
Ask HN: Which low-code/no-code tools don't suck? - arey_abhishek
Low-code&#x2F;no-code tools seem to be taking off. I read a post the other day that compared low-code tools to iPhone photography vs. using a DSLR. Most visual programming tools seem to be pretty bad at letting you build something complex.<p>Are there any products out there that you love? Why do you love them?
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HackeetOfficial
Hi, I think that this question can not be answered so easily, unfortunately.
Low-code tools are just a new way of writing applications, and thus, as there
is no programming language that is universal, there is no low-code tool that
will allow you to build everything. As a programmer, if you want to do
intensive database queries, you will probably go SQL while if you want to
write web applications you will probably choose php/node or whatever. For low-
code I think it is more or less the same. Some of them are good at building
nice UI (I personally think that Panda Suite is a pretty good tool for
that([http://www.pandasuite.com)](http://www.pandasuite.com\))) while others
allow you do build flows applications or complex event processing, etc...
Everything depends on your needs and on what you mean by "complex". If there
is a low-code product that I love, I would recommend you to have a look at
Hackeet ([https://www.hackeet.com](https://www.hackeet.com)) but it is a
biased opinion because I have created it ! So, in order to be honest, I
suggest you to have a look to node-red too which seems to be quite popular. I
(obviously) prefer our product but among our competitors, this is the one we
prefer. Hope this helps.

Thierry (Hackeet, A Cost Effective Low-Code platform, for everyone !,
[https://www.hackeet.com](https://www.hackeet.com) )

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twunde
Low-code/no-code tools have been around for a long time and come and go in
cycles. Microsoft Access and Excel are examples of two more common tools. BI
tools tend to be big targets as well including older tools like Talend ETL and
newer ones like Looker. WYSIWYGs have fallen out of fashion as web sites have
become more complex, but that used to be the way to write HTML. For more
examples look through
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_programming_language](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_programming_language)
or search articles on visual programming.

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camhenlin
As others have mentioned, low or no code tools depend heavily on what you are
trying to do and if they fit your use case. This is definitely a growing space
and there are a growing number of solutions out there.

I work for and use [https://www.knack.com](https://www.knack.com). Our
software is really useful for creating no or low-code web apps. We provide a
visual interface for importing or creating data, building relationships for
your data, managing user roles and logins, and building out a functional web
UI lots of different view types and customization options.

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cm2012
Zapier! The life saver for marketers everywhere that need to connect APIs.

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a-saleh
Depends on what do you need?

I.e. my company has integrated low-code marketing-campains scheduling
designer, that is node-based. I think it is quite cool and our users seem to
like it? At least it looks like a good fit for a job. What I as a programmer
like, is that you can't make cycles as the designer, limiting the complexity.

But the tool itself is quite niche and I am not sure I would want to do
anything complex with it.

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arey_abhishek
What tool is this? Sounds interesting.

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a-saleh
Company is [https://exponea.com/](https://exponea.com/), you can see the tool
in the backround on our landing-page :-)

But I can't really show you, these days we have quite involved procurement
setup aimed at large corporations. As far as I understand, the language/editor
itself is bespoke, tailor made to the specific kinds of marketing flows you
are able to automate with our platform.

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jasonlhy
OutSystems is probably the leader in this area. But you need to keep in mind
that low code != easier development or faster time, it just means another tool
to develop. You need to still understand how to use those tool to develop your
systems. Everything beyond the tool expectation will need to be built with
workaround and longer time development.

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psv1
> Low-code/no-code tools seem to be taking off.

Do they? I genuinely don't know. Any examples?

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justaguyhere
Airtable has a huge userbase. Some non-tech people have built products making
tens of thousands of dollars in MRR, using bubble.is.

Then there are tools like Shopify which is good enough for a large set of
e-commerce use cases.

There was one called Retool ([https://retool.com/](https://retool.com/)), that
got great positive reviews on HN few months back

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trulykp
It really depends on the context of what you are planning to build but my
favorites in the no-code space are Webflow, Airtable, Zapier, Carrd,
Table2Site.

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AznHisoka
I haven't used it at all, but I've heard good things about Appian from
friends/colleagues.

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buboard
MS Excel

