None of these apps are really priced in a way that allows me to build an app and share it with people as a personal project though.
Let's assume that I want to build a simple app for my local theater troupe, which will have 20 users:
* Quickbase starts at $600 a month
* PowerApps costs me £7 for every user I want to give access to the app
* Salesforce again costs me £20 per user per month
* Mendix costs me £10 per user
All these are priced at enterprises that have deeper pockets than a personal project or small community org can stomach.
If you just want to make a cool app and share it with some people online, none of these products have commercial models which are compatible when you compare it against the 'old fashioned' ways to build apps like WinForms, Flash etc.
I would love to find an alternative to these products with a commercial structure that means if I build something cool I can share it on HN without it bankrupting me.
I don't personally think any of those start to scratch the capabilities of WinForms or an old-school Access DB - These are just the ability to create a static site, or at most submit some data through a form, not build an actual application.
I know Hypercard wasn't multi-user, but you could make something and then send it to someone without incurring fees.
Regardless of the technology and requirements though, which will be specific to each project, I just wanna be able to make stuff and show it to people :) (and not just a static site with a form).
And if I need to make certain apps quickly, why is Access still a compelling choice? (PLEASE someone tell me an alternative if there is one for the sort of app you would build in an Access DB, I genuinely want to know!)
Let's assume that I want to build a simple app for my local theater troupe, which will have 20 users:
* Quickbase starts at $600 a month
* PowerApps costs me £7 for every user I want to give access to the app
* Salesforce again costs me £20 per user per month
* Mendix costs me £10 per user
All these are priced at enterprises that have deeper pockets than a personal project or small community org can stomach.
If you just want to make a cool app and share it with some people online, none of these products have commercial models which are compatible when you compare it against the 'old fashioned' ways to build apps like WinForms, Flash etc.
I would love to find an alternative to these products with a commercial structure that means if I build something cool I can share it on HN without it bankrupting me.