Five.Co

Hey, are you just looking for a raw database? Then Xano or even Airtable could be simple options IMHO.

If you want to do a bit of programming and build front-end forms that point toward your database, then you could try an online database builder. Again, plenty of options out there...Five, Caspio, FileMaker, Zoho Creator, Knack.

If I were to build this in Five, I would:

1. Create a single table for my MySQL DB that stores all required information about the document: title, publication date, journal, authors, plus the actual file
2. Build a form for my application front-end
3. Launch the application.

Getting this up and running wouldn't take more than 30 minutes. You can give this a try by using our free download and build a local app first before deciding whether you want to push this to the cloud.

Hey, I reckon with Flutter, Firebase, or Superbase you're looking at the right technologies, though I wonder if there's a faster way to get your new app up and running.

Your first sentence "CRUD SaaS" app made me wonder whether a low-code solution could do the trick for you. How much UI customization are you looking for? Is this a typical "admin panel" web app with a couple of screens for login/logoff, data entry, etc? Or is this something with a highly customized UI? And do you need native mobile or just a responsive web app?

There are a couple of online database builders that give you a hosted relational database, authentication, the ability to write logic, and deployment in one platform.

Our company Five, for example, has a low-code IDE that gives you a fully-provisioned MySQL DB, a prebuilt responsive React/MUI user interface, and one-click deployment of web apps onto AWS infrastructure.

You can build most of your application using Five's pre-built features. But you can also write SQL, JS or TS to query your data, or to add logic.

Hi Mark,

great question and I hope it's not too late for me to share my perspective on this.

Here's how I would evaluate this: First, I would eliminate Zoho Creator and MS Power Apps. Why? For two reasons: first, these two tools primarily make sense if you're an existing Microsoft Office or Zoho CRM user. They are primarily designed as extensions to the existing MS & Zoho product suite. Secondly, both rely on proprietary languages: MS Power Apps uses a language called Power FX, which is unique to Power Apps. Zoho Creator uses a proprietary language called Deluge. This means that you will not be able to extend these applications in standard JavaScript.

Next, I would eliminate Outsystems. Why? It's an enterprise tool and starts at 1,500 USD per month. I assume you're budget won't support an enterprise platform, unless your client is a multi-national company.

Next, I'd ask where does my data reside? It sounds like you need to build a new database from scratch so that your end-users can perform read/write operations on it. Retool is primarily a front-end builder on top of an existing data source, so I'd eliminate Retool as well.

Now, coming to my recommendation: Five (https://five.co). Why?

1. Five lets you create self-contained web apps.
2. You're building on top of a standard MySQL database.
3. You can extend Five through custom UI components in standard JS.
4. Five deploys onto AWS, so industry-standard cloud infrastructure.

Coming to your other considerations: ease of maintenance and ease of use. There's a learning curve in any new dev tool. Ease of use really depends on your skills. Are you familiar with relational databases? Then building your DB will come easy to you. Are you familiar with JS? Again, then writing custom components will be relatively easy. For all of the tools you've listed, PowerApps is actually the most "beginner-friendly" tool, but given your background in development, I reckon you'd also feel quite comfortable in more dev-focused low-code tools.

Full disclosure: I work for Five, but the use case you're describing is pretty much exactly what we're trying to solve with our low-code IDE.