Very good comparison. Interesting. I’ve delved deeply into Glide (and think it’s excellent) - but always keen to see what others are doing. I used Noloco a lot a year or so ago and am keeping an eye on it
This was a very helpful comparison. I think I'll start out with Softr simply because of the pricing. Both look like great tools but as someone not too familiar with front end, no-code development tools, the free plans provides time to become familiar with how it all works and the opportunity to test out apps with friends and potential clients.
Softr, starts nice BUT once you get past the very easy setup and create app phase, is really clunky, especially when you add forms and nested related/linked items. It simply doesnt support linked records. You know, that one thing you love in Airtable? yep, you need to individually make that work . . then create it . . . .cell . . by . . . cell . . . Every single field needs to be hand linked, I know if it heavily marketed by affiliates and agencies, but there is a tonne of work needed to hand craft every single freakin field. Every font is tiny and needs editing, it doesnt learn your field structures and dependancies that are already linked in airtable. It is a lot of work by comparison to other simpler tools.
Awesome review! Two of my very favorite tools! I completely agree that each are appropriate for different use-cases and this perfectly highlights the strengths and weaknesses of each tool!
Good job on comparison. I have really been struggling on which to use for my company. Looking at the business plan on both. I really like that Nocolo feels like a more complete, refined & less buggy product for all its data sources. However, their pricing structure just doesn’t fit well with my company. I just really wish Softr would live sync SmartSuite and Airtable like Noloco since they both now have the capability to push those updates when something changes. Also, would like Softr to fix some bugs in the SmartSuite integration before focusing so much on new data sources (ie. Tags wrap text doesn’t work even though the wrap text button is applied, tag color as in data source doesn’t work even though selected, live sync users is clunky and creates new user when changing someone’s email in the source database instead of just updating it, etc.) I understand more data sources probably means more users, but I feel like they should finish one before adding another.
Good feedback! I'd encourage you to share it with the Softr team if you haven't; I've heard others who haven't been satisfied with the SmartSuite integration (compared to AT/Google Sheets), so would be great to bubble that up.
Both of them offer charts which can summarize the data from whichever db you're using. Each has a bit of nuance, they work for many straightforward reporting use cases, but aren't a replacement for a full BI tool if you have more complex needs.
@@danleeman Thank you for the response Dan. I use Smart Suite daily and have considered getting into Softr, but I was really hoping that one of these tools had something like that. I'm an old Crystal Reports developer and miss having the control of presenting the data in a detailed manner. None of the no-code tools seem to have this functionality yet. But I can keep hoping.
Very good comparison. Interesting. I’ve delved deeply into Glide (and think it’s excellent) - but always keen to see what others are doing. I used Noloco a lot a year or so ago and am keeping an eye on it
Yes, definitely a constantly evolving space!
This was a very helpful comparison. I think I'll start out with Softr simply because of the pricing. Both look like great tools but as someone not too familiar with front end, no-code development tools, the free plans provides time to become familiar with how it all works and the opportunity to test out apps with friends and potential clients.
Yes, free can certainly help a lot of folks get over initial hurdles and user adoption!
Softr, starts nice BUT once you get past the very easy setup and create app phase, is really clunky, especially when you add forms and nested related/linked items. It simply doesnt support linked records. You know, that one thing you love in Airtable? yep, you need to individually make that work . . then create it . . . .cell . . by . . . cell . . . Every single field needs to be hand linked, I know if it heavily marketed by affiliates and agencies, but there is a tonne of work needed to hand craft every single freakin field.
Every font is tiny and needs editing, it doesnt learn your field structures and dependancies that are already linked in airtable. It is a lot of work by comparison to other simpler tools.
Awesome review! Two of my very favorite tools! I completely agree that each are appropriate for different use-cases and this perfectly highlights the strengths and weaknesses of each tool!
Dear Softr, If you follow data encryption then it's fine to store it locally for faster caching and performance 👍
Good job on comparison. I have really been struggling on which to use for my company. Looking at the business plan on both.
I really like that Nocolo feels like a more complete, refined & less buggy product for all its data sources. However, their pricing structure just doesn’t fit well with my company.
I just really wish Softr would live sync SmartSuite and Airtable like Noloco since they both now have the capability to push those updates when something changes.
Also, would like Softr to fix some bugs in the SmartSuite integration before focusing so much on new data sources (ie. Tags wrap text doesn’t work even though the wrap text button is applied, tag color as in data source doesn’t work even though selected, live sync users is clunky and creates new user when changing someone’s email in the source database instead of just updating it, etc.)
I understand more data sources probably means more users, but I feel like they should finish one before adding another.
Good feedback! I'd encourage you to share it with the Softr team if you haven't; I've heard others who haven't been satisfied with the SmartSuite integration (compared to AT/Google Sheets), so would be great to bubble that up.
Well noted, some of those missing features we tend to add as the usage of datasource picks up… really appreciate your feedback
Very interesting
Do either of these applications offer any kind of Reporting tools?
Both of them offer charts which can summarize the data from whichever db you're using. Each has a bit of nuance, they work for many straightforward reporting use cases, but aren't a replacement for a full BI tool if you have more complex needs.
@@danleeman Thank you for the response Dan. I use Smart Suite daily and have considered getting into Softr, but I was really hoping that one of these tools had something like that. I'm an old Crystal Reports developer and miss having the control of presenting the data in a detailed manner. None of the no-code tools seem to have this functionality yet. But I can keep hoping.
@@freneticGTR I assume you can embed some advanced reports from Crystal Reports into Softr
@@freneticGTR I'm surprised there isn't an app that has become the no code analytics darling - seems like a good opportunity
@@danleeman Would be amazing! I think Smart Suite would be the ultimate place to do that...love their product
why noloco is so ugly? And Which other platforms support live sync with airtable?