We currently hold a year pro subscription to Glide apps, though we are thinking longer-term we may want to evolve into something like Adalo or Bubble.
We are a small company and the approach to on-boarding new digital services to our business is often only achieved by testing and deploying the service on free versions of the software. For example, the free version on Glide allowed us to create a finished MVP and use it for a couple of months before we decided it was the right service for us to upgrade.
Now we are committed to them, a transition away from them will require some sort of integration with our current use of Zapier and Google Sheets. Though as far as I can work out, I can only get a short trial of those features in Adalo?
Am I wrong? Will the integration elements ever be available to us on the free package to test? I’m afraid without it we’ll never be able to actually build an MVP.
Building an app in Adalo is really easy and could only take a couple of days.
For Zapier it’s included in the free plan. External Collections is a paid feature and you might need it for Google Sheets. Also, in my opinion, you will never regret buying a paid plan because you could do more advanced things in your app.
I’m sure it is easy, so is Glide. Though my question is more centred around the ability to build an MVP. We didn’t upgrade to a paid plan on Glide until we were able to prove the viability of the MVP after deploying it, and that didn’t happen for at least 2 months. The same goes for Adalo, we need to be able to actually test these elements (integration) before investing in the service. It’s important that small companies like ours have access to this on an on-going basis as short term trials don’t work when the individual building the app is actually a full time teacher developing it in his spare time, which could be 1 hour a week. It’s not really about regretting a purchase, it’s just necessary for us to justify the purchase.
So do we know of any plans to change the tiered packages? Is there a way to get access to these fundamental features on a longer-term basis?
Yes, and I don’t mean it to be greedy, just adjusting the model to make it more accessible to smaller businesses. So having all of the features that make Adalo so great, but apply appropriate limitations (e.g. only 50 API calls per month) on the free package. It doesn’t make sense to withhold elements of the service that might actually be a USP when comparing to feature-sets of competitors.
Zapier have a pretty interesting model, they have a short-term 14 day trial, however they have a mechanism whereby the user can request extensions (I have done 3 times already). I genuinely haven’t extended out of greed, but simply the fact that I have such little time to explore the service to build probably over 30 zaps, that I need more time. They very clearly understand that if a user is provided with the opportunity to make Zapier an indispensable part of their development they will of course buy in, and happily so!
Ultimately I have no problem paying for a service that works for our specific needs, but give me the chance to find that out first.
