Readit NewsThe exact opposite is true. Blockchain "technology" is useless beyond its ability to enable Bitcoin - a monetary innovation. Using it for anything other than that is simply trying to find a problem for a solution. Crypto beyond Bitcoin is also largely useless beyond serving as a democratized casino.
However, what our customers build on Chartmat (also a no code tool) are custom solution: e.g. a therapist who has her own approach & wants to have an app for that approach that serves around 100 people. She could not use a custom SaaS because that would be following the approach of another "guru" in the industry. So there would not be a personal connection between her & her customers. Also for around 100 customers she would not want to hire a web dev agency to build a professional app. So that is kind of one of the use cases where a no code tool makes sense.
Another scenario is the following: let's say you are a small business (<5 employees) & you need a SaaS for time recording, billing, recording expenses, accounting, collecting customer information -> things that many small businesses like law firms need. Now you could have either 5-6 SaaS solutions for this or you could use one no code tool & process everything through one tool kind of like an ERP for small businesses and solo entrepreneurs. So you would end up paying 29$/month instead of 5 x 20$. Additionally you could easily consolidate all the data that matters in one single dashboard.
Budibase is meant to be used by IT Professionals (sysadmins, dbas, IT managers, PMs, developers). AppSmith is more targeted at developers. Because of this, Budibase has much less of a reliance on code - we like to say “code optional”.
Also, you will see us talk more about “Business apps”, rather than “Internal Tools”. A Budibase app is a real, single-page application - which you would happily give out to external users and folks in other departments who do not need to know your team’s internal processes. The apps are also responsive by default.
Another differentiator is that Budibase comes packaged with a database (runs on CouchDB). This makes creating new applications easy - without having to spin up another DB. We also offer 1st class support for SQL Databases - Budibase will automatically fetch your tables and automate the basic INSERT, UPDATE, SELECT and DELETE statements (like an ORM).
If you want to place us in the overall low-code landscape, we are more like an open-source Powerapps/Mendix/OutSystems. I sometimes say (half-jokingly) that Budibase is what would happen if Retool and Stacker had an open-source baby.
At Chartmat we also provide internal apps, forms & dashboards (we are at an early stage though). however, we are targeting non-technical users (no-code niche), since we found it hard with our previous low-code iteration to get enough users.
I wish you guys all the best on your way & I'm always happy to exchange experiences. Keep the good work up!