
Ask HN: What are your favorite low-coding apps / tools as a developer? - sureklix
Since low-coding is super trendy these days, I was wondering if there are actually useful apps not only for non-devs but also for lazy-devs?<p>I tried couple of no-code apps, but found them inflexible –not really giving you the opportunity to dive-in and customize.
======
gavinray
Hasura by far, lets you point-and-click build your database and table
relationships with a web dashboard and autogenerates a full GraphQL CRUD API
with permissions you can configure and JWT/webhook auth baked-in.

[https://hasura.io/](https://hasura.io/)

I've been able to build in a weekend no-code what would've taken my team weeks
or months to build by hand, even with something as productive as Rails. It
automates the boring stuff and you just have to write single endpoints for
custom business logic, like "send a welcome email on sign-up" or "process a
payment".

It has a database viewer, but it's not the core of the product, so I use
Forest Admin to autogenerate an Admin Dashboard that non-technical team
members can use:

[https://www.forestadmin.com/](https://www.forestadmin.com/)

With these two, you can point-and-click make 80% of a SaaS product in almost
no time.

I wrote a tutorial on how to integrate Hasura + Forest Admin, for anyone
interested:

[http://hasura-forest-admin.surge.sh](http://hasura-forest-admin.surge.sh)

For interacting with Hasura from a client, you can autogenerate fully-typed &
documented query components in your framework of choice using GraphQL Code
Generator:

[https://graphql-code-generator.com/](https://graphql-code-generator.com/)

Then I usually throw Metabase in there as a self-hosted Business Intelligence
platform for non-technical people to use as well, and PostHog for analytics:

[https://www.metabase.com/](https://www.metabase.com/)

[https://posthog.com/](https://posthog.com/)

All of these all Docker Containers, so you can have them running locally or
deployed in minutes.

This stack is absurdly powerful and productive.

~~~
cpursley
This is similar to what we're doing! Hasura + AutoCRUD framework + Metabase is
a great stack for putting together a solid business application in no time.

Combine Hasura (automatic GraphQL on top of PostgreSQL) with React Admin (low
code CRUD apps similar to Forest) and you can build an entire back office
admin suite or form app (API endpoints and admin front end) in a matter of
hours.

This adaptor connects react-admin with Hasura: [https://github.com/Steams/ra-
data-hasura-graphql](https://github.com/Steams/ra-data-hasura-graphql)

Here's a reference application I put together:
[https://github.com/cpursley/react-admin-low-
code](https://github.com/cpursley/react-admin-low-code)

And we're taking a step further and using Elixir to listen to Postgres table
changes for an "Event" style architecture: [https://medium.com/hackernoon/get-
notified-of-user-signups-a...](https://medium.com/hackernoon/get-notified-of-
user-signups-and-plan-changes-automatically-using-postgres-phoenix-
pubsub-e67d061b04bc)

~~~
dvasdekis
I've taken your stack one step further, with a completely dockerised solution
that uses Firebase as an authentication solution (authentication is missing
from the current low-code example). It can be run locally or on a cloud
provider that runs containers (e.g. GCP Compute Create-With-Container). See
here: [https://github.com/dvasdekis/react-admin-hasura-
firebase/](https://github.com/dvasdekis/react-admin-hasura-firebase/)

Thanks to gavinray also for the help with this!

~~~
cpursley
This is awesome. I haven't had time to expand react-admin-low-code, so glad to
see someone take the general idea and run with it. I'll update the Readme to
mention your repo when I have a chance.

What we're doing in our production version of this is using Postgres and
Hasura for auth following this approach in order to reduce external
dependencies: [https://github.com/sander-io/hasura-jwt-
auth](https://github.com/sander-io/hasura-jwt-auth)

It's really amazing how far you can get with just Postgres. Writing business
logic with code in application middleware always felt hacky to me when we have
these powerful and performant relation databases.

~~~
dvasdekis
Totally agree! Although I'm one of the contributors to that repo as well, the
sheer number of possible attack vectors on the JWT scheme means that I was
reluctant to use it in a publicly-facing use case. Let me know how it goes!

~~~
cpursley
What are your biggest concerns about the Pg/Hasura JWT approach (which
particular attack vectors made you nervous)?

------
dvdhsu
Retool ([https://retool.com](https://retool.com)) might be what you're looking
for on the front-end. It's built for engineers, so it abstracts away a lot of
the boiler-plate stuff (e.g. fetching data from an API, showing errors if it
fails, showing a loading indicator on the button when the REST API is in
progress, etc.). But you still write code for the custom bits (e.g. if you
want to hide a component for certain users).

Here's a 3 minute demo video:
[https://cdn.tryretool.com/videos/4_minute_demo_4827ae.mp4](https://cdn.tryretool.com/videos/4_minute_demo_4827ae.mp4)

It's something we started working on a few years ago before low-code was a
thing, haha. It's funny to see what you work on become a buzzword, haha. If
any of you have any thoughts / feedback, please let me know! (HN, honestly,
has been the main source of feedback for us as we've been working on it.)

~~~
discordance
Is Retool related to Airtable at all? - or do they just follow a similat style
guide?

------
carapace
I'm gonna say Godot engine. Yeah, I'm seriously, the "game" engine.
[https://godotengine.org/](https://godotengine.org/)

I was playing with it last month and whipped up a simple "toy" (calling it a
"game" is too much) that lets me fly a little space ship around a little
asteroid field. It took about a day to get it working enough to be fun. (I
polished it up a little after that, and maybe one day I'll add some actual
game play, mine an asteroid, whatever.)

[https://git.sr.ht/~sforman/SpaceGame](https://git.sr.ht/~sforman/SpaceGame)

While I used GDScript there's a node & pipe dataflow visual UI that non-
programmers can use to construct "code", so I think it counts as low-code. You
can modify your objects to "export" member vars to the UI so you can tweak
them with widgets.

If I had to e.g. design and deploy a 3D world for VR users I would seriously
consider Godot as a front-end IDE.

(BTW, I also made a fun knock-down-the-tower toy I call Yengapult:
[https://git.sr.ht/~sforman/Yengapult](https://git.sr.ht/~sforman/Yengapult) )

~~~
ObsoleteNerd
For 2D games (and some simple 3D) GameMaker Studio[0] is amazing too. It has a
“Drag and Drop” mode which allows you to build entire games ready to publish.
You can even switch to the code mode if you want to, as each piece of the drag
and drop interface directly correlates to a chunk of code.

I’ve made a complete platformer game with my kid with the drag and drop mode
in a weekend (5 levels, high score system, power ups, custom animations, the
works) then exported it as a proper Windows installable game.

[0] [https://www.yoyogames.com/](https://www.yoyogames.com/)

------
usrme
I've found that Azure's Logic App Service has been shockingly useful to me!
The hard prerequisite is that you are within the Azure ecosystem, but using
Logic Apps instead of defaulting to writing PowerShell for Function Apps
significantly decreased development time, has increased the ease with which I
can debug workflows, and when you're on the free tier (with both
aforementioned flavors), then Logic Apps still reign supreme as they don't
have any cold start issues that users of Function Apps (that don't get
hammered all the time) do.

[https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/services/logic-
apps/](https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/services/logic-apps/)

[https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/understanding-
serverl...](https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/understanding-serverless-
cold-start/)

~~~
Gene_Parmesan
We are in the middle of a year-long project to 'rewrite' all of our ESB
glue/pipelines from MuleSoft to the Azure platform. We've been using Azure for
a while now for almost all hosting. But our ESB had still been in Mule,
because as sort of the vital arteries of our entire enterprise, it's hard to
seriously consider completely reimplementing them -- especially since we're
only about 3 years out from implementing Mule in the first place.

But Mule's skyrocketing costs are forcing our hand. If we don't finish this
transfer project within the year, we'll be charged $100,000 for another year
of Mule -- an absolutely unfeasible cost for our small/medium sized nonprofit.
Our preliminary cost analysis for Azure showed it would be a fairly tiny
fraction of that. So off we go.

I bring this up because we have settled on mostly Logic Apps with a few Azure
Functions here and there as necessary, to fill in for missing connectors. So
we are in a pretty good position to directly compare the two platforms against
each other.

So far, my personal judgment is that Mule offers a lot more whizbang, but we
weren't using nearly enough of it to justify the bananas cost, and LAs are
turning out to be just fine. Mule development work happens within something
called Anypoint Studio, which is (I believe) built on Eclipse. Most of the
work you do tends to be done in the visual editor, just like in LAs, but you
can drop down into the XML as necessary. It provides a fairly good debugger,
and has one benefit of being able to be tested locally. I could fire up a flow
in debug mode, pop over to an ActiveMQ admin panel on my machine, fire off a
message, and watch it hit breakpoints. Mule's also able to provide a more
consistent ability to validate JSON against schemas; LAs appear to only really
be able to do this at the trigger point. That's relatively minor, though.

Mule's visual editor has no problem with large (sometimes too large) flows,
with multiple branching paths, and then sub-branching on top of that. The
visual elements themselves have a certain polish to them as well, and don't
take up too much space -- they're represented as square instead of wide
rectangles.

In comparison, the Logic Apps design view feels rather clunky. It's clearly
been designed to encourage small concise flows rather than large ones. We've
reimplemented complex flows that felt fairly manageable in Mule, but feel
rather unwieldy in LAs despite being essentially 1-to-1 translations.

But LAs do have some honest advantages besides price. A big one is being able
to easily drop in a custom Azure Function as a processor. This provides some
easy reusability for more complex tasks; we had to write a Function to create
JWTs, but now can reuse that in every LA where we need it. Additionally,
having everything there in the Azure portal is valuable. There is essentially
no gap between working on a flow, and releasing it. Azure provides the run
history for your app right in the panel, which essentially acts as a set of
visual logs for past runs.

We _are_ kind of struggling with figuring out how to integrate LAs with our
source control, but my guess is we'll figure that out with enough experience.
All said, I think MuleSoft offers a ton of advantages that very large
enterprises would find highly valuable; there's the whole Anypoint Platform
that I haven't even discussed here - API managers, access control, etc. But
everything that our smallish organization has needed, we've found alternatives
in LAs or in the wider Azure ecosystem.

~~~
Muley
Hey Gene, share a link to this post with your MuleSoft Customer Success
Manager. Salesforce's acquisition made some changes to how we work with Not
for Profit customers. If you're in my region, I look forward to seeing if we
can help. Overhauling Enterprise integration for cost alone sucks, especially
since it seems like you're happy with product.

------
ollerac
I'm writing my own low code framework[0], so I'm really interested in this
space. Over the past five weeks, I've been compiling a list of the most
interesting software in this space.

Here's an early draft:

"The Low-Code Ecosystem" [https://blog.remaketheweb.com/low-code-frameworks-
for-buildi...](https://blog.remaketheweb.com/low-code-frameworks-for-building-
multi-user-web-apps/)

I think there's _a ton_ of amazing tools being developed in this area right
now. I'm looking forward to seeing how things develop!

[0] Remake ([https://remaketheweb.com/](https://remaketheweb.com/)) — Build
web apps with only HTML.

~~~
tyingq
Terrific list. Thanks for putting it together. You might update the AppMaker
link. Unsurprisingly, Google has abandoned it, and it will shut down in Jan
2021.
[https://developers.google.com/appmaker](https://developers.google.com/appmaker)

You might also add Quickbase and Knack to that same section. They are pretty
popular.

~~~
ollerac
Thanks tyingq! I removed AppMaker and added Knack (which looks awesome btw). I
decided against Quickbase because I want to focus on non-enterprisey tools and
focus on products that are more friendly to small businesses and solopreneurs.

~~~
tyingq
Ahh...I wasn't aware Quickbase repositioned themselves. They used to have a
per-user price that was fine for small teams. I see now that the minimum plan
is pretty big.

------
paulgb
Google Sheets can be surprisingly handy as a UI for editing data. For example,
I have a job on AWS that scrapes a handful of URLs and snapshots them. Instead
of creating a database and hosting it somewhere, or hard-coding them, I put
them in a spreadsheet that the AWS job reads at the beginning of every run.

~~~
AllanHoustonSt
I continually find myself amazed with what people can do with Excel.

~~~
peschu
haha yeah and I always wonder why especially engineers are so creative in
using Excel as a graphics/painting tool :) Looks good, but a nightmare to read
in a programmatic way ^^

------
dboskovic
This just launched the other day but I thought it was pretty up there:
[https://fibery.io](https://fibery.io)

We use [https://retool.com](https://retool.com)

Honorable mention to my own startup [https://flatfile.io](https://flatfile.io)
if you're trying to skip past the data import problem.

~~~
wingerlang
> [https://fibery.io](https://fibery.io)

I've clicked through all of their product overviews and I still don't have a
clear understanding of what it is.

If it just launched -- have you actually used it enough to get value out of
it? The whole point seems to be that it evolves (??) as a company grows but
like I said I don't fully get it still.

~~~
ollerac
It looks like a programmable version of Notion
([https://www.notion.so/](https://www.notion.so/)). Like, if you were
frustrated by Notion's limitations, you could use this to build your own. As
well as consume external APIs with it.

------
artpar
I have built a lot of internal apps on Daptin over the last 8-10 months. It's
a headless CMS I started writing about 2 years ago.

[https://github.com/daptin/daptin](https://github.com/daptin/daptin)

My overall goal in Daptin (the name comes from adaptable) is to build
something reliable which can run for years without needing any maintenance.

As for the features, I will try to list some here:

\- YAML/JSON based data declaration

\- CRUD API implementing [https://jsonapi.org/](https://jsonapi.org/)

\- GraphQL API

\- Definable actions, for custom APIs

\- Integration to any 3rd party API based on Swagger/OpenAPI spec

\- Runs on mysql/postgres/sqlite

For more advance features:

\- SMTP server, IMAP server

\- Self generated certificates/ Acme TLS generation support

\- Encrypted columns

\- Asset columns (file/image/binary store)

\- Asset columns backed by cloud storage (like ftp/disk/gdrive/s3/bb and many)

\- Native OAuth/3rd party login support

\- Exposing cloud store folders as static websites

------
dragonshed
It's quite niche, but I've been really enjoying Pico8 [0], a 'fantasy console'
retro game creation system. It's got quite a few limitations, but I've found
it quite fun to explore game dev concepts without being tempted by perfection.

It's got simplified editors for tiles, sprites, maps, music, sound and code,
runs on desktops + raspberry pis, and can export to web. The code you write is
lua, with builtins for all the editable resources, and paves over most, if not
all, the technical rabbit holes you can get yourself into with game
development.

[0]
[https://www.lexaloffle.com/pico-8.php](https://www.lexaloffle.com/pico-8.php)

------
nikivi
I love Keyboard Maestro for macOS. Made over 1,000 macros with it so far and
automated pretty much all frictions I have with using my mac.

[https://wiki.nikitavoloboev.xyz/macos/macos-apps/keyboard-
ma...](https://wiki.nikitavoloboev.xyz/macos/macos-apps/keyboard-maestro/km-
macros)

------
evaneykelen
For web development such as landing pages I like
[https://webflow.com](https://webflow.com). They've been able to create a nice
UI that abstracts-away nested styling. It also provides decent animation
features, form processing, and CDN asset delivery. Its biggest drawback is a
lack of i18n without resorting to 3rd party iffy JS solutions.

~~~
verdverm
To the missing features...

Add syntax highlighting and GTM

Also real deployment previews and sharing between sites

Switched to Netlify, much happier

------
crabl
Being a part of the Dark beta ([https://darklang.com](https://darklang.com))
has been incredible. It makes setting up a simple backend with persistent
storage a breeze.

~~~
gitgud
Sure darklang improves productivity. But the cost of that productivity is
absolute vendor lock-in...

Darklang is a proprietary framework where the _ENTIRE_ stack... even the IDE!
is controlled by a specific company. Just be weary of this, when depending on
it.

~~~
crabl
That's very true, but for me that's an acceptable tradeoff for not having to
write much code or spin up a database, docker container, load balancer, or
worry about security. Dark is great for getting a project off the ground and
getting to the "proof of concept" stage: for me, there is tremendous value in
getting there sooner rather than wasting a bunch of time doing things that are
tangential to creating the product.

~~~
gitgud
True, it's great for prototypes, but remember that their incentive is for you
to remain on the platform as your project gets bigger.

Therefore you're likely to have extreme difficulty in moving off the platform
as your system grows. Which means either a complete rebuild off the platform,
or the easier option... Stay on the platform.

So the ultimate options are; either choose open-source flexible solutions, or
remain shackled to the proprietary platforms...

------
1123581321
Have you tried Retool? More than many apps, its design is more clear than most
about what it automates and what it doesn’t, so confusion is reduced. Low code
needs to be less flexible somewhere or else it’s just a GUI re-implementation
of programming languages.

------
iopeak
Dialog-based development could be a compelling future. Projects like
Storyscript (see demo here
[https://twitter.com/storyscripthq](https://twitter.com/storyscripthq) \- it
gets crazier) and Iris (for data science) are conversations with computers;
changing the interface interaction to more "human" than anything else out
there. Think Alexa, but for business QA, RPA and workflow/automation
development. Image taking data from any source, asking complex questions over
it (like Microsoft's Power BI) then creating repeatable processes with it.

Storyscript: [https://storyscript.com](https://storyscript.com) (private beta)
Iris: [https://youtu.be/3VZZbKoXDVM](https://youtu.be/3VZZbKoXDVM) (mostly
research, OSS on GH) MS Power BI:
[https://powerbi.microsoft.com](https://powerbi.microsoft.com) (enterprise)

~~~
optemization
yes! i spoke to a storyscript guy and damn this looks awesome

------
welanes
It depends on what you're trying to accomplish.

For building websites, Webflow is powerful (and allows for fine-tuning).

Among utilities, Parabola (a kind of no-code extract, transform, load tool) is
very neat.

For getting data/creating APIs without having to code I've built Simplescraper
- [https://simplescraper.io](https://simplescraper.io).

Currently working on an integration for Airtable that allows you to create a
dynamic CMS using any data source, without code. Hopefully useful to non-dev
and lazy-dev alike.

~~~
ollerac
I'd love to know about when your Airtable integration will launch. Is there a
place I can sign up for that?

~~~
welanes
Hey, the best place to keep updated is
[https://twitter.com/simplescraper](https://twitter.com/simplescraper)

If you're not on Twitter, we hope to submit the integration by the end of this
month so check us out then.

------
jhot
I use Node-Red for all of my home automations. And Tasker for phone
automation. I would consider both to fall in the low code genre but still
allow a dev to do really cool things (both allow for you to write whatever you
want in JS).

~~~
crankylinuxuser
Seconded as well with Nodered.

It is low code AND capable of full serverside JS for handling interesting
cases. And it has hundreds of plugins for handling APIs of all sorts.

------
makeee
I'm building something for lazy React devs:
[https://divjoy.com](https://divjoy.com)

On the no-code side I really like [http://carrd.co](http://carrd.co)

~~~
bravura
Here's some feedback, from a backend dev + entrepreneur who hasn't grokked
React yet:

a) thank you for carrd.co, it's something I've been looking for

b) I don't exactly understand what is the use-case for divjoy. It looks like
it helps me ship a landing page really quickly? Why do you need React
integrated with this?

Perhaps there's a use case for React devs that I am missing?

I can tell you that what I want is carrd.co, but without vendor lock-in. I
want carrd right now to launch a beautiful email-collection landing page and
do market validation. However, if the market test is successful and I want to
transform the homepage into a "sign up now", I don't feel like I can do that
with carrd and I would need to hire someone to re-create a landing page with a
similar look and feel. So I'd like a "carrd" without the vendor lockin.

[edit: More on carrd, according to their TOS they get unlimited rights to all
your content?!?!]

~~~
makeee
I appreciate the feedback! The current Divjoy is basically landing page + auth
flow + a little extra boilerplate and structure that helps as you start
building your web app. Even super common things, like routing, aren't included
out of the box with React, so there's a surprising amount of things a tool
like Divjoy can setup for you. I need to do a better job of highlighting those
things.

That said, this is a very early version. I'm launching database integration
next week (data fetching logic/caching, full REST API, etc) and then Stripe
integration shortly after that. So in not too long, you'll be able to export a
fully functioning SaaS app.

 _So I 'd like a "carrd" without the vendor lockin_

Long-term this is exactly what I'm going for. Build something simple inside
the Divjoy editor, host it with me, export your codebase at any time for full
flexibility. You never need to worry about lockin.

------
tdy721
Flash was really cool! I haven’t really seen anything that lives up to what I
was able to accomplish way back in the day with Macromedia Flash.

Then again, that’s not really low code.

~~~
spiralganglion
Yeah, it's sort of the opposite of low-code — give people a super powerful art
tool that gets even more powerful if you learn some basic coding, and tons of
people will learn to code just to make cool things with it.

It's how I started coding, as a teenage visual artist, and now I'm a fullstack
dev with a fondness for FP and SmallTalk. The gateway drug effect is real.

------
juliend2
I recently used Zapier to integrate with a few APIs and the ability to plug in
your own code ([https://zapier.com/help/create/code-webhooks/use-
javascript-...](https://zapier.com/help/create/code-webhooks/use-javascript-
code-in-zaps) ) was useful. And it was certainly less brain-demanding to
deploy than something on a server I manage.

------
im_down_w_otp
Mathworks Simulink. You can model your components, simulate fairly complex
systems, auto-generate C implementations, and use a bunch of other fantastic
tools (like Simulink Design Optimization to discover and tune critical
parameters) that integrate into the workflow.

------
egow
Odoo [https://www.odoo.com](https://www.odoo.com) for list/form CRUD apps.
Includes many ERP plugins but is a nice platform for your own apps. Fast
client with powerful search tool. Just Python and XML declarative UI gets you
working sites. FOS for local hosting and they do SAAS as their main ERP
business.

~~~
tluyben2
Can you 'click together' CRUD apps with them though? Or you need to write XML?
I did not check them for quite a while because everything that could've been
'no/lowcode drag & drop' was quite painful before.

~~~
5letters
I haven't tried their graphical builders, so I would definitely classify Odoo
as "low code" not "no code". The Python and XML needed to produce a basic
list/form type CRUD app is, IMHO, minimal when you consider the features that
you get in the app (paging, filtering, sorting, grouping, spreadsheet
import/export, comment thread, notification, etc.). And that's w/o considering
the many plugins available that can be used together with your custom modules.

BTW, egow here. Spot of trouble with my password on that login name.

------
sunaden
I like Integromat ([https://www.integromat.com](https://www.integromat.com)),
it's Zapier on steroids, hitting the sweet spot for developers. The minor
downside is that it can take time to get used to the whole layout and the
concept of connecting apps in their editor.

~~~
spondyl
Came here to +1 Integromat. It's definitely my go to for stock-standard
automation. I once had a pipeline that would take Trello tickets with movie
names, search them using (I think) TMDB and apply a synopsis + posters to the
Trello ticket upon ticket creation!

------
tdehnke
Been really happy with Adalo - it lets you create apps that can be delayed in
the iOS Apple store and Google Play store too, as well as have a Web App and
PWA app.

[https://www.adalo.com](https://www.adalo.com)

~~~
rchaud
I've heard good things about it on Reddit as well. What kind of applications
have you used it for?

------
zubairlk
Surprised nobody mentioned bubble.io yet.

Perhaps it steps out of low code into zero code. But you do end up needing to
a developer to get far in bubble.io

Source of insight: building a few webapps for people in it.

------
nselman
I work at YC-backed [https://draftbit.com](https://draftbit.com)

\-- we're in private beta but I can prioritize invites for anyone asking
themselves this same question. It's pretty much what we're here to solve.

~~~
mmalaguti
I would love to get in as I am definitely asking myself this question. This
seems great!

~~~
nselman
interested folks can reply to the email they get on-signup and mention the HN
thread and wanting to jump the line

------
mmonihan
If you’re working in React, I’m working on
[https://ResponseVault.com/demo](https://ResponseVault.com/demo)

It’s a drag and drop form builder that saves as JSON schema. You can export
and use in your own app, or submit to our backend and send Webhooks to an
automation service like zapier.

I use it in my client projects since I frequently need to customize form
fields, then I can reuse them across clients.

------
bregma
StackOverflow. Have a problem? Google it, then cut and paste the solution from
StackOverflow. No need to understand programming or computers, and half the
software you encounter uses it.

------
denster
I'm biased [1], but MintData ([https://mintdata.com](https://mintdata.com)) is
my personal favorite.

It doesn't use Google Sheets, and instead has its own spreadsheet + Sketch-
like surface, giving you tight control over design and behavior that I haven't
seen in other tools.

It would honestly warm my heart to see something that has more power &
simplicity in the same tool, because I've been a die-hard fan of app-dev
tooling for the past 19 years.

Would be curious to get people's thoughts here on MintData -- do you guys
agree with my assessment above?

\--

[1] Founder here. We built MintData into the tool I've always wanted and
thought was missing. Our inspiration was Visual Basic 6, PowerBuilder, and all
the RAD (rapid app-dev) tooling from the 1990s.

[2] [https://mintdata.com](https://mintdata.com)

------
badrabbit
Have only seen colleagues use them but MS powerapps is pretty powerful. It
lets just about anyone with basic computer usage knowledge to connect
different data sources and applications to make mobile apps. I've seen people
who don't know a single programming language make crazy-good apps with it.

~~~
sixdimensional
The data grids in PowerApps are woefully inadequate though... and people have
been asking Microsoft to improve them on their forums for a while to no avail.

------
jlavera
In a previous company we wanted to give more independence to our support and
marketing teams. They idea is that instead of they asking us to do some
trivial tasks like fetching some data from the DB or sending a request to an
API, they could do that by them selves, parting from what we (the developers)
build for them.

The idea started from there and now includes more flexibility in terms of
integrations, customization of data displays, and the ability to compose
actions.

I've been working for a few months now in this project and I'm hoping to
publish the first beta version here soon. If this sounds interesting or useful
to you or someone else, I'll be happy to hear about it, so feel free to DM me
here or contact me at hello.oneadm@gmail.com

~~~
optemization
you thinking something like nocodeapi.com

------
nxc18
Although typically thought of as primarily a GIS/location data tool, ArcGIS is
powerful for data management & app-building in general. The John Hopkins
COVID-19 dashboard [1] you've almost certainly seen by now is built with
ArcGIS feature services & Operations Dashboard.

All that follows is my personal opinion; I do work for Esri but I'm not
speaking for them here.

A lot of the modern ArcGIS stack is based on feature services hosted on ArcGIS
Online (Esri's cloud service). Feature Services combine a SQL database with a
REST API and spatial analysis. They're particularly useful if you want to
store spatial data and put it on a map, but it works with non-spatial data,
including relational data, as well.

Once data is in a feature service, you can visualize it in 2D or 3D maps, add
data to it with off-the-shelf apps (we have Survey123 for surveys, Collector
for field data collection, and QuickCapture for rapid data entry). You can
build stories around the data with StoryMaps, data-driven websites with Hub,
and dashboards with Operations Dashboard.

If the field apps aren't enough, you can create custom web apps with web app
builder, custom native apps (Qt) with AppStudio, or totally custom apps with
the developer APIs.

We even have open source apps [2] that demonstrate how to use the platform for
common scenarios, like indoor routing, data collection, and taking data
offline.

Sorry if this comes off salesy, I just really like sharing this stuff since I
think ArcGIS tends to go under-utilized outside of GIS circles. The developers
site [3] has a lot of info about the platform and a link to sign up - there's
a generous free tier if you want to try it.

[1]
[https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html](https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html)

[2] [https://developers.arcgis.com/example-
apps/](https://developers.arcgis.com/example-apps/)

[3] [https://developers.arcgis.com/](https://developers.arcgis.com/)

------
umvi
I love GameMaker Studio for making quick prototypes of games.

It's surprising powerful and the built in sprite editor can do some pretty
neat stuff.

------
supernintendo
I don't know if this counts but I really enjoy Notion [0]. We use it at work
for developer guides but I also have a personal workspace where I keep notes
and bookmarks, track my progress on goals and projects, and upload files for
quick access across devices. Notion isn't perfect - I'd love recurring
calendar events and overall performance could be improved - but for me it's so
useful. I can open it from any device and start writing (think Simplenote) or
build "micro apps" that perform some basic software function.

[0] [https://www.notion.so](https://www.notion.so)

~~~
optemization
Love it! It's so powerful. Just recently built and entire agency website
there: [http://optemization.com/home](http://optemization.com/home)

------
vlokshin
I'd probably fall more under designer than developer, but I love Webflow:
[https://webflow.com/](https://webflow.com/)

Our marketing website cycles have gotten so much shorter with Webflow. Even
though it's just replacing HTML/CSS/JS for marketing sites, the direct design
and publish access in a way that's intuitive and reliable saves us time
directly on the marketing site (0 dev time now) and frees up dev to focus on
more interesting things. We've gone from design -> develop -> commit/publish,
to design + publish in one nice tool.

------
keithwhor
If you haven't checked out Autocode [0], I recommend you give it a whirl! It's
an IDE with some UI components similar to Zapier that auto-generates actual
code for you. Just launched a month or so ago so it's pretty new, but we've
been working on it for a while! Was on Front Page HN when we launched. [1]

Disclaimer: am founder. :)

[0] [https://autocode.com/](https://autocode.com/)

[1]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22306996](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22306996)

------
aryehof
> Since low-coding is super trendy these days

Is it? I'm pretty certain I am not the only programmer who has never heard the
term before. What is this super trendy thing?

~~~
dmoy
I also had to look it up. It appears to sort of be a new word for the (often
tried earlier) concept of visual/gui/config based programming, without
requiring traditional programming languages.

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-
code_development_platfor...](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-
code_development_platform)

------
monkeydust
Not sure if this counts but [https://www.home-assistant.io/](https://www.home-
assistant.io/) for stitching together all my home technology and create
automations. Have to get comfortable with yaml but their support forum is
pretty good. End result is I get an LG TV, Dyson Fan, Hive Heating, Google
Home, Sonos and Ring Camera all talking to each other if I want.

------
kevindong
IFTTT. It supports both sending and receiving web hooks.

The main use for it so far is as a way to send push notifications to my phone
with a call to a simple POST endpoint.

------
chubs
I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Parse here. I wonder if things have come
full circle and Parse-alikes are becoming fashionable again.

------
mrtrombone
For low-code dev friendly in our React/ node environment I've been impressed
with [https://hygen.io](https://hygen.io) for generating boilerplate entities,
models, controllers etc. Extremely light weight and flexible so it only needs
to do what you want it to and can be changed per project to suit.

~~~
chris_st
It appears to be down now -- death by HN?

~~~
mrtrombone
Sorry try [https://www.hygen.io](https://www.hygen.io) Didn't like the missing
www

------
kwikiel
I've created a tool to flatten and turn any JSON api endpoint into time series
chart without any configuration ( it just works ) - I was looking for
something similar in the market but never found anything that allowed for 0
config

[https://temporals.herokuapp.com/](https://temporals.herokuapp.com/)

------
matijash
What a great thread! To add to the list of tools other already mentioned, we
are building [https://wasp-lang.dev/](https://wasp-lang.dev/) \- it is a
language that aims to be dev-friendly and compiles to React/Node. We are still
pre-Alpha but would love to get your feedback.

------
freeqaz
On the "low-code" side, you might be interested in Refinery.

[https://refinery.io](https://refinery.io)

It lets you build and deploy applications super, super quickly on top of AWS
Lambda. You build applications by composing high-level building blocks, which
are small business logic units and are chained together on a visual graph of
your application.

The cool this is that you can re-use "code blocks" across projects and they
follow the same input/output rules (plain JSON) so you can mix + match
languages in a single project. If you want to make an API endpoint, you just
add an API Endpoint block, wire that to a code block, then wire that to a
response. Easy. Same with Cron jobs -- you just link a timer to a code block
and you're good.

Logs are handled in the UI for you so you don't have to muck with AWS at all
(the deployment to AWS is effectively an implementation detail that you don't
have to know about). Pricing is the same as AWS (usage based) -- we just add a
surcharge as a flat percentage.

It started out as a side project to solve a similar frustration to the ones
you're describing, and it's snowballed from there (I'm a co-author of
Refinery). :P

It's still fairly early (and we're adding big features still). Feedback is
welcome!

Some examples:

\- List of demo apps
[https://refinery.io/discover](https://refinery.io/discover)

\- Map/reduce using fan-out transitions
[https://docs.refinery.io/tutorials/fan-out-fan-
in/](https://docs.refinery.io/tutorials/fan-out-fan-in/)

\- Docs on the different Block types
[https://docs.refinery.io/blocks/](https://docs.refinery.io/blocks/)

------
jppope
Though not in the visual coding platform space...

The Serverless Framework have been an amazing low code experience for me.

Building REST APIs is crazy simple... 90% of it is writing config files.
Another plus is that you really don't need to use web frameworks - you can
just write your business logic.

anyway thats my $0.02

------
bremeika
Have you tried Internal? [https://internal.io/](https://internal.io/)

It's great for engineering teams that want to add custom HTTP services, hook
into GraphQL mutations, and/or add custom SQL - but want to empower non devs,
lazy devs or simply devs that want to focus on their core product. We started
working on Internal after realizing that most companies can't dedicate
valuable engineering time to build and constantly maintain/upgrade their
internal tools.

I've led engineering teams from seed to series C companies (10 - 50+ people)
for several years. Maintenance and permissioning are always the biggest
problems when it comes to building these tools yourself, so we've built
Internal with these things in mind by focusing on how startups actually go
from zero to one and then scale beyond that.

When you use Internal, we offer a CRUD tool with fine grained permissions,
auditability and controls to get you started. In my experience, most startups
use open source software for this or build it themselves. Both of these
approaches reach their limits very quickly in terms of quality and
maintainability and lead to tons of issues when trying to pass audits down the
line.

With respect to flexibility, it's there when you need it. We offer a feature
called Spaces for when you need to customize the UI and build tools quickly,
but we do this in a way that keeps you from shooting yourself in the foot. You
can build Spaces without SQL or javascript knowledge and you can quickly
create useful tools without needing to know how to code. If you need
additional customization after that, we allow you to hook into existing
business logic via http services or graphql endpoints and expose that to the
end-user as "functions" which can be consumed when configuring a Space. We
also offer several out-of-the-box integrations including Salesforce and Stripe
so you can quickly integrate with existing services with little to no effort.

Let me know if you would like to talk or want a demo. You can also just sign
up and try it out yourself.

~~~
tombot
Would be useful if there was a public pricing page somewhere?

~~~
bremeika
We're working on that. In the meantime, happy to do a call to discuss.

------
w1
As a Python developer moving into web development, I've really enjoyed using
Plotly's Dash.

------
khashnejad
DevScore is a lowcode platform for many use-cases. It gives distributed,
event-based nodejs runtime, database, webhooks, cronjobs, and nice integrated
library of helper functions to practically do anything you want without
worrying about boring stuff. Try it out and let me know if you have any
question.

[https://devscore.com](https://devscore.com)
[https://github.com/devscoreInc](https://github.com/devscoreInc)
[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClgE-
uFdQIJ2GWhaNjz6WRw/vid...](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClgE-
uFdQIJ2GWhaNjz6WRw/videos)

------
radiKal07
I've been using [https://panakit.com](https://panakit.com) for my blog. It
creates fast static pages, allows me to customise my blog without coding and I
don't have to worry about servers/databases.

------
pratikshadake
I like [https://www.appsmith.com/](https://www.appsmith.com/) which provides
front end as a service for publishing internal tools.

The good thing about appsmith is it comes with self-hosted version. For data-
conscious companies, it's the perfect solution.

Developers can collaboratively build internal tools and publish them.

The vast library of UI components on appsmith gives you enough flexibility to
build the apps the way you want them with simple drag and drops.

You can build your internal apps by connecting APIs as well as databases. I
personally like the API support as it gives me control over input validations
and flexibility to add business logic as well.

------
ChainsawTom
Microsoft Access anyone?

------
kirubakaran
Emacs. Not too much work to customize it these days. Just:

    
    
      M-x list-packages

~~~
monkpit
Do packages really count? You could go on for a long time listing applications
that have packages or plugins, but I think it misses the point of the
question.

~~~
dmortin
Actually, Emacs is a low coding editing environment, because the strength of
emacs is that once you can program it it's extremely easy to write extensions
for it, even for one off tasks, because it's so quick and easy.

Compared to this writing extensions for vscode, for example, is much more
convoluted. You wouldn't create a new vscode extension for a 1 hour task,
while with emacs it's trivial to write some small code which can help you with
your current task. I often do.

~~~
mehh
Hmmm really? Can you point at some information so I can learn quickly how to
add a non-trivial extension? Genuinely would love to, but not sure where to
start!

~~~
ChanderG
The way I see it, in Emacs it's less an "extension" and more of "I have this
problem, how do I solve it now using elisp?".

So basically, your develop the solution bottom up. You can pretty much write
an elisp function anywhere in emacs (in the very file you are editing, in the
already open scratch buffer, in an elisp popup shell) and test the function
incrementally. Also, the extensive in-built help system lets you very quickly
lookup functions that you need.

Once you have something that solves your current problem, you can save it, if
you want. Over time your custom collection of functions improves and then you
decide if something there needs to be generalized or made into a package.

Obviously this needs some basic elisp knowledge and then just practice over
time.

------
nunopato
I would like to add Nhost to the list ([https://nhost.io](https://nhost.io)).
You get GraphQL API (hasura), PostgreSQL, authentication, and storage.
Everything managed for you.

We started just a few months ago, but are already getting very good feedback
from our customers.

BTW, we just released a CLI to make local development easier, check out the
companion blog post here [https://nhost.io/blog/announcing-nhosts-
cli](https://nhost.io/blog/announcing-nhosts-cli).

------
eandre
I've been working on something that might be interesting to you [1]. It gives
you the full flexibility of a programming language while removing all the
boilerplate surrounding your business logic through static analysis.

Have a look at the Encore Playground [2] to see a real-world example.

[1] [https://encore.dev](https://encore.dev)

[2]
[https://play.encore.dev/vHZHuXf2zca3dg](https://play.encore.dev/vHZHuXf2zca3dg)

------
blkboxdev
We were sick of writing spreadsheet importers for most apps we have ever
built. We just wanted to write the endpoint to ingest the data into our
system. So we have been writing a CSV importer as a service. You can use it to
import spreadsheet data into your app or other apps similar to Zapier. We do
integrate with Zapier too.

If you try it out let me know what you think:
[https://www.easycsv.io/](https://www.easycsv.io/)

~~~
ollerac
When I'm researching apps like yours, the thing I'm most curious about is the
experience for my users. If you added a walkthrough showing the user
experience for the top 3 most common problems people run into when importing
data and how you address them in a usable way, you'd go a long way towards
convincing me.

1) What happens if someone tries to upload a non-CSV file? What do you do?

2) What happens if the data is malformed or not in the right format or there
are no headers at the top of the file?

3) How many steps does it take for someone to get from the uploading step to
the final step? How do you make this easier?

------
mmcgaha
Pentaho Data Integration is an ETL tool that I have been using it for the last
11 years or so. The main use is for loading a data warehouse. I also use it
for exception reporting and dumping some analytic data to excel.

[https://community.hitachivantara.com/s/article/data-
integrat...](https://community.hitachivantara.com/s/article/data-integration-
kettle)

------
pythonbase
I am building a Covid19 dashboard and looking for some UI that can pull data
from my django backend. Tried working with HTML templates but designing is not
my ball game.

So basically there are APIs that provide various data points related to
countries and other stats. I need a front-end that could consume the APIs and
render data in form of tables, charts and cards.

What are my options here that can set me up and running quickly?

------
bernatfp
Great question! It really depends on what you need: Webflow, Zapier, Retool
and Human Lambdas (disclaimer: what I'm working on) are my favorites.

~~~
optemization
What is human lambdas? Like goluminal.com?

~~~
bernatfp
We build highly customisable software for human in the loop operations. Our
focus is on the software. We are completely agnostic to the human layer of the
operation.

------
zmoreira
Have you tried Outsystems?

[https://www.outsystems.com/](https://www.outsystems.com/)

I find everything else just incomplete.

------
zeepzeep
[https://beeceptor.com](https://beeceptor.com) for seeing HTTP traffic / mock
a simple server.

------
Pedrit0
AutoIT... I do not like to use it this way at all but you can manage many
things using the AU3 macro system. Can be useful for beginners...

------
CodeWithDerrick
Not really low code but of similar concept, www.WayScript.com is great tool
for those who need the low code "training wheels." But if you know how to
code, they'll let you take the training wheels off and let you write full code
in their editor. I'd argue there isn't a more robust solution out there than
WayScript's.

------
leethargo
We are building the LITIC platform [0] for self-service decision analytics
apps. There is a visual drag-n-drop language for formulas and optimization
models, charts & tables with interactive features, and a visual WYSIWG app
designer.

[0] [https://litic.com/showcase.html](https://litic.com/showcase.html)

------
autorun
I've tried Pipedream [https://pipedream.com](https://pipedream.com) and it
works great. I have two or three Twitter bots posting kanjis and random stuff
per day. It's very easy to build a kind of flow with inputs/outputs and
connect to the most popular APIs

------
vladholubiev
I haven't used it personally yet, but I want to try out Saasify [1] for my
next project.

> Saasify handles all of the SaaS boilerplate, including user accounts,
> subscription billing, developer docs, and a polished marketing site.

[1] [https://saasify.sh/](https://saasify.sh/)

------
nbzklr
Just wanted to throw in [https://apify.com/](https://apify.com/). I'm using it
to monitor changes on different websites and automatically send an email to me
with screenshots of the updated content. But you can do all sorts of other
useful things with it!

------
rmatyszewski
[https://graphqleditor.com/](https://graphqleditor.com/)

------
volkandkaya
We built [https://versoly.com/](https://versoly.com/), it is an easy way to
build landing pages and marketing sites.

Start off with a one pager with an email form and analytics.

In one click add an SEO optimised blog.

Also don't need to worry about hosting, upgrades etc we handle all that for
you.

------
moriquendi
Acryl, WYSIWYG Editor for SwiftUI. It’s my favorite because I’m building it
but I hope you’ll enjoy it as well ;-)

[https://apps.apple.com/pl/app/acryl/id1501954098](https://apps.apple.com/pl/app/acryl/id1501954098)

------
RMPR
Shameless plug:
[https://github.com/rmpr/atbswp](https://github.com/rmpr/atbswp), is a mouse
and keyboard macro recording and playback tool, think about it as some kind of
frontend for pyautogui.

~~~
raybb
Any plans to support MacOS?

~~~
RMPR
While it's not tested yet (mainly because I don't have a Mac), atbswp _should_
work on MacOS, feel free to fill an issue
[https://github.com/RMPR/atbswp/issues](https://github.com/RMPR/atbswp/issues)
if you have any problem, additionally we also have a Telegram channel were we
make our announcements [https://t.me/atbswp](https://t.me/atbswp) and you can
reach me on Twitter
[https://twitter.com/Mairo_P_Rufus](https://twitter.com/Mairo_P_Rufus), where
I occasionally post important announcements about atbswp.

------
ab_testing
I know that Oracle is not liked on HN, but Oracle XE with Oracle Apex is a
great low code solution to create web apps for internal and external users.
Over the course of a decade, I have built hundreds of web applications in
corporate enviroments using Oracle XE and Oracle APEX.

------
sidhantgandhi
My favorite right now is Snapboard. simple, clean UI, and integrations that
airtable is sorely missing.

------
simonw
I'm going to take this opportunity to promote my current principal project,
Datasette.

[https://datasette.readthedocs.io/en/stable/](https://datasette.readthedocs.io/en/stable/)

Datasette aims to reduce the gap between "I have some data" and "I have a
useful JSON API for it" as much as possible. I think it does this really well.

A timely example: the first version of this API for interacting with data
about the COVID-19 pandemic took me just a few minutes to build AND deploy:
[https://covid-19.datasettes.com/](https://covid-19.datasettes.com/) \- it
uses data pulled hourly from
[https://github.com/CSSEGISandData/COVID-19](https://github.com/CSSEGISandData/COVID-19)
and
[https://github.com/nytimes/covid-19-data](https://github.com/nytimes/covid-19-data)

Here's JSON for the number of reported cases and deaths in California (served
with a CORS header so you can call it from other pages):
[https://covid-19.datasettes.com/covid/ny_times_us_states.jso...](https://covid-19.datasettes.com/covid/ny_times_us_states.json?state=California&_shape=array)

And here's data showing the number of NEW cases per day reported in Italy,
using a SQL window function. First as a graph visualization:
[https://covid-19.datasettes.com/covid?sql=with+italy+as+%28%...](https://covid-19.datasettes.com/covid?sql=with+italy+as+%28%0D%0A++select%0D%0A++++rowid%2C%0D%0A++++day%2C%0D%0A++++country_or_region%2C%0D%0A++++province_or_state%2C%0D%0A++++admin2%2C%0D%0A++++fips%2C%0D%0A++++confirmed%2C%0D%0A++++deaths%2C%0D%0A++++recovered%2C%0D%0A++++active%2C%0D%0A++++latitude%2C%0D%0A++++longitude%2C%0D%0A++++last_update%2C%0D%0A++++combined_key%0D%0A++from%0D%0A++++johns_hopkins_csse_daily_reports%0D%0A++where%0D%0A++++%22country_or_region%22+%3D+%3Ap0%0D%0A++order+by%0D%0A++++confirmed+desc%0D%0A%29%0D%0Aselect%0D%0A++day%2C%0D%0A++confirmed+-+lag%28confirmed%2C+1%29+OVER+%28%0D%0A++++ORDER+BY%0D%0A++++++day%0D%0A++%29+as+new_cases%0D%0Afrom%0D%0A++italy%0D%0Aorder+by+day+desc+limit+50&p0=Italy#g.mark=bar&g.x_column=day&g.x_type=ordinal&g.y_column=new_cases&g.y_type=quantitative)

And here's that raw data as JSON:

[https://covid-19.datasettes.com/covid.json?sql=with+italy+as...](https://covid-19.datasettes.com/covid.json?sql=with+italy+as+%28%0D%0A++select%0D%0A++++rowid%2C%0D%0A++++day%2C%0D%0A++++country_or_region%2C%0D%0A++++province_or_state%2C%0D%0A++++admin2%2C%0D%0A++++fips%2C%0D%0A++++confirmed%2C%0D%0A++++deaths%2C%0D%0A++++recovered%2C%0D%0A++++active%2C%0D%0A++++latitude%2C%0D%0A++++longitude%2C%0D%0A++++last_update%2C%0D%0A++++combined_key%0D%0A++from%0D%0A++++johns_hopkins_csse_daily_reports%0D%0A++where%0D%0A++++%22country_or_region%22+%3D+%3Ap0%0D%0A++order+by%0D%0A++++confirmed+desc%0D%0A%29%0D%0Aselect%0D%0A++day%2C%0D%0A++confirmed+-+lag%28confirmed%2C+1%29+OVER+%28%0D%0A++++ORDER+BY%0D%0A++++++day%0D%0A++%29+as+new_cases%0D%0Afrom%0D%0A++italy%0D%0Aorder+by+day+desc+limit+50&p0=Italy&_shape=array)

And as CSV:
[https://covid-19.datasettes.com/covid.csv?sql=with+italy+as+...](https://covid-19.datasettes.com/covid.csv?sql=with+italy+as+\(%0D%0A++select%0D%0A++++rowid%2C%0D%0A++++day%2C%0D%0A++++country_or_region%2C%0D%0A++++province_or_state%2C%0D%0A++++admin2%2C%0D%0A++++fips%2C%0D%0A++++confirmed%2C%0D%0A++++deaths%2C%0D%0A++++recovered%2C%0D%0A++++active%2C%0D%0A++++latitude%2C%0D%0A++++longitude%2C%0D%0A++++last_update%2C%0D%0A++++combined_key%0D%0A++from%0D%0A++++johns_hopkins_csse_daily_reports%0D%0A++where%0D%0A++++%22country_or_region%22+%3D+%3Ap0%0D%0A++order+by%0D%0A++++confirmed+desc%0D%0A\)%0D%0Aselect%0D%0A++day%2C%0D%0A++confirmed+-+lag\(confirmed%2C+1\)+OVER+\(%0D%0A++++ORDER+BY%0D%0A++++++day%0D%0A++\)+as+new_cases%0D%0Afrom%0D%0A++italy%0D%0Aorder+by+day+desc+limit+50&p0=Italy&_shape=array)

~~~
jonnydubowsky
That is a powerful and concise outline of Datasette. I am working on an 8 week
hackathon to build privacy first data solutions for the pandemic response. I
am totally going to bring these examples to my session tonight for
inspiration. Very cool stuff! Thanks for sharing.

[https://covidathon.devpost.com/](https://covidathon.devpost.com/)

(Also love the Commodore reference)

~~~
simonw
Awesome! I'm definitely excited about hackathons as an opportunity to take
advantage of Datasette.

------
adg29
Mapbox enables interactive storytelling using low-code template to help tell
map-based stories

[https://www.mapbox.com/solutions/interactive-
storytelling](https://www.mapbox.com/solutions/interactive-storytelling)

------
jeznag
Zoho Creator is pretty nice if you don't mind closed source/proprietary. You
drag and drop fields onto forms and it creates a database behind the scenes.
Can be customised using their scripting language which is similar to
javascript.

------
meelad
We built a no code API integrator for Google Sheets. It supports GET and POST
requests for JSON and CSV APIs in Google Sheets. Works with most APIs.
[https://apipheny.io](https://apipheny.io)

------
sunilkosuri
Take a look at [https://www.getfastcode.com](https://www.getfastcode.com). I
am the founder and would love to get your feedback. Please sign-up for our
beta if you like it.

------
hieunc229
I saw myself rewriting things often. So I started to develop
[https://saltar.co](https://saltar.co) about 2 years ago.

Served me well for creating basic website, blogging and form :)

------
sawaali
[https://metaset.io](https://metaset.io) is a macOS app to quickly visualize
CSV, Postgres, or SQLite data with charts.

------
verdverm
We're building an open source code generator for developers. Used to call it
low-code, but that's not such a popular term with devs

[https://github.com/hofstadter-io/hof](https://github.com/hofstadter-io/hof)

~~~
olalonde
CMD-F "<language here>", no result, close. You need a list of supported
languages in that README.

~~~
verdverm
It's early, all languages are supported if you write a generator for
something.

We are mainly focused on Golang, backend, and DevOps. There are a number of
non-language things we want to be generating for many of out projects first.
Python for DataSci and ML, or JS for frontends, will be the next we look at.

The floodgates are open for anyone now to create their own generators for
anything.

------
dominotw
airtable + zapier replaced like 70% of internal apps.

~~~
cuchoi
Can you expand on how is Zapier helping? I am using Airtable + Python because
I felt too constrained by Zapier.

~~~
peschu
May I ask, what a (real) use case for airtable would be?

When I saw 1200/5000 rows per "base" I was searching for the "k" (x1000) but
they seem to be serious.

I don't see a real advantage for example to g suite(maybe only that it is not
google) :)?

But maybe I just don't see the point...thx for clarification

~~~
cuchoi
The main real advantage for me are linked records, which allows you to keep
your data normalized. Let's say you have a data model with 10 tables that have
foreign keys among each other. For users it will be easier and less error-
prone to link records using the Airtable UI rather than Google Sheets.

You could do this with a "out-of-the-box" CRUD app in RoR or Django, but
Airtable gives a ton of more flexibility and quick iteration if you data model
is changing or adapting.

It does have plenty of drawbacks so I wouldn't use it for every project.

------
detnyre
HCL Leap. Drag and drop web development but can still add HTML/css/javascript
as needed to extend functionality

------
fegu
Has anyone here tried OpenXava.org? I am considering looking into it, but
don't want to waste my time.

------
detnyre
HCL Leap. Drag and drop web development but can still add HTML/css/javascript
as needed.

------
ruslan_talpa
Postgrest? :)

------
leo3
www.kaholo.io If you're looking to build automation pipelines in simple and
fast way, you can use Kaholo.io visual DevOps tool to do that. It is low-code
so you have complete flexibility and it doesn't require any unique scripting
language.

~~~
arispen
I can definitely recommend kaholo ;)

~~~
leo3
[https://kaholo.io/](https://kaholo.io/)

------
tyhoff
stacker.app has impressed me. It's by the same team that built (and recently
posted) Toga
([https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22746663](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22746663)).

------
jeznag
Zoho Creator is pretty nice if you don't mind closed source/proprietary.

------
inglor
Testim.io, point and click e2e automation you can record and replay on your
CI.

------
ravoori
awk has saved my backside on more occasions than I can remember. pcregrep is
another surprisingly powerful command line tool. Very useful for extracting
json with nested data structures from logs. GNU grep is more or less as
powerful via the -P (pcre) flag. Another underrated command line tool is the
venerable POSIX look command. It is able to perform binary searches on
lexically sorted files. Very useful for quickly zeroing in on slices of
interest from ginormous log files where each line is prefixed with an ISO
timestamp.

------
talelcool
for elastic & redis backend [https://kuzzle.io/](https://kuzzle.io/)

------
maxdo
Flow.ai + zappier

------
rb808
jhipster is good for basic crud apps.

------
popup21
Buildbox for game development.

------
hedora
perl -ne

------
te_chris
Salesforce if it’s for line of business.

------
pcvarmint
[https://searchmobilecomputing.techtarget.com/essentialguide/...](https://searchmobilecomputing.techtarget.com/essentialguide/Pros-
and-cons-of-a-low-code-platform-for-mobile)

------
bitwize
Lisp.

So-called "low code" tools involve code, you just write it by rat-wrestling
instead of typing. And good luck using those tools effectively for problems
their designers didn't anticipate.

With Lisp, you write less code and it's easier and more fun to write.

------
banq
MDA+DDD+BPM=future: At LV 1871 one of the most important strategical goals is
the enabling of business specialists to participate in software
development.[https://medium.com/@davidibl/dmn-manager-
ed2afa73b221](https://medium.com/@davidibl/dmn-manager-ed2afa73b221)

