Think fast
Thoughts and ideas on how to build tools, automate workflows and speed-up the workplace.
Top 6 Open Source Form Builders in 2025 (Tried and Tested)
My name is Joe, and I have been building online forms for the last 10 years of my life. I have developed forms in several different ways; with html5 form builders, with Javascript form builders, to niche React form builders, and more. From my experience, I can conclude that the best open-source form builders make it quick and easy to create beautiful, functional, and accessible forms. Forms are a critical construct of the digital age.
Joe Johnston
Jan 19, 2025
What is Hardware Asset Management? + 5 Essential Tools
Hardware asset management is one of the central pillars of a successful ITSM strategy. Put simply, we can’t deliver effective services to users without first furnishing them with the right devices, environments, and infrastructure to do their jobs. However, with the exception of very small organizations, this can present enormous challenges. This has an outsize impact on operational efficiency, security, risk, and, ultimately, the cost of delivering IT services to users.
Ronan McQuillan
Jan 13, 2025
10 best open source low-code platforms (tried and tested)
Low-code and no-code are the latest phenomena to take over our strategy meetings and development chats. These solutions are not new, but the emergence of new technologies and a shift in how we work has accelerated their need within the workplace. The statistics below provide an overview of the scale of the low code market: Forrester states that as much as, 75% of application development uses low-code platforms. Gartner places worldwide low-code market growth at 23% in 2021 According to the market research study published by P&S Intelligence, the global low code market will witness a 31.
Joe Johnston
Jan 5, 2025
Beginners Guide to Web Application Development (2025)
It was the year 2010, I had an idea for a web application which would allow my family and I to share images, organise shopping, populate a shared calendar, and store bills. My family was terribly disorganised. We needed this! This idea was going to make me 💰💰💰. There was a small complication with my vision - I didn’t know how to build a web application. But thankfully, I could build a static site with HTML and CSS so it couldn’t be that hard, right?
Joe Johnston
Jan 1, 2025
Budibase 3.0
After months of development, over 3,500 commits, a full documentation overhaul, and three new templates, Budibase 3.0 is finally here. Why Budibase 3.0? This release was inspired by a key insight: Budibase engineers are most productive when configuring data and logic versus designing interfaces. With the 3.0 release, we aimed to create an exceptional data-first experience for building secure workflow applications. We’ve reimagined the process of setting up your data structures, configuring security, and effortlessly generating interfaces.
Jamie Birss, Joe Johnston
Nov 14, 2024
Day 5 - The Future
It’s the final day of our first launch week, and today, we’re going to look into the future of Budibase. It’s been two years since we launched Budibase 2.0. In that time, we’ve launched several game-changing features, including multi-player mode, global bindings, screen templates, and lots more. Now, with the 3.0 launch, we firmly believe our new data-first experience positions Budibase as the best, and most secure platform for building workflow apps.
Michael Shanks, Joe Johnston
Nov 8, 2024
Day 4 - AI
Today, we’re excited to release several new AI features. These latest enhancements will enable you to power your workflows securely with AI. In total, we have four new AI features to demo: AI Configs Budibase AI AI CRON generator AI Column AI Configs With AI Configs, you can connect your LLM to Budibase. Once connected, you can use your LLM to power multiple AI workflows within Budibase and the apps you build.
Martin McKeaveney, Joe Johnston
Nov 7, 2024
Day 3 - Automation branching
Welcome to day three of the Budibase 3.0 Launch Week! Over the past few days, we announced a brand new data experience and Visual RBAC . Today, we’re thrilled to introduce new functionality that will improve everyone’s experience building automations. Automation Branches We’ve introduced Branching to Budibase automations. Use the Branch icon to add a new sub-flow beneath any existing automation trigger or action. We can create as many parallel branches as we like - or even branches within branches.
Dean Hannigan, Ronan McQuillan, Joe Johnston
Nov 6, 2024