00:00:00Most developers are over-engineering internal tools and, let's face it, we all know it.
00:00:04You spin up React, wire APIs, build auth, manage state just to ship a dashboard that's basically
00:00:10forms and tables. This is AppSmith, an open source tool with over 39,000 stars that can
00:00:16replace most of that in just minutes. Think of it as the open source alternative to Bubble,
00:00:21and I'll show you how it works in just a few minutes.
00:00:29Now, AppSmith isn't brand new, but it still doesn't get talked about as often as it should.
00:00:34It's built not for landing pages or customer apps, just internal tools. We get UI you can drag and
00:00:41drop, but with full JavaScript so you're never stuck. You connect databases, APIs, SaaS tools,
00:00:47and you still use Git like a normal dev. Now, there's no lock in here and we can fully self-host
00:00:54it for free, plus we get unlimited users. So the real question is, does this actually save time?
00:01:00Let me show you. If you enjoy open source tools and coding tips like this,
00:01:04be sure to subscribe. We have videos coming out all the time. Now, once you launch AppSmith,
00:01:10you'll make a quick account, super simple. Then on your dashboard, you can start up a new app with a
00:01:15blank canvas. Now, since this isn't a full-blown tutorial, I will just choose the preset Postgres
00:01:21database, but you can see here all the options we really have that we can build into this,
00:01:26which is really nice. Once I have a database and my case Postgres is linked, we're done.
00:01:32In the database, there are a bunch of tables you can play with, but I'm going to choose
00:01:36the employees table as this has some dummy users in it. Now, I will drop in a table,
00:01:42choose to connect to the correct database table. It populates the table instantly, and then I can
00:01:47add in an input form and a submit button. You can see how all this is drag and play,
00:01:52and then on the sidebar, I can even link queries and even JavaScript into it.
00:01:55I already binded the data to the table, but here I can make a query with the input field to search
00:02:01for a user in our database. Just like that, it's done. Add a trigger to our button to update, maybe
00:02:07a toast notification, click deploy, and that's a working crud up. I mean, okay, super basic as I'm
00:02:12hitting on all this in just a couple of minutes, but I know you can see the real versatility behind
00:02:17all this and how fast this would be in a workflow too. No React setup, no API layer, no auth wiring.
00:02:23This took maybe a minute, maybe two, okay? And you still have full control with JavaScript,
00:02:28themes, and Git. So yeah, it's free, it's fast, so no paying for bubble or something else.
00:02:34This is a great tool to spin up quickly. AppSmith is basically UI on one side, data on the other,
00:02:40and JavaScript for connecting everything. Widgets handle your UI, data sources connect to databases,
00:02:46APIs, even LLMs and queries are just SQL, REST, or JavaScript. And the key idea is JavaScript is
00:02:54everywhere. Now, most low-code tools hide logic from you, and then one exposes it. That's why
00:03:00devs are switching. Git works the way you expect, branching, merging, CI/CD, there's nothing weird,
00:03:06and you can self-host with Docker or Kubernetes. So you control your data and your costs. You can
00:03:12build custom components with React or plain JavaScript, and it's production-ready with
00:03:18RBAC, audit logs, and SSO just built in. Now, with all this being said, there's obviously AI,
00:03:23but the important part is it generates code you can actually edit. So it sounds perfect, maybe,
00:03:30but it's not, okay? Well, this is good at time saving as we can ship faster, and honestly,
00:03:36after using it, that does feel pretty accurate. It is indeed open source, so you're not locked
00:03:42into a pricing model. We don't get stuck because we can always just drop JavaScript into it,
00:03:47and if you self-host, it's free with unlimited users. But on the flip side, with time or scale,
00:03:52this can and still does break. Now, if you try to render massive datasets on the client,
00:03:58it can slow down, so you'll want server-side pagination. Mobile layouts aren't automatic.
00:04:04You'll need to tweak them manually. And if you're coming from no-code state management,
00:04:08this can feel really confusing at first. And UI is slightly behind tools like Retool if you want some
00:04:14fancy dashboards. None of this actually matters too much, but they matter depending on your use case.
00:04:20So where does this actually fit? The real comparison is Retool versus AppSmith. Retool
00:04:26is more polished and has stronger features, but it's expensive and closed source. AppSmith is
00:04:32less polished. It's open source, right? But you own everything. The cost is zero if you self-host.
00:04:39Bubble and Webflow aren't really comparable since they're more customer-facing apps,
00:04:44but they do do a lot of cool things that are similar. Tooljet is closer, but AppSmith
00:04:49still stands out with stronger Git integration. So if your goal is to ship internal tools quickly,
00:04:55AppSmith is usually a better trade-off. If you enjoy open source tools and coding tips like this,
00:05:00be sure to subscribe to the BetterStack channel. We'll see you in another video.