Gorkem from Retable.io here. We have tried many platforms, and Noloco is a top notch platform, hands down.
Hi @darragh, Thank you for your detailed answer. Would you be able to assist us with an implementation of event listener? We’ve done it previously with our other tools. If so, please let me know what’s your email address and I’ll reach out.
@darragh I need your insight.
When a no-code platform, such as SmartSuite decides to get into the portal business, how does that make you and your team feel?
Any thoughts would be appreciated.
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Good question Bill, unlike working with Airtable, before we started a SmartSuite or Xano integration, we worked with the team, and for SmartSuite, they have said this is one of their most requested features that they’re not going to be focusing on internally. So from that angle, it makes sense for us to build out a SmartSuite integration and work on a partnership.
But even if they did, we find that the value of Noloco is to be able to bring all of your data, from multiple sources into one place, with incredibly detailed controls over permissions, which is something most portal platforms don’t support, particularly “first party” platforms (for lack of a better word)
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I can only second that. Apart from a great feature set Noloco is very potent for us by bringing different data sources into the same front end. From what I can tell with AT and others, it seems a stretch for most companies to excell at the core data structure as well as an innovative front end experience.
In this context I must tell about one of my most recent feature sugestions to Noloco: It was about having a search box for a certain type of list. It must have been an “easy” add so the development team implemented the feature within a couple of hours. I am sure that’s unusual, even for Noloco. But from a customer perspective that is completely insane! The listening and implementation level I have experienced there thus far are beyond impressive and reassuring.
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And yet they did. The video by the CEO says they are part of the SmartSuite team and very familiar with SmartSuite’s architecture. It appears to be a home-grown spin-off.
This is why I wanted your thoughts. SmartSuite has ostensibly decided to enter the portal aftermarket. But this is unique because, unlike your team, that team has direct access to SmartSuite primitives and other directly advantageous gateways and knowledge and support to produce a portal that no other independent developer could compete with.
What are the odds their feature requests trump yours?
This is an excellent capability; certainly, data aggregation is needed by many, but not all. The primary want (as evidenced on the no/low-code forums), is a web abstraction of the core data. This is likely 80% of the cases. How difficult is it to pull external data into SmartSuite from many locations and use it in EasyPortal?
That’s great for Airtable backends. How about SmartSuite? Doesn’t it have really good permissions management? If not, any product with the word “portal” in its name will soon have features like this (I’m guessing). Will your special features overshadow the likelihood that a portal built within SmartSuite engineering resources and knowledge fare better in the marketplace than one built by ostensibly the dame engineering team?
Good [historical] point. EasyPortal (from SmartSuite) seems to be chasing that ideal. Will they get it right? Portal experts need to evaluate this new offering. It might be crap, or it might be killer.
Observations:
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No/low-code vendors have historically made it tough on portal providers. I think they feel like that have a guaranteed stake in where their data is published. The trouble with this attitude? It’s not their data but I have had conversations with Airtable employees who actually believe otherwise.
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Any no/low-code platform that goes into the portal business has numerous significant competitive advantages - the biggest: they don’t need to use the public REST API.
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Has SmartSuite sensed that data management (i.e., data as a service) is rapidly commoditizing and the future moves their code product to backend, admin, integration, automation roles, with “seats” mostly at the edge in web abstractions?
EasyPortal is a different company than SmartSuite.
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Perhaps a different company, but not a different development team. This seems to suggest they’re not your average aftermarket developer. Take a listen at 1:15 in the video. The CEO literally says we need to know that the developers of SmartSuite brought EasyPortal to you.
Maybe @Avi could shed some light on the relationship between SmartSuite and EasyPortal.
EasyPortal is a separate company from SmartSuite and they engage a number of contract developers that have also worked on the SmartSuite product as contract developers.
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Do these EasyPortal developers have access to more than just the public REST API to create this new product?
Not that I’m aware of. We work with any integration partner to support them and and enable them in any way we can.
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