Think fast
Thoughts and ideas on how to build tools, automate workflows and speed-up the workplace.
What is a Workflow Engine? + 5 Open Source Tools
Workflow engines are used to simplify, expedite, and optimize all sorts of internal tasks and processes. By codifying and digitalizing business logic, an effective workflow engine enables us to achieve a high degree of efficiency, repeatability, accuracy, and productivity within daily operations. They鈥檙e also a powerful basis for business process automation, integration, real-time analytics, and other digital transformation efforts across your business. Today, we鈥檙e exploring everything you need to know.
Ronan McQuillan
May 1, 2024
Mendix vs OutSystems
OutSystems and Mendix are two of the oldest names in the low-code space. Together, they occupy a huge corner of the market, with tens of thousands of businesses relying on them to ship custom applications. But, despite being direct competitors, there are huge differences between the two - in terms of key functionality, target personas, pricing, and use cases. Today, we鈥檙e giving an in-depth account of everything you need to know.
Ronan McQuillan
Apr 26, 2024
Top 7 Quickbase Alternatives & Competitors in 2025
Quickbase is one of many tools on the market today that seeks to give teams a single platform for unifying data, managing internal processes, and automating menial tasks. This reflects a huge problem that鈥檚 faced by almost every business today. Companies have never relied on data more. At the same time, data assets are dispersed, siloed, and uncoordinated. Therefore, centralization offers huge potential for efficiency savings, improving accuracy, facilitating collaboration, providing oversight, and more.
Ronan McQuillan
Apr 12, 2024
Top 7 Airtable Alternatives & Competitors in 2025
When Airtable launched in 2012, it was a real innovation. Spreadsheets hadn鈥檛 changed much in several decades. So, the power to add interfaces, automations, advanced in-line components, and external data syncing on top of this was huge. Today, Airtable has upwards of 300,000 users - including some of the world鈥檚 biggest companies. But, despite Airtable鈥檚 popularity, it鈥檚 not necessarily the ideal solution for every use case. Today, we鈥檙e exploring some of the other tools that teams can use to collaborate on data and manage internal processes, with our roundup of Airtable alternatives.
Ronan McQuillan
Apr 6, 2024
How to Build an Employee Portal
Employee portals are some of the most ubiquitous internal tools around. Teams of all sizes in every industry need a secure, efficient way to share information, handle requests, and deliver internal services to employees. Portals offer a unified, centralized platform for interacting with data within internal processes. Today, we鈥檙e checking out how 黑料正能量 empowers teams to build sleek, professional portals on top of just about any data source. With our open-source, low-code platform, you can output fully functional solutions in a fraction of the time.
Ronan McQuillan
Apr 5, 2024
Top 10 PowerApps Alternatives & Competitors in 2025
Microsoft PowerApps was one of the first modern low-code platforms when it launched in 2015. The goal was to provide large businesses with a new, faster way to output custom applications. Today, it鈥檚 used by developers and other IT professionals alike to simplify the process of building custom software. Thousands of companies in all kinds of industries choose PowerApps for internal development projects. However, that doesn鈥檛 mean that PowerApps is the right fit for every organization.
Ronan McQuillan
Apr 5, 2024
How to Build a Franchise Portal
Franchise businesses face some unique challenges. A huge part of this is gathering and managing information from independent locations. Without an effective, centralized way to manage data, it鈥檚 almost impossible to achieve optimal performance or even full visibility across the business. Today, we鈥檙e exploring one solution to this issue. We鈥檙e building a secure franchise portal for individual stores to share information with head office - and vice versa. Specifically, we鈥檙e showing off how we can use 黑料正能量 to build fully functioning custom portals on top of just about any data source - with minimal custom code.
Ronan McQuillan
Apr 3, 2024
How to Build a B2B Customer Portal in 6 Steps
Managing B2B sales is quite a bit different from selling to the public. This can present challenges, including managing communications, securely hosting product information, and effectively handling inventories and fulfillment. Today, we鈥檙e looking at one solution - building a custom B2B portal. Most often, business customers don鈥檛 have the same priorities as typical consumers. Above all, they want a fast, secure way to order from trusted suppliers. That鈥檚 where portals come in.
Ronan McQuillan
Mar 28, 2024