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Thoughts and ideas on how to build tools, automate workflows and speed-up the workplace.

Top 8 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

Build a Free SQL GUI in 5 Steps

SQL is a powerful database query language that can be used to unlock valuable insights stored in databases. But SQL can be difficult to learn and use, particularly for non-specialists. That’s where a SQL GUI (Graphical User Interface) comes in handy. SQL GUIs are useful for developers and non-developers alike. They provide intuitive interfaces to interact with the database without writing SQL syntax commands. You can visually interact with tables, rows, fields, searches, and more, without any specialist knowledge.

Ronan McQuillan

Dec 22, 2023

How to Integrate Multiple Databases

There are countless situations where you might need to integrate multiple databases. This might be necessary for a particular app project. Providing more centralized and efficient access to information could also be a goal in itself. However, accomplishing this can be a challenge, especially for inexperienced developers. Today we’re going to look at two methods key methods for integrating databases, as well as how Budibase can make life easier along the way.

Ronan McQuillan

Dec 22, 2023

How to make an App from Excel Spreadsheets

We love to hate spreadsheets. They’re everywhere. We use Excel for everything from planning our vacations and weddings, to managing inventories, payroll, and just about any other business process under the sun. But, like any blunt instrument, spreadsheets are almost the most elegant solution. Today, we’re going to look at a better way to manage data, calculations, and workflows. That is, how to make an app from Excel spreadsheets. You see, spreadsheets offer a huge amount of flexibility - there’s a reason why they’re so ubiquitous.

Ronan McQuillan

Dec 21, 2023

Build a Google Sheets GUI in 5 Steps

A Google Sheets GUI can help you turn your spreadsheets into real apps. There are many useful free online tools for businesses. And Google Sheets is certainly one of the best of them. It allows you to get all the power of spreadsheets, databases, and scripting all at once. But at the end of the day, it’s still a spreadsheet tool. So you are limited to the grid design and unfiltered data entry.

Ronan McQuillan

Dec 20, 2023

Top 7 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 7 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

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