Why We Think Appsmith Is the #1 Open-source Low-code Platform

We've noticed that developers who usually shun low-code platforms love using Appsmith. While other low-code tools force developers to work against the instincts and processes they've established with experience, Appsmith does the opposite.

We let developers leverage the automation of low code to rapidly build fully functional applications without making them jump through new hoops or give up on their tried-and-true development practices.

Most low-code platforms integrate with external datasources, but very few of them do this in a secure, reliable, and scalable manner across your organization without making you overhaul your existing tech stack.

Appsmith connects to pretty much any back-end datasource. This makes it ideal for use cases ranging from the everyday business user who needs to access data in Salesforce all the way to the hardcore developer that needs to manage a Kubernetes cluster via an API. We support several popular SaaS product integrations out of the box, as well as REST and GraphQL APIs for everything else.

Today, some of the most important datasources are AI models, which is why Appsmith makes it easy to integrate with the most popular AI models from Anthropic, Google, and OpenAI. On top of these, we also offer Appsmith AI, which is our free, natively-supported AI model with no API key or additional configuration required.

Appsmith lets you connect to your existing back-end services with industry standard authentication and authorization. It natively supports all major authentication options ranging from standard login to SSO options like Google Auth, GitHub Auth, SAML, OIDC, and more. This means that your users can seamlessly and securely log in using the same options that they do everywhere else across the company.

Once your users are logged in to Appsmith, they have access to the low-code applications in your organization, which are split into workspaces that keep things organized and make sure users can only access what they need.

Appsmith allows you to customize which users, groups, or roles have access to different workspaces, applications, pages within applications, queries or datasources within applications, logs, and more. This lets you control exactly who can see, use, edit, and control different data and tools across your organization.

Most low-code platforms accomplish 75%–90% of what you need to do, but at some point, you will start hitting their limitations. Appsmith doesn't have the limitations inherent in other app platforms. It isn’t just a drag-and-drop builder; it’s a fully fledged development platform that lets you build how you want.

Appsmith merges the customization and flexibility of traditional development with the automation and efficiency of low code without compromising the benefits of either approach.

We see Appsmith as the low-code equivalent of the model-view-controller (MVC) frameworks that are so popular with developers, with the added benefits of low-code automation.

To emulate the model in MVC frameworks, we have datasources and queries. We offer a graphical query builder for rapidly inspecting database schemas, building queries, and testing them in one place. We also offer dynamic parameter insertion so that you can populate your queries with values from other variables, just like in traditional development.

In Appsmith, the view is the UI builder. We offer an interface where you can drag and drop React-powered UI widgetsonto the canvas. This lets you quickly and easily build out a UI, seeing exactly how your app will look to end users.

You can configure the behavior of widgets with the same functionality as in native JavaScript code, including event handlers and conditional formatting. You can get the same outcomes as hand-coded interfaces faster with less testing and debugging. You can even create your own widget in vanilla JS, React, or Vue!

For the controller aspect of MVC, Appsmith's IDE lets you implement your own custom business logic in JavaScript, avoiding the need to learn the proprietary languages that other low-code platforms rely on. Appsmith also includes powerful built-in debugging functionality so that you can execute individual functions and see the value of certain variables to debug as you build.

One of the biggest complaints developers have about low-code platforms is the lack of source control and separate deployment environments, which is why Appsmith offers native Git integration. With Appsmith, you can check out branches, commit changes, merge branches, and trigger standard CI/CD workflows on pushes for each of your applications just like you would in traditional development.

You can also extend your legacy applications and older systems with our 2-way iframe functionality, break down data silos across your company by consolidating data from different tools into one application (as shown in our customer 360 example), and rein in rogue apps to provide better governance and security for all of the apps within your company.

It’s important to strike the right balance between providing the freedom to do what you need while also making sure that you have the governance, security, and compliance that you absolutely must have in your business. We designed some other key features in Appsmith to help with this:

For one, there is no vendor lock-in with Appsmith. We are the #1 open-source, low-code platform in the market, and we're confident in our platform, so we don't take any measures to try and lock you in. All Appsmith applications, even the ones built on commercial tiers, are fully compatible with the open-source version of Appsmith, so you can always spin up an Appsmith instance and host them yourself.

Appsmith is well established with a large user base and an active open-source project on GitHub with over 33,000 stars. Because Appsmith's codebase is open source, you'll always be able to run it and use it, so you can feel comfortable building your business infrastructure on top of it.

Appsmith supports self-hosting using Docker and can be hosted inside your VPC. This means that you can secure it behind your firewall and grant it access to your sensitive private data, all without having to grant external platforms outside of your control access to your infrastructure.

Developers love building apps with Appsmith due to its flexibility, power featureset, and focus on letting them build applications using their existing best practices. Large enterprises also rely on Appsmith to power their business-critical applications like tools to patch fleets of servers, quickly access customer data, and display and drive business KPIs.

This is why we think Appsmith is the best low-code, open-source app builder for your projects. Over 10,000 development teams across the world, including the likes Twilio and OMRON, are building with us, and we’re always improving!

You can follow along for free with a starter tutorial to build your first Appsmith app, leverage one of our pre-built templates to start 80% of the way done, or follow along with our starter course by forking a pre-built repository from GitHub. Or, if you’re ready to take your business to the next level of Appsmith reliability and support, check out our enterprise edition.