Plasmic.app: Visual editing and content platform for building websites and apps

#1

Post by octopoc » Tue, Dec 19, 2023, 4:27 PM UTC

Plasmic.app: Visual editing and content platform for building websites and apps
plasmic.app

Re: Plasmic.app: Visual editing and content platform for building websites and apps

#2

Post by solardev » Tue, Dec 19, 2023, 5:31 PM UTC

I don't really get what this does. The front page feels like a lot of empty marketing, but I still don't understand how it works...?

Re: Plasmic.app: Visual editing and content platform for building websites and apps

#3

Post by theogravity » Tue, Dec 19, 2023, 5:33 PM UTC

solardev wrote: post #2

I don't really get what this does. The front page feels like a lot of empty marketing, but I still don't understand how it works...?

Same. Reading the page all the way down makes it look like a ReTool competitor?

Re: Plasmic.app: Visual editing and content platform for building websites and apps

#4

Post by nkozyra » Tue, Dec 19, 2023, 5:36 PM UTC

solardev wrote: post #2

I don't really get what this does. The front page feels like a lot of empty marketing, but I still don't understand how it works...?

Definitely a textbook example of too much splash.

If you pull all the marketing taglines together, it's a no/low-code app builder. We have those, what makes this different? That's the front page sell.

Re: Plasmic.app: Visual editing and content platform for building websites and apps

#5

Post by chaos_emergent » Tue, Dec 19, 2023, 5:36 PM UTC

solardev wrote: post #2

I don't really get what this does. The front page feels like a lot of empty marketing, but I still don't understand how it works...?

Seems like it’s Framer-meets-Retool.

Framer has a great UI builder, but doesn’t connect to backends very well. They have their own CMS but the net result is that you typically use it for marketing sites but not business app interfaces.

Retool can connect to a lot of different data sources but is ugly and wouldn’t help build a customer-facing app that I would feel proud of. They give you easy to use UI primitives to get you up and running fast.

This seems like a UI builder that can hook into backend systems.

Re: Plasmic.app: Visual editing and content platform for building websites and apps

#6

Post by octopoc » Tue, Dec 19, 2023, 5:36 PM UTC

solardev wrote: post #2

I don't really get what this does. The front page feels like a lot of empty marketing, but I still don't understand how it works...?

I think they're trying to invent a new market where none exists yet, and when you do that you HAVE to communicate very clearly. Basically I think they're a WYSIWYG editor for a React SPA. For me, this section helped:

https://github.com/plasmicapp/plasmic?tab=readme-ov-file#how...

Re: Plasmic.app: Visual editing and content platform for building websites and apps

#7

Post by ffitch » Tue, Dec 19, 2023, 5:38 PM UTC

An ability to connect a custom UI to managed data source connectors seems interesting. Probably just me, but I find most of the point-and-click intranet builders a bit cumbersome and restrictive.

Re: Plasmic.app: Visual editing and content platform for building websites and apps

#8

Post by octopoc » Tue, Dec 19, 2023, 5:38 PM UTC

Eventually someone is going to build a good enough visual app builder with AI assistant, and nobody will ever know except that a mysterious startup with seemingly unlimited resources and agility is taking over every SaaS market.

Re: Plasmic.app: Visual editing and content platform for building websites and apps

#9

Post by solardev » Tue, Dec 19, 2023, 5:43 PM UTC

octopoc wrote: post #6

solardev wrote: post #2

I don't really get what this does. The front page feels like a lot of empty marketing, but I still don't understand how it works...?

I think they're trying to invent a new market where none exists yet, and when you do that you HAVE to communicate very clearly. Basically I think they're a WYSIWYG editor for a React SPA. For me, this section helped: https://github.com/plasmicapp/plasmic?tab=readme-ov-file#how...

Thanks! That's a lot more helpful. I understand the gist of its value offering now.

Still have questions about how component composition and layout work, but at least the readme is clearer about what the product IS.

Re: Plasmic.app: Visual editing and content platform for building websites and apps

#10

Post by xyzzyrz » Tue, Dec 19, 2023, 5:49 PM UTC

solardev wrote: post #2

I don't really get what this does. The front page feels like a lot of empty marketing, but I still don't understand how it works...?

Thanks for the feedback, we're still iterating on the homepage and didn't expect to get posted here yet!

Our repo https://github.com/plasmicapp/plasmic might be a bit more concrete.

It's a visual page builder that integrates with React codebases. Content management is our biggest use case - i.e., dev team integrates with Plasmic, and then marketing/content/design teams can create landing pages on the marketing site.

(A newer use case is building applications as well, hence some of the comparisons with Retool etc. There's actually quite a bit of overlap between these use cases, esp. when considering external-facing "customer portal"-style applications.)