Budibase: an open source, no code platform

[timconsidine]

@potemkin_ai : I was really impressed with Budibase and what they were doing when I first met it.

They have since moved to a much more constrained model of users, as they envision or target the app creation to 'intranet' style apps. One where users are known and invited, no public sign up.

It is still a powerful system but it does not suit the majority of my use cases at present.

I think they have gone fully web interface, so I don't see many benefits to it being in Cloudron. If I was to use it, I would spin up a VPS to run it and deploy apps created in it.

I still like it as a system, just doesn't fit all the needs that it did earlier in its development when the user model was looser.

[potemkin_ai]

@timconsidine Budibase indeed seems like building something very complex, but I would like not to think about the updates and other stuff and just enjoy using it like I use n8n.

They are not pushing to the cloud platform, by the way - if you try to register at the cloud, they state that for production use they recommend using self hosted instance.

And, just out of curiosity - did you find any good replacement for budibase for the outside world facing apps?

[timconsidine]

@potemkin_ai good to know

No I didn't find a good alternative to Budibase, which is why I am not against it at all.

There are a couple, but grey hair is that I can't recall names just now.

I started to look at Flutter as development environment, but have had to break from it for a while.

[potemkin_ai]

@timconsidine if anything pops up - please, share

[plusone-nick]

@potemkin_ai in terms of open source alt to Budibase the only other one is GrapesJS IMO - although it is pretty different.

For my current development platform I use Wappler.io its not open source but it is very rich in features. Can generate static html sites and drop them into surfer or can leverage LAMP and use PHP for dynamic sites. It also has a nodeJS option but I have yet to package an app for cloudron.

[robi]

@plusone-nick nice, I used Mobirise for a bit to make simple sites for ZeroNet.io

[timconsidine]

@potemkin_ai I think Budibase is much more than GrapesJS or form/page designers, it offers good CRUD functionality and is true NoCode/LoCode. It does bring together very nicely the UI front-end building and the back-end DB functionality in one system.

Maybe you can combine a front-end builder with something Directus or Parse (or https://www.back4app.com/).

I noticed this https://github.com/ToolJet/ToolJet but haven't tried it. You could look at https://www.saashub.com/100-plus-no-code-resources-alternatives or https://www.nocodedevs.com/ncd-tools for many others, but often quite niche, not as open/flexible as Budibase.

But sadly still cannot recall the one I find which was closer to Budibase. Maybe inspiration will strike.

If you can live with the invited-user model of Budibase, it is exceptional. Maybe a 2 step process which allows for a previously unknown user to sign-up with simple form, which then generates a Budibase app user invitation could be a work-around.

Although note that once a user is registered into a Budibase deployment, they get a login to a 'portal' of apps they are permissioned for. Very powerful but the user journey may not be what you want.

[timconsidine]

@potemkin_ai : I think JoGet was the one I was thinking of
https://www.joget.org/product/

Not as slick as Budibase but interesting

Or possibly https://www.rintagi.com/

[timconsidine]

@potemkin_ai : I also played with https://github.com/saltcorn/saltcorn / https://saltcorn.com/

It's similar in concept to Budibase, but lighter weight.

I liked it but stopped experimenting when I found that it was easy to 'hack' page links because they were fully exposed in the browser url (could edit the url and go to a page you were probably should not). Maybe they have changed this as it seems in ongoing development and I tried it >1 yr ago.

[timconsidine]

@robi zeronet.io is very interesting concept

[robi]

@timconsidine Yes, there is a fork in progress:

https://github.com/zeronet-enhanced/ZeroNet/commits/massive-rework
https://github.com/zeronet-enhanced/ZeroHello/commits/master

[jeau]

Received from Budibase today:

Budibase is out of beta and live on Product Hunt

Today's the big day!

We're proud to announce Budibase is out of beta and we've just launched on Product Hunt .

Any feedback / support appreciated

Thanks,
Joe (Co-founder of Budibase)

[potemkin_ai]

@plusone-nick @timconsidine thank you very much for sharing!

[JOduMonT]

@jeau said in Budibase: an open source, no code platform:

We're proud

Hi Joe;
I'm very pleased to see you in the Cloudron community;
for me BudiBase is a serious challenger, and even better, to Notion and ClickUp.
I can't wait to host it on my Cloudron.

[humptydumpty]

Can I use this app to build a one-page html "responsive" site? If not, what would you recommend?

Currently, using Wordpress but it's an overkill for a static page.

[timconsidine]

@humptydumpty said in Budibase: an open source, no code platform:

Can I use this app to build a one-page html "responsive" site?

Personally I think Budibase would be overkill for that.
I would look at Ghost or Grav if you want an interface to building and posting content.
Or just a Surfer or LAMP app with a free HTML template (thousands available, but look at https://html5up.net or https://pixelarity.com/) if you're ok with coding a page

[humptydumpty]

@timconsidine I'm using Ghost for my personal blog but haven't figured out how to build a static page without knowing how to code.

Ideally, I'm looking for a page builder (think Elementor, WP Bakery, etc.) that I can use to build a static html page then save the project so I can easily modify things in the future. It looks like Grav fits the bill. Thanks for the recommendation!

[timconsidine]

@humptydumpty if your target page is going to be fairly static (not regular content changes), you could look at https://grapesjs.com which allows you to 'scaffold' out a page with drag'n'drop components.
Then copy/paste the built page (use the View Code button to download an HTML file and a CSS file) into something like Surfer (here on Cloudron) or a LAMP instance.

[humptydumpty]

@timconsidine Just perfect! Thanks!

[timconsidine]

@humptydumpty