The best Glide alternatives to build web apps without code

Thierry Maout • Published on Feb 29, 2024 • 8 min read

Across all functions of an organization, the ability to quickly build and deliver apps without code is extremely useful. 


Whether you’re looking to put together a shining new sales CRM portal, publish a beautiful website, or implement a comprehensive employee directory or an editorial calendar for your marketing team, no-code is a strong way for employees to be independent and not to rely on their technical colleagues to improve their daily life.


This is why a lot of people are turning to no-code tools. 


Glide is one of these solutions. Using this no-code platform, teams and individuals are able to build apps for a variety of use cases including internal tools or websites, directories, client portals, and more.


In this article, we will take a look at what Glide offers, and what are some of the best alternatives available out there depending on what you want to build specifically.


Let’s dive in!



Table of Contents

  1. What is Glide?
  2. 5 best glide alternatives 
  3. Softr
  4. Adalo
  5. Bubble
  6. Retool
  7. Webflow
  8. Conclusion: What is the best Glide alternative?


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What is Glide?


Glideapps features

Image source: aloa blog



Glide is a no-code platform offering a way for non-technical individuals to create apps using data sources, such as Google Sheets, Excel, Airtable, and more.


The platform focuses on three main axes: “Apps” which enables businesses to build progressive web apps (mobile responsive apps, not to be confused with native apps), “Pages” which focuses on web apps such as internal tools, and a Data editor to sync, organize and automate data.



Main features:

  • CRUD (create, read, update, and delete) solution, using data imported from Google Sheets, Excel, Airtable, and more.
  • Built-in database
  • Strong emphasis on creating beautiful design and interface
  • Ability to easily create progressive web apps



Drawbacks:

  • Pricing can increase quickly as you need more users and updates (syncing changes from data)
  • Mobile apps created with Glide are Progressive Web Apps, and cannot be published to the App store or Google Play Store
  • The same app cannot be both mobile and web at the same time, you have to choose
  • Some online reviews have reported issues with app loading and bugs
  • Limited login options



Pricing:

  • Free plan 
  • Maker: starting at $49/month 
  • Pro: starting at $99/month 
  • Business: starting at $249/month



Online review ratings:

  • G2: 4.7/5 (565 reviews)
  • Capterra: 4.7/5 (91 reviews)


5 best glide alternatives 


In this article, we will look at 5 alternatives to Glide you can consider for your internal tool needs. For easy skimming, we’ve added a comparison chart of these tools with their main features, ideal use cases and pricing range for your reference. 

Top 5 Glide alternatives comparison chart

Most acclaimed feature Best for Pricing
Glide Beautifully-crafted design and interface Solopreneurs and small teams $$
Softr Intuitive, lego-style drag-and-drop builder Technical and non-technical SMBs $
Adalo Ability to launch a truly native app on the iOS and Android app stores. Mobile-focused teams $$
Bubble A lot of plugins and integrations readily available No-code generalists $$
Retool Ability to connect with other tools using APIs Developers and technical teams $
Webflow Very granular drag-and-drop interface Professional designers and creatives $$$

Softr: the best Glide alternative for creating custom business apps



Softr empowers anyone to build business apps without code, through an intuitive drag and drop interface, modular building blocks, and a wide selection of ready-to-use templates, such as client portals and internal tools.


Customers say that Softr is easy yet powerful, giving you deeper flexibility over your app’s design and logic than Glide. With advanced granular permissions, you can customize and control what data each user can access, and which actions they can take. Softr can also integrate with multiple data sources, allowing you to bring more than one data stream into an app for a single source of truth.


Perhaps the best part about Softr is that it allows everyone and anyone to build the tools they need to improve their internal and external operations, with no coding needed.


For a more detailed comparison, check out our Softr vs. Glide overview.



Main features:

  • Ability to build portals and internal tools on top of your existing data source, such as Airtable, Google Sheets, Hubspot and Smartsuite (more data sources coming soon)
  • Advanced custom permissions and team collaboration features
  • AWS-powered and server-side authentication for maximum security and performance
  • Real-time data sync
  • Ability to integrate with multiple data sources in a single application.
  • Responsive design by default 
  • Large selection of ready-to-use templates: sales CRM portal, inventory management, team intranet, etc. 
  • Custom code option available to premium users for technical teams to jump in and help scale further if needed
  • Option to create mobile applications as PWAs



Drawbacks:

  • Few options for data sources (more coming soon: PostgreSQL, REST API, XANO etc)
  • No offline mobile mode



Pricing:

  • Free plan (and free trial available on all plans)
  • Basic: $49 per month 
  • Professional $139 per month 
  • Business: $269 per month



Online review ratings:

  • G2: 4.8/5 (317 reviews)
  • Capterra: 4.7/5 (57 reviews)


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Adalo: best for mobile-focused teams


Adalo build web apps without code, through a user-friendly interface

Image source: Medium



Adalo is a no-code tool where users can create mobile apps using drag-and-drop components, and dynamic actions such as notifications and databases, before publishing them on the Android and iOs app stores



Main features:

  • Ability to launch a truly native app on the iOS and Android app stores.
  • Very simple, easy-to-use interface. You can get started in less than an hour.
  • Ready-to-use templates are available.



Drawbacks:

  • Very limited set of features. While the tool is very easy to get started with, building a truly custom app will take a lot of effort.
  • Adalo is primarily focused on mobile apps, while most Internal apps are used on desktop.



Pricing:

  • Free plan
  • Starter: $36/month 
  • Professional: $52/month 
  • Team: $160/month 
  • Business: $200/month



Online review ratings:

  • G2: 4.6/5 (5 reviews)
  • Capterra: 3.8/5 (16 reviews)


Bubble: best for no-code generalists


bubble editor

Image source: Techchrunch



Founded in 2012, Bubble was one of the first no-code platforms. It allows non-technical professionals to build web apps without code and has garnered an extensive user community over the years, being one of the companies at the helm of the initial no-code movement.



Main features:

  • A lot of plugins and integrations are readily available 
  • Users can leverage their own internal database instead of a spreadsheet, which can be a plus for some.
  • Technical users have the ability to introduce code into their projects



Drawbacks:

  • Not as many internal tool-specific templates and use cases compared to Glide
  • User interface isn’t the most user-friendly and can seem quite stern and difficult to master compared to other options.
  • Pricing is per app, meaning that you have to pay for each separate project
  • Workload units as a pricing metric has made it more difficult to estimate what it will cost to run your application.
  • Reviews online report issues with the responsive mode 
  • The support is also reported to be lackluster by some users on review sites



Pricing:

  • Free 
  • Personal: $29 per app month 
  • Professional: $119 per app month 
  • Production: $349 per app month



Online review ratings:

  • G2: 4.4/5 (153 reviews)
  • Capterra: 4.6/5 (92 reviews)


Retool: best for developers and technical teams


Retool is a platform designed to help companies build internal tools with minimal coding involved

Retool is a platform designed to help companies build internal tools with minimal coding involved. Contrary to most other no-code tools that usually target non-teams, Retool specifically targets developers and technical teams. 


The platform does involve some coding, but its drag-and-drop interface allows developers to build and ship internal tools quicker than with code. It’s also ideal for them to collaborate with other colleagues in their organizations that might not have coding knowledge.




Main features:

  • Intuitive drag-and-drop user interface 
  • Connectivity with other, third-party tools through APIs 
  • A collection of templates readily available dedicated to internal tools
  • Upcoming: The ability to build native mobile apps (currently in beta)



Drawbacks:

  • Knowledge of coding and SQL databases is required
  • Frontend and responsive options are limited 
  • App deployment is only possible using Docker or Kubernetes


Pricing:

  • Free plan
  • Team: $10 per user per month 
  • Business: $50 per user per month 
  • Enterprise: Custom



Online review ratings:

  • G2: 4.7/5 (130+ reviews)
  • Capterra: 4.2/5 (6 reviews)


Webflow: best for designers and creatives


Webflow is a visual web development platform

Image source: Opus Design



Webflow is a visual web development platform. It helps professionals design, build, and launch custom websites without code. 


With a strong emphasis on design and elements such as content management and eCommerce features, Webflow aims at helping coders and non-coders alike build their websites as seamlessly as possible.



Main features:

  • Great documentation and resources, including video tutorials and a community of users
  • Advanced responsive design and animations capabilities
  • SEO-friendly Content Management System (CMS)
  • Granular control over everything, without code. Ideal for designers.



Drawbacks:

  • Building can get quite elaborate, and some concepts will require a learning curve
  • Webflow is a very general website builder and might not be the best fit for internal tools specifically 
  • Pricing is more complicated than it looks and can quickly become expensive. The lower subscription are restrictive in terms of features (no CMS, no eCommerce), and hosting and collaboration come at an additional cost



Pricing:

  • Free 
  • Basic: $14 per month 
  • CMS: $23 per month 
  • Business: $39 per month
  • Enterprise: Quote upon request



Online review ratings:

  • G2: 4.4/5 (375 reviews)
  • Capterra: 4.6/5 (178 reviews)

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Conclusion: What is the best Glide alternative?


By now, thanks to this article, you should have a pretty good understanding of the landscape of Glide alternatives. But which one is best for your specific business? This depends on what you’re looking for, of course.


Are you looking for a lightweight solution to get started right away, something catering to mobile, or a modular platform to jumpstart other no-code efforts? Addressing your specific requirements and needs will help you hone down on the best solution for you. Feel free to bookmark the comparative chart at the beginning of the article, as it’ll prove useful in your research and will help you remember the key points for each solution out there. 


In the meantime - and of course, we might be biased (just a bit)-, we recommend you check out Softr for internal tools. Getting started is particularly easy, and joining our Softr community to exchange with other no-code enthusiasts will help you get your foot in.


Best of luck!

Frequently asked questions about Glide

Picking the best Glide alternative will be highly dependent on your business, and things like your budget, your objectives, and what you’re looking to build. In the list above, you can see that there are a lot of options out there. From the designer who doesn’t want to get involved with code to the entrepreneur specifically focused on shipping a native app on the iOs store, there’s something for everyone. To get started, we recommend you give Softr a try ;)

The best and easiest way to get started with building internal tools is Softr. Thanks to our intuitive drag-and-drop interface, you can turn your Airtable and Google Sheets data into web apps easily, without technical knowledge.

Head to our internal tools page page to discover some of our best internal tools templates: sales CRM portal, employee directory, editorial calendar, and event planner... For more, visit our template page to find examples of Client Portals, Internal Tools, Marketplaces, Online Communities, Resource Directories, Websites, Dashboards, and more.

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