 September 2026. The project has 36k stars on GitHub.

Refine: open-source alternative to Retool, Superblocks

About Refine

Refine is a React-based framework aimed at internal tools, admin panels, dashboards and business-to-business applications. It is described as headless, meaning it provides the logic for data fetching, routing, authentication and other CRUD concerns through hooks and components while leaving the visual layer to the UI library you prefer.

Its topics reference Ant Design, GraphQL, NestJS and Next.js, which reflects the range of UI kits, data sources and runtimes it can be paired with. Because it builds on plain React, teams can use it as a low-code accelerator for common admin screens while still writing normal TypeScript where they need custom behavior.

Refine is MIT licensed and distributed as npm packages, with the core published as @refinedev/core. It runs inside your own project, so there is nothing to host separately. It suits front-end teams who are tired of hand-building the same tables, forms and permissions in every back-office project.

Key features

Headless React hooks for CRUD operations
Data provider abstraction for APIs and GraphQL
Authentication and access control hooks
Works with Ant Design and other UI libraries
Integration with Next.js apps
Written in TypeScript

Good fit for

→Back-office admin panels
→Internal dashboards over existing APIs
→B2B portals built with React

Built with: TypeScript; React; GraphQL; Next.js; JavaScript
Tags: react; admin-panel; internal-tools; headless; typescript; low-code; dashboards; framework

Refine: questions and answers

What is Refine used for?: Refine is a headless React framework for creating internal tools, back-office admin panels, dashboards and B2B apps, with pluggable data, auth and UI integrations. It is a good fit for back-office admin panels, internal dashboards over existing APIs and B2B portals built with React.
Is Refine open source?: Yes. Refine is open source under the MIT licence. Its source code is on GitHub at refinedev/refine and is written mainly in TypeScript.
Is Refine free?: Yes. Refine is open source, so the software itself is free to use. Paid plans are also available, starting at $0.99 per month.
Can I self-host Refine?: Yes. Refine can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure; there is no official hosted version.
What is Refine an alternative to?: Refine is an open-source alternative to Retool, Superblocks, Appian and OutSystems. Other open-source alternatives to Retool include Appsmith, ToolJet and Lowdefy.
Is Refine actively maintained?: Yes. The most recent commit to Refine was on 10 September 2026. The project has 36k stars on GitHub.