Glide

Glide is a no-code platform for building business apps from data. Teams connect a data source such as Google Sheets, Excel, Airtable, a SQL database or Glide's own tables, and Glide generates a working app - for phones, tablets and desktops - that people can use to view, add and update that data. Its sweet spot is internal operations. Many businesses run critical processes in spreadsheets: inventory, field service visits, inspections, sales pipelines, staff directories, equipment tracking. Glide turns those spreadsheets into purpose-built apps with forms, lists, maps, dashboards and role-based views, so frontline workers and managers use a clean interface instead of a fragile shared sheet. Because the data stays in the source, existing reports and workflows continue to work. The builder uses pre-designed components and layouts, so apps look polished by default without design skills. Computed columns, user-specific data, permissions and actions add logic, and workflows can automate tasks such as sending notifications or calling other services. AI features can extract information from text and images, classify records and generate content inside apps, which Glide has emphasised as a way to bring AI into everyday operations. The trade-offs are control and pricing. Apps are built within Glide's component system, so highly custom interfaces and complex logic can be limited compared with low-code platforms or code, and pricing based on users and data usage needs to be modelled for larger deployments. Apps run as progressive web apps rather than native store apps. Alternatives include Softr for portals and internal tools on Airtable and databases; AppSheet, Google's no-code app builder; Microsoft Power Apps for organisations on Microsoft 365; Bubble for fully custom web applications; Retool for developer-built internal tools; and Adalo for native mobile apps. Choose Glide when you want to turn spreadsheet-based processes into polished business apps quickly without code.