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Thanks to the numerous technologies available today, software development has never been simpler. The correct internal tool selection can be difficult and time-consuming. There are many options available, but it's crucial to pick the best one for your requirements so that you don't waste time or money. Don't worry! To make the best choice, our company, Makeitfuture, has collected some crucial elements in this post.
Internal tools, also known as internal apps, are applications or programs that are designed to improve the efficiency of IT departments, developers, and other internal business users. They can do everything from making it easier for you to access your database, CRM, CMS, ticketing software, or dashboards to providing you with better analytics for your website.
Retool is a no-code editor, which works by creating components and then creating pages where these components are built into your CRM. You can choose from database or API integrations. Also, you can choose from 40 ready-made Retool templates. Retool makes it simple to create apps with Google Sheets data, including connecting Google Sheets to other APIs.
These reusable pieces of code have the potential to dramatically reduce your time spent on development while also increasing it because you'll be able to reuse them across multiple projects. You won't need to write the same code twice; instead, you can focus on writing new features!
Retool offers guides in their Retool Docs collection for those who really want to dive into the system.
Appsmith is the all-in-one solution for your internal tool needs. It's an open-source, low-code platform that allows you to build, host and manage your software applications in one place.
With Appsmith, you can create custom applications, connect to any data source and build beautiful UI in minutes. This saves time because it eliminates the need for developers or IT staff members who would normally be involved in building these applications separately from each other. Additionally, it provides greater security by making sure that only authorized users have access to certain parts of an app's functionality—which means no more accidental leaks into competitors' systems!
Furthermore, Appsmith can be deployed locally or on your private instance using Docker.
If you're looking to build and host your own internal tools, Appsmith is a good alternative for you. It's a powerful tool that can be used by anyone, regardless of whether they have technical skills. Even Github provides a cheat sheet to get started with this tool.
Pricing is a big part of the decision-making process when it comes to choosing an internal tool. Both Appsmith and Retool offer similar features, but they differ in price, with Appsmith being cheaper than Retool.
Retool offers four plans: Free, Team ($10 per month), Business ($50 per month), and Enterprise with flexible pricing. The Team plan includes access to all the basic features of their system as well as unlimited users. However, you can only have one team member on your account at a time. The Business plan allows multiple teams within one account and provides more advanced analytics capabilities such as segmentation by industry or company size.
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On the other hand, Appsmith, on the other hand, has simpler solutions: you can choose either a Community (free) or Business ($250/month) membership. The Community package offers self-hosting, unlimited data sources, Google SSO and much more. Their Business Plan can provide you with extra features such as SAML and SSO and Air-gapped solution.
Based on the prices listed above, Appsmith seems to be cheaper than Retool.
Retool's rapid Salesforce integration allows you to quickly create user interfaces on top of your Salesforce data with Retool templates. For instance, you could import all of your Salesforce opportunities, combine them with your app data, and rapidly create a solution to manage commissions for each of your salespeople.
Let’s move on to Appsmith. Install your datasources after creating the backend of your choice. It's effortless with this tool. However, it is a huge downside compared to Retool that Appsmith has no Salesforce integration yet.
Fortunately, there are several integration platforms like Make, Zapier or N8N which you can use to integrate any database and sync data, for example from your Salesforce to Retool or any other low code or no-code site.
It's important to understand who your audience is before you start choosing the right internal tool. Based on reviews, if you're a tech company, it's probably best to go with Appsmith—you can customize it and make it work exactly how you want. But if you have a smaller business (like a restaurant or coffee shop), then Retool might be better because its pricing model is simpler and more diverse.
If you are still unsure about selecting the right tool for your business, don’t worry. Get in contact with our team, Makeitfuture, and we will guide you through the way of digitalization and automatization.
Are you interested in more tools? Read our blog to find out more: https://www.makeitfuture.com/blog
Cloud Integration, iPaaS, SaaS, BPA… Ough, hard to keep track of all these terms. They are currently used frequently (and increasingly) in the context of automation, and it is sometimes difficult to make a clear distinction and distinction. We have already written blog posts on the terms iPaaS, SaaS and BPA, but we’ll take them up again here to make the difference.
But let’s start with cloud integration, because that’s the central umbrella term in which we embed all the other technologies in this blog post.
Arrange a free cloud integration consultation now
Arrange a free cloud integration consultation now
To illustrate these advantages, an example is suitable that we know well from our everyday work as an automation agency:
The central data to be used here is the data of a major customer. This can be the simplest information, such as the address. This address is required in numerous but completely different processes in the company: on the one hand, for correct invoicing in accounting. On the other hand, in the CRM system, where all the data of the large customer is also stored. But the address is also important in sales, for example, when employees go to the sales meeting on site.
Now the customer announces that the address of the company has changed after a move. This information will reach you by e-mail. There are now two options:
01. The e-mail is forwarded to all affected departments, accounting, sales, customer service, marketing… All persons open their corresponding program, CRM, accounting software, marketing tools (such as newsletter marketing) and change the data already stored there of the customer. This means that in multiple applications, different people do exactly the same thing: change one address.
02. But there is also an alternative: By connecting your applications, thus by integrizing them, the customer’s e-mail, or rather the information it contains about the address change, is automatically passed on to all affected applications: CRM, accounting, marketing, ERP. This does not require any clicks, because the cloud integration detects a trigger, i.e. address change, and thus automatically starts the process.
What sounds unimpressive in a single process becomes more effective when such a process occurs several times a day or weekly. Because there is a lot of data that is available in different applications and should always be correct. If these applications are cloud applications they are suitable for cloud integration.
But cloud integration doesn’t just happen. There are now a variety of applications that enable and implement this. Such tools usually allow us to link the relevant cloud applications on a central platform and define clear rules on when, how, where, how much data should be passed on and what happens to them.
To realize cloud integration, there are various applications and technologies that are sometimes used interchangeably.
We have made a first distinction between iPaaS and BPA here.
We explain the term SaaS in more detail here.
Cloud integration is rather an umbrella term that includes numerous technologies, such as SaaS, iPaaS and BPA, and this is also absolutely necessary. Cloud integration is a concept that is made possible by appropriate technologies.
However, all terms share the commonality that they are cloud-based and thus offer enormous potential for growth and scaling. In addition, they are often cheaper to implement and maintain because changed requirements are easy to implement.
As an independent automation agency, we implement cloud integration according to your requirements. We use a variety of SaaS tools and iPaas (strictly speaking BPA) software. Together we find individual solutions that are flexible and scalable.
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