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Databutton vs. Idea to Production

A procurement, operations or finance team in a manufacturing company that wants internal apps and ERP-connected agents built by an AI agent, with a full audit trail, EU data residency and onboarding by contacting Riff.

  • Verified 2026-09-12
  • Sources below
  • No logos, no adjectives

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Now Riff — an agent that writes a React and TypeScript front end, a Python FastAPI back end and a serverless PostgreSQL database from chat and hosts the app, now aimed at procurement and operations teams in manufacturing

Choose Databutton if

  • You want a full stack on a URL from one chat — a React and TypeScript front end, a FastAPI back end and a PostgreSQL database — hosted by Riff with separate development and production environments and nothing to provision.
  • You run procurement or operations in a manufacturing company: Riff’s agents connect natively to Infor LN and M3, SAP S/4HANA, Oracle ERP Cloud and Dynamics 365, escalate what they cannot decide, and log every action with a reversal path.
  • You need to pass procurement: Riff states SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 certification, EU data residency by default, SAML and OIDC single sign-on, SCIM provisioning and an exportable audit log.
  • You want a version history with restore, a logs panel the agent can read to propose a fix, and pre-deployment skills that scan for leaked keys and missing auth checks before you go live.

Choose Idea to Production if

  • One named contact who built the application and will fix it — Riff’s support looks into your workspace only when you enable support access, and a response time or a support tier is not documented.
  • Backups with restores we have actually run — Riff’s version history restores code checkpoints, and a backup or a tested restore of the production database is not documented.
  • Monitoring that reaches a person: Riff’s logs panel shows errors as they happen to whoever has the workspace open, and uptime monitoring of the deployed app or alerting is not documented.
  • Roles and permissions for your own customers from day one, with SSO and audit logs when the first enterprise deal arrives — Riff documents SSO and audit logs for its workspace and agents, and single sign-on for an app’s external users is not documented.

Row by row

What each one actually gives you

Not documented means we could not find it in Databutton's own material — it is not a claim that it is missing. Everything marked No links to the source that says so.

Capability Databutton (Riff) Idea to Production
Who it is for Databutton (Riff) Yes Procurement, operations and finance teams in manufacturing companies who want internal apps and ERP-connected agents without writing code; Databutton users move their apps over with a Move to Riff button. Idea to Production Yes Founders and businesses whose application has to work in front of a paying customer.
How you build Databutton (Riff) Yes You describe the app in chat; the Riff agent writes a React and TypeScript front end, a Python FastAPI back end and a serverless PostgreSQL database, tests it, and deploys it from a Deploy button. Source Idea to Production Yes You describe it in plain English; we build it and keep it running.
Time to a first working version Databutton (Riff) Partly Riff states a first agent runs on live orders in weeks, not quarters; a live preview updates as the agent builds and a deploy publishes to a permanent URL after a checklist, and a self-serve free start is not documented. Source Idea to Production Partly A first working version in days, not minutes — it has real accounts and real data from the start.
Pricing model Databutton (Riff) Partly No price list is published — riff.ai has no pricing page and its calls to action are Learn more and Contact; the docs refer to paid plans and a monthly credit subscription, and the archived Databutton-era docs charged 2 credits an hour for a deployed app whose back end is running. Source Idea to Production Yes A licence plus the resources your application actually uses. No salary, no equity.
Code ownership and export Databutton (Riff) Partly The full React and FastAPI source is visible and editable in the code editor; a ZIP export is documented only in the archived Databutton-era docs, a GitHub sync is not documented, and the database is a serverless PostgreSQL instance that Riff hosts. Source Idea to Production Yes The source is yours, handed over in a form your own team can pick up and continue.
Hosting and custom domain Databutton (Riff) Partly Hosted by Riff at username.riff.works/app-name, a URL that does not change between deployments; a custom domain needs a paid plan and DNS records you add and verify. Source Idea to Production Yes Production and staging on your own domain with TLS, Canadian regions by default.
Accounts, roles and SSO Databutton (Riff) Partly Email and password sign-in with sessions for the app’s users, per-page and per-endpoint protection you toggle before deploying, and an implement-user-roles skill; SAML and OIDC single sign-on, SCIM and role-based access are stated for the Riff platform, and single sign-on for an app’s own users is not documented. Source Idea to Production Yes Real accounts, roles and permissions from day one; single sign-on switched on when you need it.
Database and tested backups Databutton (Riff) Partly A serverless PostgreSQL database per app, separate for development and production, with migrations written by the agent and a table browser; a backup or a tested restore of the production database is not documented, while version history restores the code. Source Idea to Production Yes A backed-up database with restores tested, not assumed.
Monitoring, alerting to a person Databutton (Riff) Partly A logs panel shows back-end output, API calls, errors and browser console messages in real time, with a button that sends them to the agent for a fix; uptime monitoring of the deployed app or alerting to a person is not documented. Source Idea to Production Yes Watched from outside on a short interval, alerting to a person, not a dashboard.
Security patching and dependency updates Databutton (Riff) Partly Pre-deployment skills scan for leaked keys, missing auth checks, hardcoded secrets and injection risks and create tasks for high and critical findings, and an Upgrade control moves the workspace to the latest Riff runtime; scheduled dependency updates for your app are not documented. Source Idea to Production Yes Dependencies and security advisories applied on a schedule, forever.
Compliance evidence Databutton (Riff) Partly Riff’s site describes it as SOC 2 and ISO 27001 aligned in one place and SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 certified in its FAQ, GDPR-compliant with EU data residency by default and regular penetration tests, with a trust centre and a DPA on request; an exportable audit log covers agent actions, and evidence for your app is not documented. Source Idea to Production Partly A written security overview and answered questionnaires today. SOC 2 Type II is in progress, not certified.
Payments, email, e-signature, support Databutton (Riff) Partly Native connectors for Infor LN and M3, SAP S/4HANA, Oracle ERP Cloud and Microsoft Dynamics 365, an integrations tab for OAuth services such as Slack, and custom integrations for any API; payments, e-signature and support-desk connectors are not in the current docs, with Stripe and HubSpot among the archived Databutton-era connectors. Source Idea to Production Yes Thirteen categories built in — Stripe, Xero, Mailgun, Twilio, DocuSign, Intercom, Jira and more.
AI agents Databutton (Riff) Yes Agents are a build type of their own: a trigger from a schedule, an inbound message or an ERP record, tools and integrations as credentialed data sources, escalation thresholds, a plan mode for review before running, and an immutable audit log with a reversal path for every action. Source Idea to Production Yes AI agents with credentials, limits, a schedule and an audit trail.
Who is responsible when it breaks Databutton (Riff) Partly Riff support views your workspace only when you enable support access and revoke it afterwards; a response time, a support tier and whether support fixes the code of your app are not documented. Source Idea to Production Yes The people who built it. One named contact, not a ticket queue.
Scaling Databutton (Riff) Partly Riff states you do not need to manage infrastructure or hosting and that the platform handles them, with a serverless PostgreSQL database; capacity, limits and what happens under load are not documented. Source Idea to Production Yes Capacity follows demand and is measured; ten users or ten thousand on the same application.
Deployment into your own cloud Databutton (Riff) Partly Apps run on Riff’s hosting with EU data residency by default and a choice of region for execution metadata, and you can bring your own LLM provider, including self-hosted models; running the app in your own cloud is not documented. Source Idea to Production No Not yet — on the roadmap. Today the application runs on our infrastructure. Source

After the build

The part that decides whether it survives a customer

What Riff provides once the app exists

Riff hosts the deployed app at username.riff.works/app-name, a URL that stays the same across deployments, with a custom domain on a paid plan through DNS records you add. Development and production are separate environments with their own PostgreSQL database, secrets and environment variables. Before the first deploy a checklist confirms the subdomain, the owner and basic security checks, and a security review lists every page and endpoint that is publicly reachable for you to shield. Skills you trigger scan for leaked keys, missing auth checks and injection risks. Version history restores any checkpoint of the code. A logs panel streams back-end and browser errors, and one click sends them to the agent for a fix. Automations run endpoints on a cron.

What a real customer asks for that is not on that list

The first paying customer does not care which builder made the app. They want it up at two in the morning, and someone to have noticed first; the logs panel shows errors to whoever is looking at the workspace. They want a restore that has been rehearsed — version history restores code, and a backup of the production database is not documented. They want a price they can plan around, and Riff does not publish one. They want to sign in with their own company’s identity provider, which Riff documents for its workspace rather than for an app’s external users. None of that is a feature you prompt for; it is a job someone has to hold, every week, for as long as the application earns money.

Every application we build inherits the same five guarantees: Secure, Compliant, Reliable, Scalable, Efficient.

Already built on Databutton?

We treat your prototype as the brief.

A working prototype is the best specification there is: it shows what you want rather than describing it. We start from what you have learned, not from its code, and you get a production application with real accounts, real data and somebody watching it.

Show us what you have

Questions people ask

Can you take over my Databutton app?

We treat it as the brief. A Databutton or Riff prototype is the clearest specification you can hand us — it shows exactly which screens, flows, tables and roles you want. We rebuild from it with real accounts, a backed-up database and monitoring from the start, rather than inheriting generated code we did not write and cannot vouch for, on a database only Riff hosts.

Is Databutton a bad choice?

No. As Riff, it is a good fit for a procurement or operations team in manufacturing that wants internal tools and ERP-connected agents with an audit trail, escalation to a person and EU data residency, and it still builds a real full stack — React, FastAPI and PostgreSQL — from a chat. The question is whether that market is yours, and who runs the app once someone is paying to use it.

What happened to Databutton?

Databutton was renamed Riff — the change was announced by the founder in October 2025 — and the company behind it, based in Oslo, is the same. Existing Databutton apps are moved with a Move to Riff button that upgrades the workspace and lists follow-up tasks; the built-in email sender and the secrets helper in the old SDK were discontinued in the move. Riff now describes itself as built for procurement and operations teams in manufacturing, and the docs for the old self-serve builder are kept in an archive. Riff no longer publishes a price or a self-serve sign-up for the app builder: riff.ai’s calls to action are Learn more and Contact, and the archived docs are the only place the old plans appear.

Does Riff host my app, and what does it cost?

Riff hosts the deployed app at username.riff.works/app-name and states you do not need to manage infrastructure or hosting; a custom domain needs a paid plan. There is no public price list: riff.ai has no pricing page and onboarding is by contacting Riff, the docs refer to paid plans and a monthly credit subscription, and the archived Databutton-era docs charged 2 credits an hour for a deployed app whose back end is running.

Who is responsible for backups on Databutton?

Every Riff app has its own serverless PostgreSQL database, separate for development and production, with migrations written by the agent and a table browser to inspect rows. Version history restores any checkpoint of the code, not the data. A backup, a retention period or a tested restore of the production database is not documented, and testing one is what turns a backup into a recovery.

Can I export my Riff code and leave?

Partly. The code editor shows the full React and FastAPI source and lets you edit it, and the archived Databutton-era docs describe an Export Code button that downloads a ZIP without secrets. A GitHub sync is not documented, and the database is a serverless PostgreSQL instance that Riff hosts, so moving the data out is not a documented path either.

Sources

Last verified 2026-09-12. Databutton changes; if something here is out of date, tell us and we will correct it.

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