Glide

Glide is a no-code platform focused specifically on turning a spreadsheet or Airtable base into a fully functional, mobile-optimized app quickly, positioning itself at the accessible, fast-to-launch end of the no-code app builder spectrum — closer to Adalo in ambition than to the deeper customization of Bubble. Why it matters: Glide's core insight is that a huge share of "app" needs are really just "let people view, filter, and interact with structured data on their phone" — an employee directory, an inventory checklist, a real-estate listing browser, an event schedule — and rather than making builders design every screen from a blank canvas, Glide auto-generates a sensible, mobile-native-feeling app layout directly from a connected spreadsheet's columns, which a builder then customizes rather than builds from scratch. This dramatically compresses build time for a specific, common class of app — internal directories, simple client portals, field-team tools — down to hours rather than days or weeks. How it works: a Glide app starts by connecting a data source (a Google Sheet, Excel file, or Airtable base) — each column becomes a field the app can display or let users edit, and each row becomes a record shown in a list/detail view pattern Glide auto-generates. Builders then customize the generated screens (choosing which fields show in the list view vs. only in detail view, adding filters, tabs, and search), add interactive components (buttons that trigger actions like sending an email, updating a row's value, or calling a webhook to an external automation), and configure user roles/permissions (which rows a given signed-in user can see or edit — critical for portals where each customer or employee should only see their own data). Worked example — a field-inspection app built in Glide for a facilities-maintenance team: connected to a Google Sheet with columns Building, Room, Issue Description, Photo, Status, and Assigned Technician; Glide auto-generates a list screen showing all open issues, filterable by Building; tapping a row opens a detail screen where a technician can update Status (via a choice component writing back to the Status column) and add a photo (writing an image URL back to the Photo column via Glide's built-in file upload); a "Mark Resolved" button updates the row and, via a connected Zapier webhook, posts a summary to a facilities Slack channel. Non-technical facilities staff use this daily on their phones, and the entire app — including data storage — is a Google Sheet a manager can also open directly in Excel/Sheets to review or bulk-edit when needed.