Saltcorn [1] is worth a look. The back-end is Postgres, so integrations are simple. It seems to work how my mind works, it's fun to use, and I don't feel limited or locked in because the data and model are in Postgres.
Ask HN: Which NoCode platforms are fine?
11–20 of 138 posts
Re: Ask HN: Which NoCode platforms are fine?
#12If you allow for Low Code as well (what I understood from your parentheses), https://apibakery.com produces an API backend with CRUD operations, as an Django or Node server.
You can then use it as is (no code) or add business logic (low code).
Re: Ask HN: Which NoCode platforms are fine?
#13I can vouch for Odoo and its Builder module. Odoo itself is open source, but there's a paid support model. We implemented an open source version for one of my clients and for business/production/inventory/accounting I'd say it's second to none. The free modules cover maybe 90% of common business cases, and the 10% left can be handled by duplicating one of the free modules and customizing it in Builder. Odoo is actively updated by large team in Belgium if I remember correctly, and their paid support is quite good. Odoo is Python atop Postgres, and uses a simple HTML/CSS/js for the frontend. Quite customizable, and can be a no-code solution if one uses Builder, which covers most use cases.
Re: Ask HN: Which NoCode platforms are fine?
#14It depends a lot on what you consider “Low Code” and what your target is. Corporate users tend to look at Mendix, OutSystems, etc. because they are typically looking at building end—to-end solutions, and those give you front-end, APIs and ORMs (or, rather, abstract all of those away). Most OSS or IoT folk will immediately point to Node-Red or n8n.io, which look similar but are actually quite different in focus (n8n i…
I tried a bit OutSystems and its learning curve is incredibly steep for what they claim to be. It all starts with a specialized Eclipse based environment to install and to learn and only goes downhill from there. I don't know any business user able to use it, and for a regular programmer it's just another language/environment to learn. Not sure why it's a thing.
Re: Ask HN: Which NoCode platforms are fine?
#15Bubble.io is fantastic for making business applications. We find performance can often be an issue and typically transfer processing activities to external infra (incl. serverless functions)
If you draw the line and add all efforts up, is it worthy? I mean, it might be great to quickly draw the frontend, but if for the backend you must jump through a bunch of proprietary hoops, can you still feel some advantage to the entire package?
Re: Ask HN: Which NoCode platforms are fine?
#16I can vouch for Odoo and its Builder module. Odoo itself is open source, but there's a paid support model. We implemented an open source version for one of my clients and for business/production/inventory/accounting I'd say it's second to none. The free modules cover maybe 90% of common business cases, and the 10% left can be handled by duplicating one of the free modules and customizing it in Builder. Odoo is active…
Slighlty offtopic:
Having shipped an Odoo project this year, how is the developer experience for you?
It seems like Odoo forces developers into time consuming and frustrating workflows (for example using xpath + upgrade modules + possibly reload the server) that make developing for it a pain. Or I might be missing something?
Re: Ask HN: Which NoCode platforms are fine?
#17Maybe have a look at https://strapi.io/ and https://directus.io/. They are really easy to setup so yo can spend an afternoon trying out both and see if you like them.
Re: Ask HN: Which NoCode platforms are fine?
#18I have used Retool to create a (well-received) PoC of an internal-facing admin app. I was pretty impressed, even though it had some rough edges.
Setting up UIs was relatively painless thanks to many out-of-the-box integrations, and it was surprisingly easy to implement auth/error handling/component dependencies.
The thing I liked the most is that it's not really a "no code" - you need to be technical to build good apps in this tool. However, that's where the power comes from - it simplifies the mundane development tasks and lets you focus on something more high level.
I wish the team would make it easier to consume your own, custom API however.
Re: Ask HN: Which NoCode platforms are fine?
#19I've really fallen for Adalo. Before I could only run tech teams, but now I'm one of the best developers I've met for building mature MVPs.
Adalo feels to me like the most 'pure' no code experience, where it's not just a typical dev environment with a graphical visualization, but instead a tool built around functionality.
I feel like Bubble, Outsystems, etc, is built with a traditional development environment in mind, and just replaces code with snippets, while Adalo is more about extending the functionality of design software like Adobe XD all the way through to the app store and the first 50K users.
I've trained people on Adalo well and it's remarkable the progress a smart, committed person can make in just a few days.
Re: Ask HN: Which NoCode platforms are fine?
#20I can vouch for Odoo and its Builder module. Odoo itself is open source, but there's a paid support model. We implemented an open source version for one of my clients and for business/production/inventory/accounting I'd say it's second to none. The free modules cover maybe 90% of common business cases, and the 10% left can be handled by duplicating one of the free modules and customizing it in Builder. Odoo is active…
Slighlty offtopic: Having shipped an Odoo project this year, how is the developer experience for you? It seems like Odoo forces developers into time consuming and frustrating workflows (for example using xpath + upgrade modules + possibly reload the server) that make developing for it a pain. Or I might be missing something?
You are missing stuff.
In development mode with inotify you get python hot code reloading. In development mode the XML (with a handful of exceptions regarding menus, and ir.actions) will be read from disk on refresh.
At work we use Dockerized Odoo based on a [Doodba](https://github.com/Tecnativa/doodba). We use [click-odoo](https://github.com/acsone/click-odoo) to manage module upgrades (amongst other things). Dev workflow is largely managed through [invoke](https://www.pyinvoke.org/) tasks.
I do wish there was hot code reloading for the views (xml), but realistically if you’re making an app of any complexity the views in the backend are the small part and likely not where you are spending the majority of your time.
Website stuff is absolutely 100% stuck in the past at the moment, imho.