No-code app builders are revolutionising the way businesses and individuals create applications. Without needing a single line of code, users can design, build, and deploy apps that solve real-world problems.

If you’re looking for a no-code solution, here are 5 of the top platforms you should consider, including a special spotlight on Squirrel365, a powerful tool that is starting to stand out in the no-code space.

1. Bubble

Website: bubble.io

Bubble is one of the most well-known no-code platforms, allowing users to build fully functional web applications with powerful database capabilities and integrations.

Key Benefits:

• Comprehensive logic builder: Use workflows to automate tasks and processes.
• Scalability: Handle complex databases and APIs.
• Responsive Design: Apps can be optimized for mobile and desktop views.
• Active community and ecosystem: Access a marketplace of plugins and templates to expand functionality.

2. Adalo

Website: adalo.com 

Adalo started as a mobile-focused no-code app builder that makes it easy to create native and web apps with a visual interface.

Key Benefits:

• Drag-and-drop editor: Simplifies the app-building process.
• Native app support: Publish directly to iOS and Android stores.
• Workflows & Logic: Automate interactions, user authentication, and dynamic content.
• Templates & Components: Includes pre-built templates for faster development.

3. Glide

Website: glideapps.com

Glide transforms Google Sheets into sleek mobile and web applications, making it a great choice for creating data-driven apps quickly.

Key Benefits:

• Google Sheets integration: Use live spreadsheet data to power your app.
• Fast deployment: Build and launch apps in minutes.
• Great for internal tools: Ideal for business dashboards, inventory tracking, and CRM solutions.

4. Thunkable

Website: thunkable.com 

Thunkable is a no-code platform tailored for building native mobile apps with a block-based logic system similar to MIT App Inventor.

Key Benefits:

• Cross-platform compatibility: Build once and deploy on both iOS and Android.
• Code logic with visual blocks: Use a simple drag-and-drop logic builder.
• AI and IoT capabilities: Integrate with AI tools and smart devices.

5. Squirrel365

Website: squirrel365.io

Squirrel365 is a no-code app builder that empowers users to create pixel-perfect applications using an intuitive drag-and-drop interface. It uniquely combines spreadsheet logic with interactive design, making it an excellent choice for users comfortable using formulas to create web applications.

Key Benefits:

• Pixel-perfect design: Unlike many no-code tools that use templated layouts, Squirrel365 offers complete design flexibility and customisation of components

• Spreadsheet logic layer: Keep your existing calculations and models intact by using Excel-like formulas within your app.

• Integrate with other platforms: Connect to over 4000+ tools using Squirrel365’s zapier connector, or connect directly to Googlesheet, Excel Online and and RDMS database (via InfoBurst)

• Easy distribution: Publish apps effortlessly as standalone web app, embed them in websites, or integrate with business dashboards.

• Quick response support and community: Squirrel365 provides responsive customer support. Additionally, its active community serves as a valuable resource for guidance, problem-solving, and idea-sharing.

Which No-Code App Builder is Right for You?

Choosing the right no-code platform for your project depends on what you need. 

If you need a fully customisable, spreadsheet-powered app with pixel-perfect design, Squirrel365 is the ideal choice. For mobile apps Adalo and Thunkable are great options to try.

We recommend that you carefully compare and test each tool yourself and assess the compatibility with your app building needs.

If a particular tool is already standing out to you as the one most suitable for your requirements, then that’s great – get yourself building right away! If not, then why not give Squirrel365 a go – it’s a very cost efficient no-code tool and you can start building your app on a free plan.

With no-code platforms becoming more powerful than ever, there’s never been a better time to build an app—without writing a single line of code!

Start building with Squirrel365 now

🎄On the first day of ‘Squirrel-mas’…🎄

We found a Squirrel in an oak tree!

As Christmas comes closer, the Squirrel team wanted to have a little festive fun! Taking the “12 Days of Christmas” song, we explored Squirrel to see if we could list items for each day in the song. 

As the first gift in the song is “a partridge in a pear tree…” we thought we’d start with a squirrel in an oak tree – a little light-hearted nod to our product’s namesake. We looked at some of our favourite functions and components for each of the other eleven days.

🎄On the second day of ‘Squirrel-mas’…🎄

We played with the two Media components!

The Image and Icon components add much-needed visual aspects to any project. Whether they be diagrams, photographs, or icon-based navigation buttons, any of these media components can make a difference.

🎄On the third day of ‘Squirrel-mas’…🎄

We remembered the three Squirrel core-project concepts

1 / Binding
2 / Data Insertion
3 / Dynamic Visibility

These remain constant when it comes to building your projects in Squirrel.

🎄On the fourth day of ‘Squirrel-mas’…🎄

We explored the four available canvas size options.

Available from the get go, you can jump right in with our default canvas options. Each device category has a drop-down that expands containing more standard canvas sizes.

Or, if there’s a size you specifically want, use the Custom option to enter your own canvas Width and Height.

🎄On the fifth day of ‘Squirrel-mas’…🎄

We were inspired by five projects built by other users – take a look!

1 / Animated Data Table with Spotify Data – Josh Tapley
2 / Dashboard Color Checker – Cameron Seamons
3 / Using Squirrel for Multi user / Live applications – Rob Scott
4 / Custom Visualization: Rounded Gradient Bar Chart – Josh Tapley
5 / Play Tetris – Graham Ames

🎄On the sixth day of ‘Squirrel-mas’…🎄

We looked into the six steps for project building!

1 / Start with the spreadsheet… as the powerhouse of your project, it provides both the data and the logic.
2 / Add components… with a library packed full of charts, tables, image and text components, you choose how you want to present your data.
3 / Bring your content to life… connect your components to cells in the spreadsheet and watch the magic happen!
4 / Connect to your data… connect your Squirrel projects to external data so they are always up to date.
5 / Publish and share… embed into SharePoint or other websites using cloud embed code, or export and host locally on your own web server.
6 / Manage with ease… activate and deactivate your published projects or change their sharing options in the Squirrel Project Manager

Check them out on our website’s Features page!

🎄On the seventh day of ‘Squirrel-mas’…🎄

We experimented with the seven Data Insertion types!

1 / Position – Insert the selected item’s position in the list into the spreadsheet
2 / Series Name – Enter the name of the selected Series into the spreadsheet
3 / Category Name – Enter the name of the selected Category into the spreadsheet
4 / Value – Enter a specified value or set of values into the spreadsheet
5 / Row – Enter a selected row or rows of data into the spreadsheet based on the value selected
6 / Column – Enter a selected column or columns into the spreadsheet based on the value selected
7 / Status List – Create a status list to track the status of selected and deselected values

🎄On the eighth day of ‘Squirrel-mas’…🎄

We pushed the limits of the eight Conditional Logic comparators!

1 / ‘=’ Equals
2 / ‘<>’ Is Not
3 / ‘<’ Less Than
4 / ‘<=’ Less Than/ Equal to
5 / ‘>’ Greater Than
6 / ‘>=’ Greater Than/ Equal to
7 / ‘Is Empty’
8 / ‘Is Not Empty’

🎄On the ninth day of ‘Squirrel-mas’…🎄

We explored the nine Component categories!

1 / Charts – Line Chart, Bar Chart, Pie Chart…
2 / Data Viz – Gauge, Gantt, Word Cloud…
3 / Tables – Data Table, Scorecard…
4 / Controls – Push Button, Drop-down, Radio Button…
5 / Text – Text Input, Text Label…
6 / Shapes – Rectangle, Line, Ellipse…
7 / Media – Image, Icons…
8 / Containers – Repeat Container, Web View…
9 / Add-ons – Check available add-ons here!

🎄On the tenth day of ‘Squirrel-mas’…🎄

We tidied up the visual elements of our projects using the ten Alignment Options

1 / Align to left-side
2 / Align to centre
3 / Align to right-side
4 / Align to top
5 / Align to middle
6 / Align to bottom
7 / Distribute horizontally
8 / Distribute vertically
9 / Match height
10 / Match width

Don’t forget!! The first object you select is the one that all the alignment, size and position operations will be based on.

🎄On the eleventh day of ‘Squirrel-mas’…🎄

We downloaded our eleven most popular add-ons! They’ve been a hit since we launched the Marketplace!

1 / Gradient Background
2 / File Loader
3 / Unique List
4 / Range Slider
5 / Alert Icon
6 / Lottie Animations
7 / Toast
8 / Window Size
9 / Sparkchart
10 / Copy To Clipboard
11 / Card Slider

🎄On the twelfth day of ‘Squirrel-mas’…🎄

We made a list of our twelve favourite fonts available in Squirrel!

1 / Poppins
2 / Montserrat
3 / Ubuntu
4 / Lato
5 / Open Sans
6 / Source Sans Pro
7 / Bree Serif
8 / Rubik
9 / Heebo
10 / Roboto Slab
11 / Signika
12 / Noto Sans

And that about wraps it up!

With this in mind, we would like to invite all of you to participate in the challenge by creating your own ’12 days of Squirrel-mas’ list. We have created a challenge on the Squirrel Community page where you can share yours and we will make sure to highlight our favourite entries.

From all of us here at Squirrel365, we wish you all a very happy Christmas!

We’ve been inspired by all the great projects that we have seen since the release of 1.15. It was possibly one of our most feature-filled releases and has helped expand on project innovation and creativity within the product. One of these notable feature releases was the Repeat Container component, which repeated any objects put within it and dynamically updated the bindings with each row.

We tried it for ourselves!

We’re no strangers to ‘eating our own dog food’ (a phrase common in the software development world that means to use your own product). There are many Squirrel projects embedded as part of our website. For example, the price comparison matrix was created before the repeat container existed. This was crying out to be rebuilt using the new repeat container.

So we set about rebuilding the price comparison matrix to see how much quicker it it would be to construct.

A huge time-saver

The first iteration of the comparison matrix consisted of over 300+ components and took roughly 6 hours to build. This included building the spreadsheet, creating and binding the components, and grouping them into sections and layouts.

Taking what we had with the original project, we managed to drastically cut the number of components used. The time it took to implement the repeat container was significantly less, and created a more streamlined project.

We had to do some workarounds…

Initially, we hit a few small issues but nothing we couldn’t overcome. One such case was the mix of Text Label and Icon components in the first section, under “Usage”. Due to the nature of the repeat container, we knew that with each repeated row, it was not possible to change the component that was being “repeated”.

As such, we came to a compromise. Under each of the sub. columns we have – Free, Creator and Builder – we placed both a text label and an icon.

And now for the ‘magic’ that we call dynamic visibility!…

Knowing that the Text labels were the majority item shown in this section, we could go ahead and leave these as they are. We know that this is safe because one of the repeated spreadsheet sections was a series of blank cells. This meant that even if the labels were repeated, alongside the icons, it would just show the blank data!

Let’s take a look:

After this, we had to take the icons we had in our first row of components and set up the DV.

Now, we knew that these blank cells were going to be where our icons were showing. So, all we needed to do was say the following:

‘when this cell is blank, show the icon’

which was as simple as binding the icon’s DV Value to the same cell that the Text Label was reading from. As the repeat container then updated the bindings, it would read the cell below.

Used and approved by us!

The net result? A lot less time to build and a lot less components. We updated the matrix on the website… and you can’t even tell it’s changed!! However, this new version is more more dynamic and flexible and a way easier to maintain. 

💙 Check it out here in our blog ‘Save time with the ‘Repeat-Grid’ component!’

Taking Squirrel to Big Data LDN

Earlier this year Squirrel365 exhibited at Big Data LDN (London) It’s the UK’s leading free-to-attend data & analytics conference and exhibition. We were there to show off Squirrel and InfoBurst and how, together, they make a great addition to your BI stack. 

Along with the usual demos, it presented the perfect opportunity to show off an app created with Squirrel — a free lead capture app.  The app allowed us to gather basic contact information from interested attendees quickly. Which led to some great discussions about the creation process.

The motives behind building this lead capture app were partly to save money but, more importantly, to show attendees what Squirrel is capable of. 

Planning the lead capture app

We decided only first name, last name, and email address was essential. Once submitted this would be written to an external Google Sheet. Attendees should enter their information but must not see anyone else’s. Only those with the password should be able to access the list of leads. And clicking on the name should allow you to update information and add any notes if needed.

Finally, an analytics page would keep track of how many leads had been captured. Detailing what they were interested in (Squirrel, InfoBurst, or both) and their level of interest. This would help us identify “Hot Leads”.

Designing the App

Our UX/UI team designed the user flow and visuals for the lead capture app. Ensuring a consistent look and feel to the app and making sure it was easy to use. This involved considering the right components to display and capture information, navigation, themes and colours. With the UX and visual design done, all that remained was to build it.

Building the app

Using Squirrel’s intuitive interface, I was able to bring the application together quickly – matching the design specifications closely. The build itself took a couple of days to complete. When it came to wiring up the components to the spreadsheet there was a lot more that needed doing. The components had to insert the data into the correct place. I also had to check that the spreadsheet formulas were calculating correctly and that any functions I had in place – like the Data Mover – triggered correctly.

“It all came down to my knowledge of Excel formulas and the functionality of Squirrel’s components, and it just goes to show that anything is possible… when you know how!”

Challenges!

The biggest challenge, personally, was the creation of the “Password Protect” screen, which would secure two pages. This should appear when either the list or analytics sections are accessed. The difficult bit was getting it to stay hidden after the password was successfully entered. I wanted to prevent someone from having to enter the passcode again when switching between those two pages. After a bit of trial and error, I had it cracked! It all came down to my knowledge of Excel formulas and the functionality of Squirrel’s components, and it just goes to show that anything is possible… when you know how!

Subsequently, we created a demo version of the ‘secure’ area. Enabling us to show interested attendees how it would function without exposing real data.

Try it out

I am continually amazed at what you can create with Squirrel365.

Try out the free lead capture app below. Or sign up and have a go at building an app of your own.

Psst… the password is 1234

The hackathon challenge!

This year at IBIS, the conference featured a Squirrel hackathon. Attendees were invited to build a project based on a spreadsheet. Eventually, the goal was to create a personal carbon footprint. After a swift introduction to the basics through our “Introduction to Squirrel” guide, the participants set off on crafting their very first project.

Neither of the winners had used Squirrel before the conference, however, they quickly took to the tool. Ultimately, they both produced great-looking interactive dashboards. Also, the younger winner (who was only 13) left the conference with a plan to hold a similar hackathon for her fellow pupils back at school.

Have a look at what they created:

Winner #1

“Using Squirrel was easy and fun. I was able to learn the program basics quickly. Additionally, I was comfortable using the tool since it had some of the same functionally as other tools I use (sizing, grouping and aligning objects). There were so many options for manipulating objects, it made it fun to make the dashboard look the way I wanted it to look”
Devon, Snohomish County

Winner #2

The Squirrel team can see just how intuitive Squirrel is and you can see this by what is being made. Also, it’s important to note that this was done in just a few days!

For more on Squirrel’s time at IBIS 2022, check out our Squirrel attends IBIS 2022 blog.