Retool Multipage Apps: How to Build, Enable, and Use Them

Retool multipage apps are one of the most requested features in the Retool community, and for good reason. If you've ever dealt with slow large apps, flickering when navigating between separate apps, or a cluttered home page full of one-off tools, multipage solves all of that in one shot. Retool officially launched the multipage beta, and this guide walks you through how to enable it, how to build with it, and how to work around the bugs that will inevitably bite you.

What Are Retool Multipage Apps?

A multipage app in Retool is a single app that contains multiple pages — think of it like a mini web application rather than a standalone widget. Instead of building five separate Retool apps for five related views and linking between them, you build one app with five pages. Retool only evaluates the plugins on the currently active page, which is the core reason for the performance gains.

According to Retool's internal testing, multipage apps are 30–40% faster on initial load compared to their single-page counterparts. For large, data-heavy internal tools, that difference is immediately noticeable.

Key Problems Retool Multipage Apps Solve

• Slow performance in large apps caused by evaluating every component and query at once
• White flashing or flickering when navigating between separate Retool apps
• Managing edits across multiple apps open in multiple browser tabs
• App sprawl on the home page from dozens of single-purpose apps
• Building list-detail views that feel native and connected
• Sharing state and data across what used to be separate apps
• Reducing module usage by consolidating shared navigation into a global frame

How to Enable Retool Multipage Apps

Enabling the feature depends on whether your organization is cloud-hosted or on-premises:

• Cloud orgs: Go to your organization's Beta settings and toggle on the multipage beta. It's self-serve.
• On-prem orgs: Fill out Retool's sign-up form to request access. Once approved, the feature will be enabled on your instance.
• If you've signed up and still don't see multipage after a couple of days, email multipage-team@retool.com.

How to Create a Multipage App in Retool

Once multipage is enabled on your instance, creating a multipage app is straightforward:

• From the Retool home page, click the Create new button and select Multipage app from the dropdown. This option only appears after the feature is enabled.
• Inside the editor, you'll see a new Pages tab in the left-hand sidebar. Click the + icon to add a new page.
• You can also import an existing single-page app as a page within your new multipage app.
• To connect pages together, use Retool's navigation actions. Wire up buttons or menu items to navigate between pages just like you would a normal web app.

For mobile, multipage is also supported in this beta. When you create a multipage app, you'll have the option to select a multipage mobile app type from the same add app dropdown. If you don't see the mobile layout toggle in the bottom-left of the editor right away, don't panic — it appears once you've added components to the canvas.

Global Components and Shared Navigation Across Pages

One of the most powerful features of multipage is the ability to define global frames — things like a sidebar, header, or nav bar — that persist across every page without re-rendering. This replaces the common workaround of using Retool modules just to share a navigation component between apps.

The roadmap includes first-class support for global and page-specific frames such as Drawer, Modal, Split Pane, Sidebar, and Header. For now, you can use the existing container and frame options with some manual wiring.

Common Bugs and Fixes in Retool Multipage Beta

Because this is a beta, expect rough edges. Here are the most commonly reported issues and their workarounds:

• Components inside containers disappear on new pages: This is a known bug where components nested inside containers don't carry over correctly when a new page is created. The fix is to cut and paste the affected components rather than relying on the default import behavior. After a cut-paste, the issue resolves itself.
• Mobile layout toggle missing: If you create a multipage mobile app and don't see the mobile layout toggle in the bottom-left of the editor, add some components to the canvas first. The toggle appears once the canvas has content.
• Getting the current page from context: If you need to know which page is active — for example, to highlight the correct nav item in a global header — you can access this via the app context object. Check Retool's docs or community thread responses for the exact context key, as this is still being standardized in the beta.

What's Not Supported Yet (Beta Limitations)

Retool is explicit that multipage apps are not yet at full feature parity with single-page apps. Known gaps during the beta include:

• Multiplayer editing — collaborative editing is not yet supported in multipage apps
• Theming — custom themes don't fully apply across multipage apps yet
• Public, embed, and portals — these are on the roadmap but not yet available

The end goal from Retool's team is for all apps to support multiple pages natively. The current distinction between single-page and multipage apps is temporary, driven by parity work that's still in progress.

Should You Migrate Your Existing Apps to Multipage?

If you have a cluster of related single-page apps that share navigation or data, yes — migrating to a multipage app will improve performance and drastically simplify your setup. If you have standalone tools that don't interact with each other, hold off until the feature reaches general availability and full parity. For new builds, defaulting to multipage is a safe choice as long as you don't need multiplayer or advanced theming right now.

As Retool ships fixes and closes the parity gap, multipage will become the standard way to build internal tools in Retool. Getting familiar with it now puts you ahead of that curve.