Think fast
Thoughts and ideas on how to build tools, automate workflows and speed-up the workplace.
5 Filemaker Alternatives & Competitors for 2024
Claris FileMaker Pro is one of the oldest names in the low-code space. Claris is a subsidiary of Apple, so FileMaker was originally conceived as essentially being a Microsoft Access alternative for Mac users. This is an important piece of context because it means that FileMaker started life as an integrated relational database engine and GUI. This remains its core offering, but it’s also evolved to include functionality around building custom interfaces and automations.
Ronan McQuillan
Jan 2, 2024
Top 5 Appian Alternatives & Competitors in 2024
Appian is one of the most popular low-code platforms on the market today. Founded in 1999, it’s also one of the older players in this space. Perhaps more than any of its competitors, Appian is highly focused on enabling teams to automate manual processes, without necessarily having previous development experience. On top of this, it offers all of the same kinds of functionality that we see with other platforms in this space - like a visual interface builder, data management tools, and other features for speeding up internal app development.
Ronan McQuillan
Jan 2, 2024
Create a Form to Enter Google Sheets Data in 7 Steps
Obviously, Google Sheets is great for collaboratively managing all sorts of data. There are big downsides here too though, especially if you’re working at scale. One solution is using a form to enter data into Google Sheets. Today, we’re going to look at exactly how you can do this in Budibase. There are a bunch of other ways you could do this too, of course. We’re biased, but we think Budibase is the best option.
Ronan McQuillan
Jan 1, 2024
Top 5 Quickbase Alternatives & Competitors in 2024
Quickbase is one of many tools on the market today that seeks to give teams a single platform for unifying data, managing internal processes, and automating menial tasks. This reflects a huge problem that’s faced by almost every business today. Companies have never relied on data more. At the same time, data assets are dispersed, siloed, and uncoordinated. Therefore, centralization offers huge potential for efficiency savings, improving accuracy, facilitating collaboration, providing oversight, and more.
Ronan McQuillan
Dec 12, 2023
Top 5 Airtable Alternatives & Competitors in 2024
When Airtable launched in 2012, it was a real innovation. Spreadsheets hadn’t changed much in several decades. So, the power to add interfaces, automations, advanced in-line components, and external data syncing on top of this was huge. Today, Airtable has upwards of 300,000 users - including some of the world’s biggest companies. But, despite Airtable’s popularity, it’s not necessarily the ideal solution for every use case. Today, we’re exploring some of the other tools that teams can use to collaborate on data and manage internal processes, with our roundup of Airtable alternatives.
Ronan McQuillan
Dec 6, 2023
Top 6 PowerApps Alternatives & Competitors in 2024
Microsoft PowerApps was one of the first modern low-code platforms when it launched in 2015. The goal was to provide large businesses with a new, faster way to output custom applications. Today, it’s used by developers and other IT professionals alike to simplify the process of building custom software. Thousands of companies in all kinds of industries choose PowerApps for internal development projects. However, that doesn’t mean that PowerApps is the right fit for every organization.
Ronan McQuillan
Dec 5, 2023
Top 6 Retool Alternatives & Competitors in 2024
Retool is one of the biggest players in the low-code space. However, that doesn’t mean it’s viable for every business; it’s far from it. Today, we’re checking out some of the top Retool alternatives from across the market. And it’s a crowded market nowadays. However, there’s huge variation between different options - across their pricing, features, target personas, use cases, and more. Today, we’re covering the following: What is Retool? Why would you look for an alternative to Retool?
Ronan McQuillan
Nov 30, 2023
How to Build a Manufacturing Dashboard
Manufacturing dashboards offer a real-time snapshot of the state of your production processes. The goal is to provide decision-makers with a fast, easy way to access KPIs and other important insights. Crucially, this replaces the need to manually crunch numbers each time you need the figures in question. Any time we set out to build dashboards, the biggest challenge is getting all of the different data that we need into one location, formatted compatibly.
Ronan McQuillan
Nov 10, 2023